Definition of Team Coaching, Corentus Style

Team coaching is a practice within the field of team development. This practice empowers and enables a team to become aware of and make improvements in its ways of working and group dynamics in order to achieve the levels of performance and results it seeks.

TEAM COACHING, CORENTUS STYLE =
REAL WORK in REAL TIME for REAL RESULTS

And, team coaching is rarely sufficient on its own; rarely will a team engagement consist purely of this one modality. However, as a core practice—supported by other modalities that provide the basic tools, skills, and methods necessary for teamwork—it serves as an essential driver of the team’s success.

Team coaching acts as a catalyst, helping to spark the transformation of ideas, insights, and intentions into sustainable improvements in team behaviors and outcomes. The power of team coaching derives from its unique combination of a real work context, real-time interventions, and a consistent drive toward real, meaningful results:

• REAL WORK
  Team coaching takes place, for the most part, in the context of real meetings and work sessions, rather than in specially scheduled sessions focused on simulations, games, or exercises.

• REAL TIME
  The coach jumps in with live, real-time interventions. These interventions (called “moves,” as in chess moves) challenge the team and individual team members to notice how they’re operating right at that moment, as well as how these patterns of interaction are affecting their performance. In response, the team makes specific adjustments—again, in real time—to either build on their strengths or improve on areas of weakness.

• REAL RESULTS
  The adjustments the team makes are motivated by and directed toward achieving concrete results of importance to the team and the organization. Any behavior or process changes adopted by the team (e.g., decreasing interruptions, improving participatory decision making, or engaging in difficult conversations) are valued for their contribution to the team’s cohesion and effectiveness—and, ultimately, performance and results— rather than being pursued as ends in themselves.

A final defining feature of team coaching is the role of the coach, which is deliberately lower in profile than that of a consultant or facilitator. All meetings and work sessions in which team coaching occurs are fully owned by the team leader and members, not by the coach. This means that the team leader and members are responsible for setting the agenda, running the meeting, and achieving the meeting outcomes. By asking questions and sharing observations and data, the coach acts as a guide, supporting the team to make their own observations and adjustments, as needed. When the team achieves transformation, it’s their victory, and they’re fully empowered to move forward on their own.

We know that there are many other methods and styles of team coaching. The Corentus style is just one of several approaches to team coaching. We honor and respect our team development colleagues around the world, many of whom are our partners.

To review ICF’s Team Coaching Competencies, which Corentus, as a pioneer in the field of team coaching, was invited to help create, click here.