TEAM COACHING COMPETENCIES

True transformation requires that the team does more than acquire useful tools, learn new ideas or skills, or achieve specific short-term results. The team must develop and maintain fundamentally new patterns of behavior and ways of working that produce lasting long-term changes. Our experience with hundreds of teams has shown that when transformation is the goal, an integrated team development approach that incorporates team coaching offers the unmatched potential to guide the team where it needs to go.

Below you will find…

  1. DEFINITION OF TEAM COACHING, Corentus Style

  2. ICF TEAM COACHING COMPETENCIES

  3. CORENTUS TEAM COACHING COMPETENCIES
    Hear what our graduates say about our programs.

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 of 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.

 

ICF TEAM COACHING COMPETENCIES

The International Coaching Federation (ICF), the world’s largest network of professionally trained coaches and global certification body for coaches, introduced its first Team Coaching Competencies in late 2020.

As a pioneer in the field of team coaching and in the development of Corentus Team Coaching Competencies (see below), Corentus—led by Cofounder and CEO Alexander Caillet—actively participated in the rigorous process of developing this new guide for training and assessment of team coaches.

At Corentus, we applaud ICF’s leaders and community of coaches on establishing a robust set of competencies to support, inform, and advance this field. ICF’s Team Coaching Competencies

Like we do in our work at Corentus, the ICF's Team Coaching Competencies recognize the importance of engaging and differentiating between a variety of team modalities, including facilitation, training, consultation and, of course, coaching. They also reflect an awareness that while team coaching has exceptional potential to enable collective learning and lasting change, it requires an exceptional combination of skills to practice effectively.

In recent years, team coaching has attracted significant recognition and increasing client demand. Establishing these 29 competences, through a rigorous process of engagement with the field and high-quality research, marks a critical step toward further professionalizing this growing field. In time, the competencies will form the basis of a specialized team coaching credential.

As we evolve our training offerings—which now include two-day courses on team coaching and on teaming, as well as a five-month team coaching intensive and three-month team coaching practicum —Corentus will continue to align with the ICF competencies and prepare our participants for the eventual ICF certification process.

Through our work as team coaches (since 1995) and team coach trainers (since 2000), we have seen this remarkable and highly complex discipline bring positive change to hundreds of teams around the world, in organizations large and small. In areas ranging from inclusion and engagement to accountability and results, team coaching can support teams to make substantial, sustainable improvements. We believe team coaching plays an important role in achieving our firm’s vision: A world where effective teaming helps drive the creation of a harmonious and sustainable future.

We applaud ICF’s leaders and community of coaches on establishing a robust set of competencies to support, inform, and advance this field.

CORENTUS TEAM COACHING
MAIN COMPETENCY LIST  

Team Coaching, Corentus Style, consists (at a minimum) of the following competency areas:

Mindset

  • MS1. Makes, keeps, and proactively renegotiates commitments to all stakeholders

  • MS2. Takes time for reflection and introspection

  • MS3. Adjusts approach based upon critical feedback, making a mistake, reflection, or new information

  • MS4. Puts a continuous effort into personal growth and improvement

  • MS5. Employs physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional practices to ensure fitness to coach


Presence and Self-management
In the team setting...

  • P1. Fosters rapport with each team member

  • P2. Demonstrates holding own thoughts, opinions, and judgments lightly while maintaining an open mind to all team member perspectives

  • P3. Remains centered/regains center when distracted or thrown off-center

  • P4. Maintains a neutral, non-obtrusive, grounded presence while team coaching


Staging
In the team setting...

  • ST1. Articulates approach, desired objectives and outcomes, and roles of team coach and team leader

  • ST2. Sets clear expectations for the total resources (time and money) required to successfully complete the engagement

  • ST3. Completes a thorough proposal/contract that accurately reflects all aspects of the engagement

  • ST4. As relevant, meets with other parts of the organizational system to support the team coaching engagement


Sensing
In the team setting...

  • S1. Uses relevant data collection tools (O-P-N Chart, sociograms and/or various Sensing Grids) to accurately assess the team

  • S2. Relies on intuitive capacities to observe and gather data


Making Moves
In the team setting...

  • M1. Indicates when s/he is shifting between various modalities, e.g., coach, facilitator, trainer, consultant

  • M2. Applies the various plays of the team coaching model using current and future state approaches (OPN) and Ask and Tell approaches

  • M3. Makes moves that support the leader and team in the context of the broader organization and system in which the team operates

  • M4. Communicates using clear, simple, and concise language

  • M5. Uses a balance of open and closed/ general and specific questions


Individual Coaching:
Coaching the Leader

  • IC1. Sets clear goals for team leader coaching, with team leader (similar to coaching an individual, per ICF competencies)

  • IC2. Ensures the predominant focus of coaching is as leader of the team

  • IC3. Establishes coaching scope, boundaries, and integration points with team leader’s individual coach, if applicable

  • IC4. Adheres to ICF competencies


Facilitation
In the team setting...

  • F1. Employs facilitation judiciously when the team needs it to support their stated team coaching goals

  • F2. Drives the process, method, or tool effectively and efficiently

  • F3. Steps out of facilitation mode as soon as team understands how process or method works and/or as soon as objective is accomplished


Education and Training
In the team setting...

  • T1. Makes a move to employ education or training when the team needs it to support their stated team coaching goals

  • T2. Educates or trains the team with tools, methods, best practices, similar team experiences, new distinctions, etc.

  • T3. Clearly communicate the purpose, process, and outcomes of the education or training

 
 

Margaret Cary
MD, MBA, MPH Board-certified Physician Executive, Leadership Coach & Consultant

The skills I've learned in the Corentus Team Coaching Program have increased my effectiveness with individual AND team coaching clients.

Corentus offers an extensive library of tools and personalized instruction on using the tools. Corentus exemplifies adult education every step of the way—as a Cohort participant you will be doing what you're learning in real time, both in your learning group and with your client organization. There's more! The instructors are top of their game. The faculty and staff show that much time and effort has been put in creating an effective, fun, agile course for all participants.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.