Team Coaching: Military Family Resource Centre

Client Profile.  A military family resource centre senior management team of 5 responsible for the plans and activities supporting a local military community.

Initial Situation.  The team was over stressed with the challenges of planning and running activities in support of their community and wanted to improve their overall performance.

Coaching Objectives.  I worked with the Executive Director as the Sponsor of the team engagement, the supervisor and managers to scope an agreement for coaching that would follow the following 5 stages:

·      Diagnostic and Discovery

·      Designing Team Coaching Engagement

·      Team Systemic Coaching

·      Team Coaching in Meetings and Workshops

·      Learning Review, Final Assessment and Sustainability Plan

Coaching Methodology and Tools.  I used a team effectiveness survey to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses in four areas:  Team Structure, Team Roles, Team Processes, and Team Relationships.   The survey revealed two significant points:  the team was weakest in communication, and there was a significant outlier in the team who did not feel a full membership in the team.

Processes and Interventions.  The results of the survey was shared with the Executive Director and the team, and the next steps of the coaching engagement were developed.  The first steps of this process was the co-development of a team agreement that identified the values, norms and aspirations of the team.  This proved invaluable in opening the logjam of communications between team members, creating a more open and welcoming environment for the team.  Further coaching sessions employed the Eisenhower Matrix to help the team decide how to prioritize their individual and team efforts.  A follow-on survey will be done in Fall 2024 to re-check on the overall  effectiveness. The sponsor was pleased with the level of engagement and the team coaching.

Outcomes and Achievements.  The communications between team members improved, and the overall feeling of team members was of an improved, higher performing team.

Conclusion and Lessons Learned.  A diagnostic tool is critical for baselining the team effectiveness and identifying relative strengths and weaknesses.  The support of the team Sponsor was required to emphasize the importance of allotting sufficient time for team coaching, and for encouraging full participation.