By Kisane Prutton

Coaching leaders in isolation of their team will not deliver sustainable organisational performance.

The best way to achieve lasting change is by leveraging a team’s full potential. This was the key message that emerged from Exploring new dimensions in team development and leadership, a one-day event in Oxford on 8 July, run by Pauline Willis of Lauriate.

Guest David Clutterbuck, author of Coaching the Team at Work agreed: “So many of the assumptions about coaching involve beliefs that coaching is something that happens to an individual. An effective coach never just coaches an individual, but that individual in their context.”

The event showcased Sociomaps’ pioneering team assessment and development tools.

Thomas Srb, from the QED Group, provided a video update on the Mars 500 project. Launched in June, this 500-day research exercise simulates a space flight to Mars.

Dr Srb is one of a number of scientists monitoring the social and psychological impact of isolation on the crew, with Sociomapping analysing and providing visual representations of the team’s communications.

Pofessor Richard Hackman of Harvard University in the US, saw team failure as a function of poor leadership: ambiguous boundaries, unconvincing purpose; ill-defined norms of conduct and under-resourcing.

Trexler Proffitt, an assistant professor from Franklin & Marshall College in the US, invited consultants from the UK Team Sociomapping Network to partner with him to help develop UK normative data for the Team Diagnostic Survey.


Kisane Prutton is with the Prutton Partnership
For more on sociomapping, visit
www.sociomap.com

Coaching at Work, Volume 5, Issue 5