Competencies have been my guide through my development as a coach. But with team coaching I had to upgrade my compass, says Georgina Woudstra
Professional coaches will be familiar with the concept of coaching competencies. They underpin most coach training programmes and provide a framework for the assessment of coaches undergoing professional accreditation.
During my development as a coach, the ICF Core Competencies served as a compass, offering me guidance and direction towards coach mastery. I reviewed recordings of my coach sessions against this framework, observing my strengths and the skills I needed to practise. I worked with mentor coaches to find my blind spots and to keep me at my learning edge. Competencies brought coaching to life for me, inspired me to really get the skills in my bones.
When I started coaching in 1993, myself and others saw it as a process of supporting individual clients to maximise potential. A decade later, a client asked me whether I could coach his team and so, with some trepidation, my journey as a team coach began. I searched for ideas and resources, finding plenty on high performing teams, but a dearth on team coaching. I decided to put the coaching competencies to the test in my first ever team coaching session.
I entered the room where the team was meeting, with butterflies in my stomach and with ‘What the hell have you got yourself into now’ running in my head. I sat down, centred myself, summoned my presence and asked, ‘What is the most meaningful conversation you need to have as a team today?’ And so we began.
The feedback at the end of the two hours was that it was the most connected and significant conversation they had ever had as a team. I was elated and energised to do more.
After the initial high, the next few years were bumpy – some sessions flew, others floundered. The core competencies were great, but they were not enough: I needed an upgraded compass for coaching teams. Despite the temptation to slip into team mentoring, consulting, team building or facilitation, I knew that real team coaching would stem from the core philosophy of coaching. I asked myself, ‘If I assume that the team has the answers and the team is creative, resourceful and whole, what skills do I need to truly be a team coach?’
I found others shared a desire to master the art of team coaching. Together, we developed a set of competencies.
- Next issue: More on team coaching competencies
- Georgina Woudstra is an executive coach specialising in coaching chief executives and senior leadership teams. She is founder and principal of the Executive Coach Studio
- www.georginawoudstra.com
- www.executivecoachstudio.com