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How to use leadership coaching to increase your team’s performance
When a leader is confident in their role, the whole team benefits – which is then reflected in the performance levels. Effective team performance coaching enables individuals within the team to connect their purpose with that of the wider organisation, driving organisational growth and strong results, while allowing the individual to achieve a harmonious work-life balance. This is what we call to ‘Win Well.’ When individuals within the team Win Well, this is often reflected in the wider success of the team and its performance. Here’s how team performance coaching can increase your team’s performance…
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What does effective team performance look like?
Effective team performance coaching goes beyond optimising performance, it helps team members realise their potential and achieve results whilst achieving fulfilment in other areas of their life. Team performance hinges on the individuals within the team fulfilling their potential by unlocking drive and unblocking any limiting beliefs that have previously held them back.
By doing so, the team can progress to the next performance level within the company whilst also making great strides with their own self-development. When team performance coaching is delivered effectively, its recipients will report growth on both a professional and personal level – where they are able to apply their learnings to enhance various areas of their life.
Should team performance be the ultimate goal?
There is often a misplaced emphasis on results as the sole objective, at the expense of all else. When teams place as much emphasis on the inputs as the outputs, high performance is not only more likely, but it is also more likely to be sustained.
This was the case with a client who thought there was a problem with their culture. This team had an impressive track record, but their recent results had been impacted by high churn and unhappy people. However, the issue was the team environment rather than the culture – the difference being that the culture is the underlying values of the organisation which are more intransigent and difficult to change, whilst the team environment is malleable, changes quickly, and is moulded by the daily actions of leaders.
Team performance coaching enabled the team to take steps to change their mindsets and behaviours, resulting in the team environment significantly improving for those within it (reduced attrition, higher trust levels and improved ESS scores), but also improvement of the external reputation of the team (which then impacted hiring ability and overall performance). Team performance coaching, when delivered correctly, should enhance not only the performance of the team, but the individual performance and happiness of the members within the collective team.
How can leaders guarantee team performance?
Leaders can help their team to get results by creating an environment where there is high expectation of performance, matched by an equally high level of support and examples of role modelling from within. By observing peers, and leaders, behave in a way that matches these high expectations, it creates a motivating, supportive, and cohesive environment where individuals feel confident to turn up and feel proud.
One prime example of this is one case where a leadership team was under significant pressure in the face of poor results, resulting in a “threat state” environment within the team. Through team performance coaching, the leaders were able to understand how to turn stress into a performance advantage for them, the team and the wider business. The combination of this awareness with creating a common language around resilience, resulted in a significant shift whereby the team could continue to perform to a high level without needing to be in a constant threat state. This allowed them to not just win, but to Win Well – which should be the ultimate goal of team performance coaching.
What are the conditions required for teams to achieve high performance levels?
High performance is achieved when the team has confidence in their organisation, not just in the present but in the future state too. Team performance coaching can help leaders to develop a clear performance plan and create an environment where team members can be challenged but also raise topics of concern. By doing so, leaders can establish a good team dynamic and environment that enables high motivation and performance. Team performance coaching works towards supporting leaders to create this motivating and rallying environment.
How crucial is stress-management for achieving team performance?
Stress management is crucial to team performance. Effective team performance coaching helps individuals to overcome their limiting beliefs and shift their mindsets around stress.
When teams start to channel their energy into what they can control, as opposed to what they can’t, they end up managing their stress levels more effectively, allowing them to thrive within the organisation – which is then reflected in the results.
This was the case with a business that previously had an effective culture but felt they had lost some of their cultural spark due to extended ‘working from home’ periods off the back of the pandemic. After creating a common language around stress, pressure, and performance, participants reported a significant shift in their mindset around stress.
Following the programme, feedback showed that many participants were applying the models and framework to themselves and seeing a performance advantage as a result of the positive changes they had been able to make with their stress-management skills.
How can data impact team performance?
In sport there’s no hiding from the scoreboard. Through gathering data and insights, teams can develop a greater awareness of individual and collective behaviour, purpose, goals and motivation. Only then, can teams unpick and remove barriers to success and develop positive habit formation to guarantee high performance levels.
This was the case with a fast-growing international newly public company who were looking to support their executives to create a cohesive team. Team performance coaching supported them in developing their leadership style and skillset across all four aspects of talent development (skills, knowledge, attitude and behaviour) in key domains of high performance (resilience, confidence and trust.) Their feedback was that, after completing the programme, participants were able to immediately apply the learnt models and concepts in practice. Participants reported feeling an increased sense of confidence, cohesion, and collaboration within the team, which ushered in higher performance levels.
Conclusion
When done right, team performance coaching not only increases collective performance, but allows individuals within the team to flourish and fulfil their personal purpose. When team performance coaching is delivered effectively, its recipients will report growth on both a professional and personal level – allowing them not to not just win, but to Win Well.
Find out more about our team performance coaching Confident Leader Programme: