The Team Advantage: Why Team Coaching Is Worth the Investment

In my coaching practice, I’ve had the pleasure of working with the Pyramid Resource Group for over ten years using their TeamAdvantage™ approach to team coaching. While individual coaching is a great tool for fostering positive leadership, organizations rely on the functionality of their teams to be successful. Ignoring the team dynamics of your company in favor of individuals misses the big picture.

Research conducted by the Pyramid Resource Group on 24 teams over ten months revealed the following:

• An increase in employee engagement
• An improvement in leadership behaviors determined to be mission critical
• A sustained increase in both engagement and improved leadership behaviors.

The process is unique in that it goes beyond a workshop or a few corporate retreats. Rather, it involves an assessment stage, a sustained team-building exercise focused on creating goals and a business plan, and four-month coaching period in which the coach continues to develop the team. This is where all areas of team dynamics are addressed—communication, accountability, engagement, momentum, conflict, etc. The goal is not just to offer short-term fixes but to provide tools that the team can apply to future challenges.

The greatest advantage of TeamAdvantage™ is that it offers an opportunity for team leaders to develop coaching skills and continue using those skills once the program is completed.

Quick fixes may solve problems with team dynamics in the short term, but they don’t often change the behaviors that were the cause of the dysfunction in the first place. Team building is like growing a garden: by putting in long-term effort, you reap greater rewards. If all you do is plant the seeds and water them once or twice, the results will fall far short of expectations.

Dareln DJ Mitsch, MCC, architect and designer of the TeamAdvantage™ coaching program, has this to say: “We have certified over 100 people to coach the Team Advantage Game process.  While some of those are internal to organizations, Pyramid Resource Group affiliate, Tim Link, MCC and our masterful team of coaches regularly partner with internal HROD pros, culture champions, or change agents to support accelerating change processes with this program.  Team Advantage leaves each team leader with a new capability of coaching their team and a new capacity for performance –a claim supported by research highlights in our white papers.”

My clients are also strong supporters of the TeamAdvantage™ approach. John O’Leary, VP of Airbus North America, had this to say about his experience: “Tim asked our team penetrating questions and helped us tease out problems that we weren’t aware of, which helped us solve them before they adversely affected our performance. Tim does a great job of providing information and knowledge to the team without being overwhelming. He fostered openness, transparency and communication among the team members. We also gained a better understanding at the team level of what each member contributes to our overall success. Tim provided us with the skills and education to guard against bad habits. We’ve since gone through difficult times, but as a result of Tim’s coaching we’ve avoided a lot of problems.”

If you think TeamAdvantage™ is something your organization could benefit from, don’t hesitate to get in touch!