No man is an island: how coaching helps to unite the team and guide them towards a common goal

A group of people cannot be called a team if they think and act separately. You can endlessly accept and fire employees, picking exactly those ideal, but you still do not achieve significant results.

Henry Ford, who became the reformer of his day in business, understood that the key to success lies in a team with a common goal.

“If everyone goes forward together, then success will take care of itself” – this vivid phrase has motivated businessmen for two centuries.

And if you spend resources in the right direction, then your team will not only run, but also fly like a rocket: towards a common goal, together!

There are several major challenges CEOs and business owners face when their expectations are not met and funds and efforts are wasted..

There is a team of the best, but the results are below average

You can fight with other companies for the best specialists in order to bring them to the team, try to collect the very “cream” and spend a large resource for this. It’s just that some time will pass, each employee will perform his part of the work with high quality, but the results will remain at the same level, and maybe even lower. We expected a lot, but it turned out … as always.

Then the manager grabs his head and starts looking for the reason: again, not as a whole, but separately in each link – the employee. But the problem most likely lies precisely in the fact that there is no team, but there is a group of people who do not communicate with each other.

How can you expect a result from a group of people who have not found a common language, do not act together, do not strive for a common goal?

A kind of puzzle that falls apart into separate pieces. Each of them is an important part, only it is impossible to collect the whole picture.

Do you know this trust test that went viral at the time? It was used in trainings for teams: you turn your back on the second person and fall, and he must catch. 

Many will be skeptical, but trust and truth is one of the fundamental factors of healthy and effective communication in a team. When one for all and all for one, while everyone is responsible.

The team doesn’t run, though I do the best I can

Sometimes it takes so much effort to keep everyone in the “iron grip”, not to give up slack and constantly urge on, to work as such a pusher.

It seems that there is a plan, there is a deadline, but no motivation!

It is difficult to get them to work out of the way, when employees only think about the weekend and the end of the working day: cut off and run away, and then even if the house is upside down.

But the leader could free up huge time resources if the team itself moved in the right direction, everyone was responsible for actions, and also generated new ideas.

The manager would only have to control the main processes, and the rest of the time he could devote to other projects, planning and strategies.

Motivation is a powerful engine. If there is the right motivation, then the team will run.

I’m trying to set up a workflow with the team, but everybody’s acting on their own

Remember Krylov’s fable “Swan, Cancer and Pike”, when everyone was pulling in different directions. It perfectly reflects the realities in many companies.

At the planning meetings, a real shootout takes place: each dumps the blame on the other, or wants to justify himself, or stay on the sidelines.

Someone pulls the whole cart, and they also drive him. Others watch and rub their palms, waiting for the right moment. Still others believe that everything rests only on them, but in fact they drag everyone to the bottom. There is no balance and coordination in actions.

What kind of progress can we talk about when all forces are spent on permanent settlement of conflicts, gaps and endless overloads for some, an insufficient plan for others. It is also important that no end can be found – no one admits guilt, no one wants to take responsibility.

There is a goal for the team, but everyone sees it differently

Each team member is individual, with his own needs and goals, his own point of view. You can set a goal “from above” and wait for the result, but it will not come in the form that is needed.

Now imagine a dream team in which each employee can fully reveal his potential and prove himself, all team members understand and see the common goal and perceive it as their own. Everyone works in a harmonious and consistent manner.

What results can be achieved in such harmony!

Why have Google, Coca-Cola and GlaxoSmithKline been using coaching for years?

If you take the example of these large global companies, you can see a general pattern.

All of them have been using a coaching approach in companies for many years. Each of them annually increases the number of internal coaches and constantly attracts external coaches.

At the largest pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, 16,500 managers and leaders are using coaching skills.

Coca-Cola HBC Russia measured the results of coaching in the company and among them were:

• higher level of trust;
• improvement of interpersonal relationships in teams;
• increasing the number of innovative approaches;
• increasing the level of employee involvement in the company’s affairs;
• reduction of turnover in the regions by 52%.

Google also noted positive changes in the company over the years of using a coaching approach:

• accelerated adaptation of new employees;
• increased self-confidence;
• development of leadership skills and manifestations in teams;
• generation of higher income.

They look at the root of problems and spend resources on building strong teams and improving communication within.

What will you gain from using team coaching?

All relationships between employees are based on communication. If it is built efficiently, then there are no problems in trust, understanding of processes and goals, and motivation. Everything goes easily and without conflicts. In such a comfortable space, the team’s work resembles a working clockwork, everyone works for the sake of a common result and goal productively.

Coaching helps to establish communication within the team and build workflows so that resources are not wasted.

What can you gain from using a coaching approach?

1. Increasing the personal effectiveness of each employee, which leads to better results.
2. In the team, priorities are set, the main tasks are highlighted, which allows to optimize the work and resources of employees.
3. Thanks to improved communication, trust in the team increases, conflicts go away, the responsibility of each employee increases. Everyone does their job with the team in mind.
4. The thinking of employees is expanding, innovative solutions are found in the team. This allows you to reach new incomes and differentiate yourself from competitors.
5. The involvement of employees in work increases, they show initiative, make suggestions.
6. Coaching raises the awareness of employees and helps them see a common goal, go towards it together, follow a joint action plan.
7. Leaders find new methods of managing teams, which increases their efficiency, helps to unite the team.
8. Employee motivation increases, the team is interested in work and achievement of the company’s results. There is no longer an attitude of sitting from call to call at work and running away.

Thanks to team coaching, you can find the best solutions for corporate problems. At the same time, in an effective team, solutions are proposed by employees, and not given from above from management. After all, everyone is involved in the process and is interested in finding non-standard ways for solutions, applying new approaches, and also being responsible for this.

It is especially important to use a coaching approach in conditions of instability, when there are constant changes in the market, and you need to quickly adapt. Coaching helps to investigate the situation comprehensively and, together with the team, develop a set of solutions for transformations in work, and determine the main goals of the company.

To get high results in any situation.

All over the world, business attracts coaches to work with teams, this has long been the norm in the USA and Europe, and this practice is becoming more widespread in our country.

Go beyond boundaries, expand opportunities and apply new approaches to bring your business to the TOP! 

If you have any questions or want to know how to apply coaching in your company, please contact us by e-mail: [email protected]