The ICF Team Coaching Competencies: An analysis of the integration of the coaching competencies with some existing team coaching models
This past week the ICF has published its new Team Coaching Competencies model and it’s a great opportunity to take a closer look into it and analyze how it reflects some of the existing team coaching frameworks being used today.
The ICF Team Coaching Competencies model supplement their Coaching Core Competencies framework for individual coaching and it’s a great summary of what is and what isn’t team coaching. This is much needed IMHO and should be highly welcomed by the team coaching practitioners’ community. In 2017 Peter Hawkins wrote: “Team coaching is currently about 20 years behind, with many of the same difficulties that existed in the early days of individual coaching still prevalent.” (1). I believe this new ICF document will help cover a lot of ground and could decrease that development delay considerably.
In a series of four weekly articles I will try to make a not exhaustive analysis of the sub-competencies brought about by the newly published ICF document on team coaching as a means of finding its underpinnings in the research of well-known scholars and practitioners such as Peter Hawkins, Ruth Wageman, Amy Edmonson, Patrick Lencioni, Stanley McChrystal among others, who have been researching and developing the art and science of team coaching in the past few decades.
This first article analyzes how the new team coaching sub-competencies supplement the first two Coaching Core Competencies. In the next three weeks I’ll publish my analysis of the remaining six Coaching Core Competencies in three separate articles, each analyzing two of the core competencies at a time. Hope you’ll enjoy it.
1. Demonstrates Ethical Practice
· Coaches the team as a single entity
Wageman et al comment that their research found that teams “…do not improve markedly even if all their members receive individual coaching to develop their personal capabilities…. Team development is not an additive function of individuals becoming more effective team players… In essence, it is because the team itself is an entity separate from the individuals who constitute it. For the team to get better, that entity needs to be coached while members are actually carrying out their collaborative work” (2). Another well known albeit less academic authority who commented something along these lines is José Mourinho, the famous and highly successful football coach. When asked how difficult it was to coach football stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and others he answered simply: “I don’t coach football players, I coach football teams.” (3)
· Has clear distinction between team coaching and other modalities of team development
· Demonstrates knowledge and skill to practice the necessary blend of team development modalities
· Adopts more directive team development modalities when needed
· Maintains trust, transparency and clarity when performing the multiples roles involved in team coaching
These last four sub-competencies outline the importance and relevance for team coaches to clearly distinguish between team coaching and other team interventions such as team building, team training, team consulting and team mentoring. Nevertheless, the ICF document also acknowledges that team coaches may “…wander into facilitation mode in order to promote dialogue amongst the team members…” and that “There may not be a crisp distinction between team coaching and facilitation and a good team coach may work seamlessly anywhere along this continuum” (4). In other words, despite the directive nature of some of the team intervention modalities, such as team training, consulting and mentoring, team coaching may involve some of these approaches to team development depending on the individual nature and situation of the client team. In the same line, Hawkins cites Ed Schein’s book on process consultancy and Peter Block’s ‘flawless consulting’ as must reads for all team coaches who want to develop their skills on “…how to help teams reflect on how they are functioning and relating, while the teams are often caught up with the ‘what’ of the task and the current agenda” (5). Also along the same lines, Edmonson proposes in her ‘Process Knowledge Spectrum’ that some knowledges are more mature than others, and depending on the type of knowledge required by what the team has to deliver the team coaching intervention might include some more directive aspects of training and consulting (6). Nevertheless, she also warns that the profound changes we’ve been experiencing in the 21st century is requiring a less directive approach to team development regardless of the level of knowledge maturity required for a team’s performance (7). Wageman et al cite Hackman’s continuum of appropriate kinds of coaching intervention depending on the team’s life cycle: the newer the team, the more motivational (team building) the intervention, at a midpoint a more directive consultative approach (team consulting and mentoring) is to be adopted and towards maturity a more educational approach (team coaching) is to be used. (8)
2. Embodies a Coaching Mindset
· Engages in coaching supervision for support, development and accountability
Hawkins considers supervision “… a fundamental aspect of continuing personal and professional development for coaches, mentors and consultants… a protected and disciplined space in which the coach can reflect on particular client situations and relationships, the reactivity and patterns they evoke in them and, by transforming these live in supervisions, can profoundly benefit the coachee, the client organization and their own professional practice” (9). Hawkins also proposes a 6-step team coaching supervision model that explains the whole process in detail (10). Also the ICF text warns about the risk team coaches have of getting involved in the team internal culture and missing the opportunity of addressing important and relevant team issues and having this possible entanglement analyzed and explored with a supervisor can help a lot (11).
· Remains objective and aware of team dynamics and patterns
Lencioni’s fable of a troubled leadership team is all about these dynamics and patterns and how important it is to be able to identify them and understand their impact on the team’s performance (12). Edmonson also warns that “Psychological biases and errors that reduce the accuracy of human perception, estimation and attribution create group tensions and interpersonal conflicts.” Nevertheless, she also mentions that handling conflict productively is also relevant and natural and must be done by developing a willingness to explore different beliefs and values while accepting the emotions that come with it (13).
This is the first of the four articles. I hope it has contributed to a better understanding of these team coaching sub-competencies.
Next week I’ll be publishing the second article about the underpinnings of the ICF team coaching sub-competencies of the ‘Establishes and Maintains Agreements’ and ‘Cultivates Trust and Safety’ core competencies.
Have a great team coaching week!
Fernando Machado Dias, MSc PCC
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Notes
(1) P Hawkins, Leadership Team Coaching 3rd edition (2017) p.63
(2) R Wageman et al, Senior Leadership Teams (2008) p.161
(3) https://blog.sprongo.com/netflixs-the-playbook-jose-mourinhos-coaching-rules/ on 29th November, 2020
(4) ICF TC competencies (2020) p.2
(5) P Hawkins, Leadership Team Coaching 3rd edition (2017) p.73
(6) A Edmonson, Teaming (2012) p.32
(7) Idem, p.38
(8) R Wageman et al, Senior Leadership Teams (2008) p.166
(9) P Hawkins, Leadership Team Coaching 3rd edition (2017) p.277
(10) Idem p.281
(11) ICF TC competencies (2020) p.7
(12) P Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002)
(13) A Edmonson, Teaming (2012) p.78-9