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Published by the American Management Association in 1995, this book by Donna Deeprose provided new skills for supervisors and managers working in a team environment. This book begins with a look at the revolution of using teams in the workplace and their supervisors making the transition to coach.
Self-directed work teams (SWDT) are named as the new way of organizing work (and workers) that goes beyond the rigid hierarchical boundaries that are common in the workplace.
The team coach is described as a person who is “charged with:
- Transferring management responsibilities to teams
- Providing teams with training, technical, and counseling resources
- Facilitating team development and mediating conflicts
- Bolstering teams when they stumble
- Cheerleading for them from the time they take their first tentative steps until they emerge as mature, truly self-directed teams.” (p. 5)
The essential skills for team coaches, according to Deeprose, include:
- Listening
- Communicating
- Advocating
- Team building
- Facilitating decision making
- Training
- Educating
- Mentoring
This book outlines what Self-Directed Work Teams (SDWT) do, how to make the transition from supervisor to coach, how to build the team coaches skills, and how to coach a team to self-manage its work and members.
For those of you who do team and group coaching – how would you describe the team or group coach role?
Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., MCC
Director, History and Archive Division
The Coaching Commons
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Vikki, the team coaching I have done with my own group of reports (15 people in philanthropic services) has been greatly rewarding. It has changed the way we do business, and has been empowering for all.
The team’s role has changed, in that its members take more responsibility for brainstorming and coming up with creative ways to maximize what we do and to support each other. This is stimulating for them, and allows each of them to use more of their own potential. They are more highly engaged, and feel greater ownership in the outcomes.
My role as team “coach” instead of “boss” has allowed me to remove myself as “expert” and focus on drawing out the best in team and its members. Learning to facilitate and to create that environment of individual and group growth is much more rewarding than our older model of “boss and reports,” and the joy from experiencing the group’s growth is tremendous. I wouldn’t turn back.