Building Top-Performing Teams: A Practical Guide to Team Coaching to Improve Collaboration and Drive Organizational Success

by Lucy Widdowson, Paul J Barbour

Overview

The best way for a business to succeed is through its people. While there are gains to be had from streamlining processes, reducing costs or making a strategic change, the biggest potential for success comes through how humans collaborate. Specifically, the greatest gains are achieved through high performing teams, and teams of teams.

Containing more than 40 tools which can be used in a virtual or in-person coaching environment, Building Top-Performing Teams is a practical guide for leaders, HR professionals, coaches, team coaches and anyone with management responsibility. It covers how to motivate, develop, engage and reward a team of employees with different levels of experience and priorities to achieve outstanding business success.

Building Top-Performing Teams includes essential guidance, tools and techniques that show how to promote team ways of working rather than individual-focused processes. It also includes guidance on managing internal team conflict and ensuring that teams are purpose-driven and working towards a shared business goal. Each chapter includes diagnostic questions and reflective practice exercises to allow readers to identify how to apply each element of team development to their workforce. Supported by the authors' experience in organizations such as the BBC, John Lewis, KPMG, Britvic, the NHS and BMW this is essential reading for anyone needing to unlock the value of teams to achieve greater business performance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789666762
Publisher:	Kogan Page, Ltd.
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Lucy Widdowson MSc PCC is an accredited executive and team coach, Director of Performance Edge, and a lead tutor on team coaching at Henley Business School. During her 30 year corporate career she has worked as a HR Director and is a UK board member for team coaching for the ICF.

Paul J Barbour MSc is an accredited executive and team coach, with 20 years prior experience leading businesses and teams in Kerry Group plc. A writer and speaker with strong interests in human collaboration and conflict resolution, he is also a lead tutor on team coaching at Henley Business School.

Table of Contents

** Chapter - 01: Introduction - why the world needs top-performing teams and the argument for team coaching; ** Chapter - 02: Beyond tools and techniques - why is a team coach’s ‘way of being’ so important?; ** Chapter - 03: Team coaching frameworks, models and approaches - introducing the ‘Creating the Team Edge’ framework; ** Chapter - 04: The purpose driven team - why does being purpose driven matter so much?; ** Chapter - 05: Team identity - why is team identity so important?; ** Chapter - 06: Team values and beliefs - why are team values and beliefs so important?; ** Chapter - 07: Team awareness - why is it important to develop awareness both within and beyond a team?; ** Chapter - 08: Team relatedness - why is building trust and connection so important?; ** Chapter - 09: Team ways of working - how can teams keep reinventing how they work together?; ** Chapter - 10: Team transformation - what do teams need to do to become transformational?; ** Chapter - 11: Conclusion - what does the future require of team coaching?

Editorial Reviews

"Lucy and Paul's guide to team coaching is my blueprint for creating top team performance. It builds upon the critical team foundations of purpose, identity, values and beliefs. I have applied the knowledge and experience shared in this book across my organization, and it has delivered continuous improvement and outstanding resutls for our business, our customers, our many other stakeholders, and in the lives of the inspired and motivated members of my wonderful team."

John MacArthur FREng FEI

"Any executive looking to transform their team in these ever-challenging times will get tremendous insight and practical guidance from this book. Its clear and accessible content, based on both academic principles and practical team coaching experience of the authors, will become required reading for all those looking to lead or coach teams in how to go to the next level of performance and effectiveness. Not only will a team benefit itself from engaging in the authors' coaching model to create the 'team edge,' but the effectiveness of other teams in the organization that interact with that team will also improve as a result."

Jeremy Barton

"Never before have teams been so important to our future as the problems of the world today will only be solved by greater collaboration and teamwork. This new work is a welcome contribution to the literature on teams./ Whether you are a leader, team coach or facilitator, this is packed full of useful tools and techniques that will expand and enrich your team development toolkit."

Georgina Woudstra

"As we move away from the heroic leader towards distributed leadership, operating in complex, dynamic systems, leaders need to be able to curate and craft team performance, like a conductor or a premiership coach. Building Top Performing Teams is written by two highly experienced practitioners, who bring their insights from practice, and blend this with the emerging science on team performance to create a book for our time. This is an ideal read from team coaches, consultants and leaders concerned with creating work relationships which deliver more than the sum of their parts."

Professor Jonathan Passmore

"If you're looking for a comprehensive overview of team coaching that balances theory and practice, then look no further. Widdowson and Barbour have created a thorough overview of the doing and being of team coaching structured around important team topics. Whether you are an aspirant or experienced team coach, this book has something to offer you."

Dr Declan Woods

"If you want a comprehensive companion of current thinking and practical applications to unlock the collective power of teams this book is it."

Carissa Bub PPC

"This is a compelling and important contribution to the team coaching literature that is extremely clear and easy to follow. There is a genuine appreciation for value and important of supervision as an integral element to support the team coach."

Dr Alison Hodge

"Grounded is a word that springs to mind when I think of the potency of this book. As a new and burgeoning practice, Team Coaching - what it is and how it works - still eludes many. This book clearly situates the discipline and rightly positions it amongst the many modalities that support team efficacy. The authors ground us in the literature over the first three chapters which in and of itself is no mean task but the effect on the reader is comfort. I know where I am. They then share their own proprietary model that underpins their work with teams in an incredibly accessible manner, littering the pages with ideas/examples/exercises all generously shared. This book is a re-read, over and over again. You will feel extraordinarily guided as you move through your own practice or work with teams with this book as your companion."

Tara Nolan

"Widdowson and Barbour have delivered a powerful and practical guide for team coaches to help them connect more deeply with their 'way of being' as a coach and with the teams they are coaching. This is an important book for team coaches supporting teams on their journey to transformational performance."

Mike Sharrock