TrainingZone

A client recently asked me what I saw as different about team coaching compared with one-to-one coaching. It’s a good question, and one that initially seems to have a fairly straightforward answer. After all, surely team coaching is essentially the same thing, just with more people in the room? Well, yes and no. Let’s start with a popular definition of coaching.

Let people go at one o’clock and they will give you 10 out of 10. That’s not being cynical, it’s actually one of the most useful things I have learned in 25 years of delivering regulated training, and it is the reason our industry needs to be careful about what it treats as evidence. Feedback really does matter. I want to say that clearly from the outset. But feedback is not the same thing as outcome, and in a regulated industry the two can pull in opposite directions.

The role of the director is being rewritten in real time. Artificial intelligence, geopolitical uncertainty, shifting regulation, heightened ESG scrutiny and changing workforce expectations are all reshaping the operating environment for organisations of every size. This is transforming what board directors are expected to understand, how quickly they need to respond and the decisions they’re required to make.

In part one, I shared the four questions I ask myself in an attempt to challenge my own ‘obvious’ labelling and produce training that generates meaningful impact. Now, let’s look at how to overcome the root issue to allow that learning journey to take shape. Once I have had a chance to properly reflect, and determine the most likely root cause of my struggles, the road to a solution usually starts to feel as though it has materialised from the ether.

Learning and development teams are under pressure to deliver more than ever. Organisations want faster onboarding, stronger compliance, better leadership development, improved technical competence and clearer evidence that training activity is making a real difference. Yet one of the most important parts of this system is often underdeveloped: the capability of the people delivering and assessing the learning.

Transformation has a predictable moment. A critical team – often executive, cross-functional or global – starts to slow down. Meetings get longer. Decisions are revisited. Frustration builds. Someone inevitably suggests the obvious solution: “This team needs coaching.” Sometimes that diagnosis is correct. But often, it is incomplete, and occasionally backwards.

It’s late on a Friday evening. I am weary with a combination of frustration, muted rage and possibly some wine. I am caught at an impasse in developing content for two very different projects I am engaged in. First, a Project Management module for executive staff which was due to be at a first draft stage about 10 days ago (the irony is not lost on me). Second, a session on ‘Professional Behaviour’ aimed at our upcoming trainee intake. Now this isn’t to say that I haven’t made progress in both.

One of my most formative moments as a young learning professional came very early. Looking back, I’m glad for this early experience, even considering the discomfort at the time. Early in my career, I was a regional training manager for a major legal publisher. It was a time of significant change for the organisation, both internally and in terms of a market paradigm shift from print research materials to electronic research tools.

The required skillsets in the workplace are swiftly evolving, and the upskilling necessary to keep up needs more flexible, blended learning pathways. Traditional one-off training programmes are increasingly being replaced by more flexible, blended learning models that combine short-form learning with pathways to recognised qualifications.

As a leader, it’s crucial to understand the factors that can help a team reach its potential, including each individual’s working style and the environments in which they operate best. The skills leaders need to drive team performance have evolved over the past decade, and understanding cognitive and cultural diversity within a team has become essential for both leaders and direct reports.