How to coach teams with Jamie Butler

October 3, 2024|Kim's Blog, Management Skills|

At his first workshop for the Coaching Skills Academy (a joint venture between Managing Partners’ Forum | (mpfglobal.com) and Home – PM Forum), Jamie Butler provided a masterful demonstration of effective team coaching in an interactive and experiential learning session. Directors and senior managers from legal and accountancy sectors had completed some preparation before the session.

About Jamie Butler

Jamie Butler | LinkedIn started his career as an employment lawyer at a leading law firm before teaching, for over 10 years, on the solicitors’ vocational courses at BPP Law School. He then became head of learning and development (L&D) at a law firm before taking a similar role at Cleary Gottlieb. He retrained as an executive coach in 2016 and set up in business providing one-to-one and group coaching and facilitation services. He has a particular interest in building coaching cultures. Jamie Butler Coaching Limited

Some delegates had received coaching training in the past whereas others were new to the topic (I loved the term “accidental coach”). Some had more experience of mentoring than coaching. They were required to coach groups of people (sometimes more senior people in technical roles) within their practices as well as their own teams. Some had neurodiverse members of their team.

Key characteristics and behaviours of a team

Delegates considered the differences between groups and teams before Jamie offered a definition of a team from a coaching organisation:

“Collaboration between a recognised group of people drawing upon individual capabilities and strengths who are committed to working together inter-dependently to achieve a common purpose and collective performance and learning goals”.

I like Simon Sinek’s point: “A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other”.

A joint view of the characteristics and behaviours of an effective team included: trust, respect, encourage and support each other, acceptance of difference, communication and the ability to have fun.

Delegates talked about how to create trust within a team – and ideas included facilitation, autonomy, empowerment, confidentiality and embracing difference of style and perspective. Highly-developed communication skills also helped to promote transparency, inclusion and expectation management. Jamie talked through the dynamics of effective teams from Google: meaning (purpose), psychological safety, structure and clarity, dependability and impact.

The Firo B model of how teams develop (Inclusion, Assertion, Co-operation) was compared with the Tuckman model.

Benefits and challenges of team coaching

Jamie shared the Association for Coaching definition of team coaching:

“The application of coaching skills while working with a whole, intact team over time to improve inter-dependent members’ abilities to work together collaboratively to achieve the team’s collective purpose, potential and performance”.

And he described the subtle differences and challenges in coaching individuals, groups and teams with examples from his experience.

Reflections from break out discussions considered benefits such as: leaders showing vulnerability, leaders role modelling learning conversations, a reduction in perfectionism and inclusion of all members of the team.

Challenges included: engagement, apathy, time, negativity, differing agendas and priorities. One of the delegates described a fun team-building exercise where members were allocated to Harry Potter style houses with a “sorting hat” based loosely on psychometric tests.

Delegates then considered a series of coaching questions to help them frame their leaders’ work in terms of a team coaching session. Their responses provided fascinating insights into what might be achieved. And their experience of providing a collective voice was instructive.

Jamie provided a series of “magic questions” from Jenny Rogers’ excellent book Book review: Coaching skills: A handbook by Jenny Rogers (kimtasso.com)

Creating a team coaching environment

Jamie explained that whilst contracting was necessary for formal, external coaches it was probably more appropriate for coach-managers to set out some ground rules. He offered examples of both which delegates considered and added to for their own firms and teams.

An interesting debate ensued relating to: advanced preparation, breaks, the (non) use of tech, encouraging everyone to contribute, time allocation, hybrid adjustments, cameras, multitasking and boundaries.

Psychological safety was explored using Building a psychologically safe workplace | Amy Edmondson | TEDxHGSE (youtube.com). And discussion focused on impression management and the dangers of withholding. The apathy, anxiety, comfort and learning zones were examined – with suggestions for how the coach can assist in different situations.

Recognition (demonstrate listening, complementing good questions) and accountability were part of building trust. Alignment to personal goals supported engagement. Framing difficulties and dilemmas in terms of what can be learned collectively helped team problem-solving. Questions and celebrating risk-taking were other devices to promote a coaching approach.

Applying the GROW model

At this stage, John Whitmore’s GROW model was used by delegates to put their team coaching skills into practice. There was discussion about how to introduce a coaching style into team meetings so as not to cause concern or break trust. And they explored some of the common reasons people may resist a coaching approach.

A final breakout exercise explored how to apply the session’s lessons (and Jamie’s practice) in their own teams. (Other coaching frameworks are listed towards the end of this article: Business Development Coaching Insights – Kim Tasso)

Delegates were surprised to realise that they had been coached without realizing it – and they committed to mirroring some of Jamie’s behaviours in their own teams. The way in which Jamie gently drew out views from every delegate in turn was also noted. The effective use of silence, rephrasing questions and allowing people time to think were other observations. And all delegates used the personal action planning framework provided.

There were some final reflections on how to build a coaching culture in their firms. And to consider the further learning resources provided.

The Coaching Skills Academy (CSA)

The Managing Partners’ Forum and PM Forum have a Coaching Skills Academy offering a range of training workshops for leaders and marketing and business development professionals in coaching and mentoring.

Coaching Skills Academy – PM Forum (a joint venture between Managing Partners’ Forum | (mpfglobal.com) and Home – PM Forum)