What’s the difference between Team Coaching and Group Coaching?

There is no dissenting from the fact that on the surface, team coaching and group coaching appear similar, but there are some minor differences that might not be quite apparent at first glance. Although both the terms fall under the umbrella of business coaching or executive coaching, they are different.

A brief overview of team coaching
Team coaching can be essentially defined as the art of challenging and facilitating a particular team to enhance its performance, maximize the desired results, and hike the interest in service of relevant organizational goals.

Through the perspective of business coaching, a team can be defined as a group of people who have complementary skills and are committed to a common purpose and performance goals for which they are collectively accountable. In team coaching, the client is actually a real team.

When working with a team, a coach needs to focus on:

• Whether the team decisions are obsolete or unclear
• Pre-destined targets and goals that aren’t well-aligned
• The communication process prevailing within the team
• The stakeholder strategy
• Leveraging the resources and time
• Enhancing relationships, team processes, and performance
• Eradicating the prevailing trust issues among the team members

An Overview of group coaching
You can say that group coaching can be effective for you if you are ready to stretch yourself and gain momentum while working with fellow employees or teams. Group coaching can be called as a sort of precursor to advancing into one on one coaching where the actual emphasis is on the individual in each session.

A group can be defined as several individuals working together on a common theme but having different individual performing goals. Unlike in a team, the individuals in a group don’t need to achieve a common objective.

This is why group coaches don’t use theories and models, but partners within the group to craft an effective thinking environment. Methodologies ranging from structured question sets, plenary coaching, and activities of buddy work to discussion of critical cases, learning diaries and work peer consultation, etc. are utilized to achieve the coaching purpose.

Picking the right approach
Team coaching and group coaching are also used for different aims in different situations. Before you pick one, make sure to articulate the coaching mission, values, and establish a compelling vision and strategy. Think ahead and find out where your organization lacks mentoring so that you can find out what can be done for a more productive atmosphere.

In a nutshell
Team and group coaching can both act as catalysts for engineering individuals and leaders throughout the whole organization, and that too in the right way. As Helen Keller quoted, “alone we can do so little, together we can do so much”, team and group coaching, both can be beneficial, but at different levels. Find out what your organization needs and plan likewise, so that all the efforts don’t go in vain.