28TH EMCC GLOBAL MENTORING, COACHING AND SUPERVISION CONFERENCE 2022, 8-10 JUNE, ONLINE
To define a team’s strength and where it may get stuck, team coaches need to understand what’s going on structurally, relationally and psychodynamically and how these levels interact, said Sari Van Poelje.
It’s also important to know if it’s actually a team, of course, said Van Poelje, managing director of INTACT, an international training, coaching and consultancy business.
“You need to know what you’re coaching. Mostly, it’s a group that wants to become a team. It’s quite rare that it’s a team that wants to become a better team. If it’s a group, the focus is on efficiency and effectiveness. Individuals have their own KPIs; there’s no interdependence. With team coaching, on the other hand, it’s important
to accept there’s a level of interdependence. This is a big ask because we’re trained to be independent so it can be psychologically difficult.”
She said that as team coaches we need to find out the strategic reason coaching is being sought – structure, cooperation or creating a winning culture.
She explained that the structural level includes boundaries, hierarchy, roles and processes, and power. The relational level encompasses the group dynamics, social ranking, personas (how much of yourself you bring to your role) and influence structure. The psychodynamic level includes transference and counter-transference, personalities, personal authorities, the often unconscious influence of culture and values, and team narrative.
Typically, she might spend two to six months working on the structural level, four to ten months on relational change and eight to 14 months on psychodynamic change.
Van Poelje shared how she works with Transactional Analysis and narratives “because psychodynamics are pre-conscious” to help “uncover what kinds of stories teams are telling.”