Your role as a Team Coach
The Team Coach Role
The Team Coach is the guide during the 30-Day Project. Like all good guides, the more they support a team in a race, the more helpful they become to other athletes they guide. They know the tricky spots where runners can slip, what gear to bring, and when to take a break or slow down and take a breath.
The Team Coach will support both the Team Leader and the Project Sponsor in the relay race.
What Exactly does the Team Coach do?
Guiding the 100-Day Team
SANTA: in first diagram below, please use blue instead green, as these will be leaders (changed the text). Also, please switch the second and third blocks (both diagram and text).
Present the Health Check Data to organisational leaders, and help them pick a focus area, select a team and designate a Project Sponsor
Work with the Project Sponsor to support the Team during the 100-day race.
Organise and facilitate the Start-up, Refresh and Scale-up Workshops.
Support the Team during their team meetings: tracking progress and keeping them engaged and motivated.
Apart from these specific task-oriented activities, Team Coaches play an important and subtle role throughout the 30-Day Project. They keep everyone engaged and feeling upbeat and motivated. They do this in various ways:
- They encourage, acknowledge, and congratulate Team members at every occasion possible.
- They sense the mood in the room during workshops and liven things up with creative exercises and facilitation techniques.
- They provide a “golden thread” during workshops, creating seamless transitions between sessions, tying different sessions to previous work and the bigger picture, and adjusting facilitation plans if participants get confused or frustrated.
What Skills do Team Coaches Practice During the 30-Day Project?
There are three critical skills Team Coaches use in 30-Day Projects:
Facilitation
Coaching
Communication
Some team coaches may already be very skilled in these three areas. In the Learning Deep Dives, there will be content to sharpen skills with useful frameworks, tools and exercises. There is no substitute, though, for practising and getting feedback from peers, clients and experienced practitioners.
Additionally, Team Coaches will practice project support skills, including:
- Supporting the Team in gathering data related to the 30-Day Goal that the Team sets
- Supporting Team Leader in preparing action item notes after team meetings
- Preparing the logistics of workshops and team meetings
- Sending out reminder emails, encouragement emails, and doing whatever is needed to keep the team motivated, organised, and purposefully moving forward.
How Does Team Coaches Know They are Doing a Good Job?
At the End of the 30 Days
- The focus area the team was working on was significantly improved.
- The 30-Day Team and the leaders who commissioned it are proud of the achievements they made during the Challenge period.
- The 30-Day Team feels good about their experience during the project they recommend it to others and are excited about having similar experiences in the future.
- Leaders have ideas and insights on what needs to be done to sustain and scale this higher performance, and they are ready and excited to act on these ideas.
Interim Indicators During the 30 Days
- Appropriate individuals are part of the 30-Day team.
- Quality of the 30-Day Goal and commitment of the team to achieve it.
- Quality of the 40-Day Plan and Team Agreement and the commitment of the team to implement it.
- Engagement and motivation of the 30-Day Team at the Start-up Workshop and throughout the 30-Day Project.
- Progress towards the 30-Day Goal during the 30-Day Project.
