Some argue that coaching the top team is the CEO's role, however the Human Capital Institute argues that CEOs are not ideal coaches, due to the size and scope of the CEO role, and a lack of understanding and skill in coaching senior leadership teams.
The top team's performance is vital to the success of the organisation, and it is therefore critical that top teams are effectively coached. External coaches, whose area of expertise is facilitating senior leadership team interventions, enable the CEO or leader to be a participant in the team, as opposed to being the facilitator of the team.
The performance of the senior leadership team has implications for the rest of the organisation, and yet it often lacks the resources to accomplish its tasks. Members are selected for their functional expertise, rather than for their ability to assume their role in taking the organisation forward as a collaborative entity.
Common challenges include conflicts between team members, lack of communication, reservations to participation, resistance to diversity, fear of change and the inability to see beyond their own functional area to the greater footprint of the organisation as a whole. Increasingly more of these teams are seeking the support of experienced team coaches to improve their effectiveness.
Top team interventions are highly tailored to the needs and requirements of the organisation, and are facilitated by experienced, specialist Leadership Meta-Coaches. Whilst the coach will make a point of understanding the business of the leadership team concerned, it is important to note that the coach is by the very nature of their role, an expert in facilitating ideas and change, and not in the actual business of the organisation.
The coach will therefore provide the structure and processes for the team to come to its own solutions. In providing a safe environment for exploration, the coach will simultaneously challenge and support the team as a whole, and enable issues that need to be addressed ("the unspeakables") to be brought to the table.
Top team facilitation often goes hand-in-hand with individual coaching of team members, usually with individual coaching being conducted by a different coach or coaches.
Additionally, tailored interventions can be co-created with the Company in the context of the team concerned, in order to achieve specific and measurable outcomes.
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