Originally Posted on The Coaching Tools Company as 6 Ways to Feel more Confident in Leading Group and Team Coaching | by Jennifer Britton MES, CHRP, CPT, PCC

Showing up powerfully when leading group and team coaching is not only about what you do—it’s also about who you are being. Confidence as a group or team coach, like with individual coaching, grows through experience over time. As confidence grows, we also expand our range, and increase our ability to “hold the space” for all that groups and teams bring into the room—and this capacity is critical to our success.

To support this, the article dives into six areas you may want to consider in feeling more confident as a group or team coach:

1. Get to know your group or team coaching clients BEFORE You Step into the Room.
2. Know your Strengths
3. Embrace Ongoing Learning as a Coach
4. Get comfortable with not knowing.
5. Be clear on your role.
6. Partner and/or Co-Coach with others

The good news is that none of them immediately mean that you need more training!

1.    Get to know your group or team coaching clients BEFORE You Step into the Room.

Not everyone is familiar with what coaching is, and what coaching is not. As a result, many people come to coaching UNCLEAR on what they want to focus on. By spending a little time getting to know your group or team members you can start to build trust, safety and connection with each person, as well as setting your clients up for success. Consider building onto standard best practices of hosting :

• A pre-call before group coaching to find out what has brought the person to coaching.
• What they are looking forward to getting out of the coaching and what success will look like to them.

As a result, these pre-calls are going to provide you with a lot of information about what people really want. Not only will this help you get connected and build relationships, but it also gives you further clarity on the “terrain” of where your coaching conversations may go. This is an important part of co-designing the relationship, or as some call it, the contracting.

Note that there is a subtle but important difference when coaching groups and teams. In Group Coaching, participants are there for their own personal development journey, while in team-coaching, they are an existing team.

In a team coaching context, you will want to watch for, and avoid, the trap of starting to have a lot of individual conversations. Your pre-calls may focus more on understanding the person’s role in the team, what they are looking forward to, learning more about their priorities, & hearing how the team coaching can support the entire team.

After 20 plus years of training, leading and researching group and team coaching, I know that these pre-calls go a long way in setting the foundation for everyone’s success, including your confidence in your ability to coach.

The more time we spend on co-designing coaching, the more impactful it is, allowing the client to do the work, not the coach. This helps to boost the confidence of coaches as it’s clear who is doing the work.

What will you put into place to start co-designing the coaching relationship BEFORE the start of your group or team conversations?

2.    Know your Strengths

As I have shared in other articles here at the Coaching Tools Company, back in 2022 I embarked on a process to bring the Group and Team Coaching Superpower Framework out into the world. It started as a quiz to help coaches start to discern their natural stye in coaching groups and teams. You can read more about it here What’s Your Superpower as a Group and Team Coach? | by Jennifer Britton.

The Team and Group Coaching Superpower framework is such that we want to grow our presence and related skills in all five areas, not just one. The “volume and range” of coaching more than one person is essential, so understanding our own abilities helps us determine what we might be able to coach alone, and when it’s important to turn to Co-Coaching (See #5)

Reflect:

• What are your natural strengths and style as a coach?
• Where do you overleverage and overuse your strengths in times of stretch or uncertainty?
• Where are you weaker and could benefit from partnering with others?
• What might get in the way of you activating your strengths as a coach?

3.    Embrace Ongoing Learning as a Coach

The growth of a coach doesn’t just happen over a few months, our learning, confidence and growth is continuous. It’s ongoing over each and every coaching conversation, as we learn & calibrate over each conversation with a group and team. Because group and team coaching involves a wider range of styles, personalities, and needs than individual coaching, your ability to adapt, reflect, and grow becomes even more important.

Coaching Supervision is also an important part of the reflective practice of the group or team coach. This helps bridge the learning between our work with clients, what we know, and what’s possible.

What are you doing to continue to learn, grow, reflect and do your best work?

4.    Get comfortable with not knowing.

It’s important to get comfortable with not knowing. Our focus as a coach is not about “knowing the answers”. More junior coaches get stuck in the trap of “trying to figure it out”. As a coach we need to relax into the comfort of not knowing, being confident that the path forward for the client will emerge. We need to listen for what is needed in the moment and ask the best question for that moment. Remember, coaching is not a formula to follow, or a stairstep process every client is going to take.

What’s your comfort on a 1-1 with “not knowing”? What can you do to inch that number higher right now?

5.    Be clear on your role.

Throughout coaching supervision and our learning pathway for group and team coaches, we spend quite a bit of time on defining the role of the group or team coach. This includes what to do, and what not to do. When a group or team coach finds themselves doing too much, it may be a signal that you have stepped out of coaching role and into more of a facilitation or consulting role.

Across all modalities (1-1, group and team), we need to hold our clients “creative, resourceful & whole” and trust that they have the best answers for themselves. Our job is not to provide answers or advice, it’s to activate new awareness and support client growth. Within that framework we don’t need to become an instructional designer, an expert on building slides, a tech wizard etc.

What do you notice about the nuances of your role as a group or team coach versus a team or group facilitator?

6.    Partner and/or Co-Coach with others

As a coach our focus is on coaching. As we gain experience through each conversation with clients our range grows, and we’re able to coach people around different topics and/or in different ways. Even as a seasoned coach, we can’t replace the voice & connection created when we partner with another co-coach or partner to deliver the coaching work.

For those that want more exposure to different coaching approaches & styles, co-coaching is a valuable experience. More importantly, co-coaching provides the benefit for clients of having two voices, two different sets of perspectives, and often, two different coaching approaches. As we explore in the Co-Coaching Essentials™ program, partnerships with another coach are often strongest, and most valuable, when someone brings a different toolkit, presence and approach than we do. Each partnership is going to expose you as well to new approaches and new ways to coach.

Who might you co-coach with?

Wrap Up

As we’ve explored in this article, the presence and practices of great coaches support the ongoing evolution and confidence of a coach. In conclusion, consider what your next growth edge is, using the questions to support your reflective practice.

Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this article, you may also like:

• What is Group Coaching? With 4 Key Considerations by Jennifer Britton
• How to Grow Your “Coaching Questions” Muscle in Team & Group Coaching by Jennifer Britton
• Unlocking Success: 5 Ways to Grow Your Confidence by Dr. Sarah Evans MCC