There is a tendency to assume that teams will naturally know how to self-organise and optimise their collective talents. This thoughtful and engaging book explores the practicalities of coaching teams and some of the challenges that naturally occur because of who we are as human beings. Part of The Professional Coaching Series, this book challenges the assumption that self-organising teams will work in all settings, answering some of the recurring questions and challenges observed in many organisations. How do we connect with each other, so we create trust? How do we work through conflict and see it as part of a natural ebb and flow in relationships? How do we create meaningful work in the context of an ever-changing environment? The opening chapter lays out some basic team coaching principles to help set the stage for coaching people in teams and there are coaching questions in each chapter to engage the reader, as well as tools they can use immediately. Coaching teams is more than just applying coaching skills. It requires a deep understanding of how people behave and an adaptive approach to coaching. This book provides both research references and practical tools to help team coaches start their team coaching journey.

The Provocative and Practical Guide to Coaching Agile Teams As an agile coach, you can help project teams become outstanding at agile, creating products that make them proud and helping organizations reap the powerful benefits of teams that deliver both innovation and excellence. More and more frequently, ScrumMasters and project managers are being asked to coach agile teams. But it’s a challenging role. It requires new skills—as well as a subtle understanding of when to step in and when to step back. Migrating from “command and control” to agile coaching requires a whole new mind-set. In Coaching Agile Teams, Lyssa Adkins gives agile coaches the insights they need to adopt this new mind-set and to guide teams to extraordinary performance in a re-energized work environment. You’ll gain a deep view into the role of the agile coach, discover what works and what doesn’t, and learn how to adapt powerful skills from many allied disciplines, including the fields of professional coaching and mentoring. Coverage includes Understanding what it takes to be a great agile coach Mastering all of the agile coach’s roles: teacher, mentor, problem solver, conflict navigator, and performance coach Creating an environment where self-organized, high-performance teams can emerge Coaching teams past cooperation and into full collaboration Evolving your leadership style as your team grows and changes Staying actively engaged without dominating your team and stunting its growth Recognizing failure, recovery, and success modes in your coaching Getting the most out of your own personal agile coaching journey Whether you’re an agile coach, leader, trainer, mentor, facilitator, ScrumMaster, project manager, product owner, or team member, this book will help you become skilled at helping others become truly great. What could possibly be more rewarding?

Are you ready for your coaching to make a bigger impact? Do you want to enable teams to make a real difference to the world? The challenges faced by organisations everywhere can be solved through better collective leadership, collaboration and systemic thinking. And, as a coach, you’re already aware of the huge role that coaching can play in accessing the intelligence and co-ordinated power that teams could be leveraging. Team coaching transforms teams and wider organisational systems by increasing collective awareness, meaning-making and responsibility, enabling people to work together through and beyond seemingly intractable challenges In this practical and empowering guide, Master Coach Georgina Woudstra navigates you through the often complex and challenging reality of team coaching. Equipping you with a roadmap - a set of metaskills and competencies – she’ll demonstrate how you can transform teams to realise greater success and develop your: Confidence –overcome your fears to coach teams in even the most challenging situations Competence – learn to apply the coaching skills and to intervene effectively Coherence –integrate concepts and tools into a whole, meaningful approach Congruence – develop a style that is true to who you are as a team coach Learn to trust in people’s untapped wisdom, the process and - most of all - yourself. And with Georgina’s expertise and guidance to support you, become an impactful team coach with a distinctive personal style that solves problems, creates change and gets sustainable results.

Summary Elastic leadership is a framework and philosophy that can help you as you manage day-to-day and long-term challenges and strive to create the elusive self-organizing team. It is about understanding that your leadership needs to change based on which phase you discover that your team is in. This book provides you with a set of values, techniques, and practices to use in your leadership role. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Your team looks to you for guidance. You have to mediate heated debates. The team is constantly putting out fires instead of doing the right things, the right way. Everyone seems to want to do things correctly, but nobody seems to be doing so. This is where leaders get stuck. It's time to get unstuck! Elastic leadership is a novel approach that helps you adapt your leadership style to the phase your team is in, so you can stay in step as things change. About the Book Elastic Leadership is a practical, experience-driven guide to team leadership. In it, you'll discover a set of values, techniques, and practices to lead your team to success. First, you'll learn what elastic leadership is and explore the phases of this results-oriented framework. Then, you'll see it in practice through stories, anecdotes, and advice provided by successful leaders in a variety of disciplines, all annotated by author and experienced team leader, Roy Osherove. What's Inside Understanding why people do what they do Effective coaching Influencing team members and managers Advice from industry leaders About the Reader This book is for anyone with a year or more of experience working on a team as a lead or team member. About the Author Roy Osherove is the DevOps process lead for the West Coast at EMC, based in California. He is also the author of The Art of Unit Testing (Manning, 2013) and Enterprise DevOps. He consults and trains teams worldwide on the gentle art of leadership, unit testing, test-driven development, and continuous-delivery automation. He frequently speaks at international conferences on these topics and others. Table of Contents PART 1 - UNDERSTANDING ELASTIC LEADERSHIP Striving toward a Team Leader Manifesto Matching leadership styles to team phases Dealing with bus factors PART 2 - SURVIVAL MODE Dealing with survival mode PART 3 - LEARNING MODE Learning to learn Commitment language Growing people PART 4 - SELF-ORGANIZATION MODE Using clearing meetings to advance self-organization Influence patterns The Line Manager Manifesto PART 5 - NOTES TO A SOFTWARE TEAM LEADER Feeding back Channel conflict into learning It's probably not a technical problem Review the code Document your air, food, and water Appraisals and agile don't play nicely Leading through learning: the responsibilities of a team leader Introduction to the Core Protocols Change your mind: your product is your team Leadership and the mature team Spread your workload Making your team manage their own work Go see, ask why, show respect Keep developers happy, reap high-quality work Stop doing their work Write code, but not too much Evolving from manager to leader Affecting the pace of change Proximity management Babel Fish You're the lead, not the know-it-all Actions speak louder than words

Creating Intelligent Teams is a different way to initiate, manage and lead effective and positive change in teams and organisations. For any organisation looking to nurture and develop talent from amongst its own employees, the book offers an accessible, yet highly informative, information resource on: how to recognise the influences on, and dynamics of, individuals and teams how to enhance team performance how effective leaders can boost productivity and build intelligent teams how to access and release the potential in teams how to navigate change successfully how to lead diversity and create culturally intelligent teams.The target audienceCreating Intelligent Teams is aimed at executives, consultants, HR and Organisational Development (OD) specialists, professional coaches and mentors - at all levels of experience, training and background - who are responsible for implementing the strategies relating to leadership, team-building, talent development, management and retention. Creating Intelligent Teams has considerable appeal both for professionals in business and management and those in the fields of consultancy and coaching. iiiTo build a world-class team you need more than handpicked individuals with high emotional intelligence - you need a team with a high RSI. On our journey to success, our team benefitted substantially from integrating the Intelligent Team approach.a"e;Rudolf Pienaar, Divisional Director, Growthpoint Management Services (Pty) LtdRelationship Systems Intelligence enables the team to quickly reach the core of the matter. It starts processes that enable the team members to have constructive collaborations and interactions with concrete and tangible results. The approach shows that everyone is part of the solution, which creates commitment to and ownership of the processes and the results. This practical book shows you how to build an intelligent team. a"e; Christina Hummert, Country Manager: Volkswagen Financial Services, Sweden

The world’s challenges are becoming more and more complex and adapting to those challenges will increasingly come from teams of people innovating together. The Practitioner’s Handbook of Team Coaching provides a dedicated and systematic guide to some of the most fundamental issues concerning the practice of team coaching. It seeks to enhance practice through illustrating and exploring an array of contextual issues and complexities entrenched in it. The aim of the volume is to provide a comprehensive overview of the field and, furthermore, to enhance the understanding and practice of team coaching. To do so, the editorial team presents, synthesizes and integrates relevant theories, research and practices that comprise and undergird team coaching. This book is, therefore, an invaluable specialist tool for team coaches of all levels; from novice to seasoned practitioners. With team coaching assuming an even more prominent place in institutional and organizational contexts nowadays, the book is bound to become an indispensable resource for any coaching training course, as well as a continuing professional development tool. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in coaching, in both practice and educational settings. It will be of use not only for professional coaches, but also for leaders, managers, HR professionals, learners and educators, in the business, public, independent and voluntary sectors.

People are happiest and most productive if they can choose what they work on and who they work with. Self-selecting teams give people that choice. Build well-designed and efficient teams to get the most out of your organization, with step-by-step instructions on how to set up teams quickly and efficiently. You'll create a process that works for you, whether you need to form teams from scratch, improve the design of existing teams, or are on the verge of a big team re-shuffle. Discover how New Zealand's biggest e-commerce company completely restructured their business through Self-Selection. In the process, find out how to create high-performing groups by letting people self-organize into small, cross-functional teams. Step-by-step guides, easy-to-follow diagrams, practical examples, checklists, and tools will enable you to run a Self-Selection process within your organization. If you're a manager who wants to structure your organization into small teams, you'll discover why Self-Selection is the fastest and safest way to do so. You'll prepare for and organize a Self-Selection event and make sure your Self-Selection participants and fellow managers are on board and ready. If you're a team member, you'll discover what it feels like to be part of a Self-Selection process and what the consequences are for your daily work. You'll learn how to influence your colleagues and bosses to be open to the idea of Self-Selection. You'll provide your manager with a plan for how to facilitate a Self-Selection event, and with evidence that the system works. If you're feeling the pain and chaos of adding new people to your organization, or just want to ensure that your teams have the right people with the right skills, Self-Selection will help you create the effective teams you need.