Success Story - Coaching Teams to Excel Client: Katie Barta, Senior Human Resource Consultant,  Capital One  Purpose: Team Coaching Katie  contracted with Bette George to provide team coaching to her team with two key objectives: 1) To provide leadership development for team members, all of whom wanted to lead a team in their next role;  2) To provide team members with the experience  as a member of a high-performing team. Background and Methodology: The Change Management Team was charged with creating a customized plan for leading, managing and sustaining change for a major organizational initiative. At the time Bette came in to provide coaching, the team was performing well, aligned with its purpose and  on track to achieve its objectives .  Katie, a talented manager and coach, had launched her team successfully. Having faced the challenges of forming, norming and storming, they had produced a high-quality product, a Change Toolkit, that had been well received. Two new members were being integrated into the team and one original member had left at this point which changed the group dynamics. There was not going to be an opportunity to spend a lot of time observing and coaching the team in real time as the objectives timeline was aggressive.   After consulting with Katie on options and approaches, it was decided that Bette would first gather data on team and leader effectiveness from each team member individually to identify the leadership challenges facing Katie. Based on that data, Bette designed the coaching approach which would span two months. Bette worked with Katie on the meeting objectives and agenda topics and then debriefed Katie after each session.  Each team member also received individual coaching based on the observations Bette made during the team meetings. During the team coaching sessions, Bette observed team functioning regarding group process and work management, paying particular attention to communication patterns. She also provided tools for such as guidelines for giving constructive feedback and making complete requests.  Bette also coached Katie prior to the team meetings regarding the possibility of stopping the dialogue in the meeting to highlight an effectiveness opportunity. She also made Katie aware of the risk to the leader associated with on the spot coaching and was able to influence Katie to appreciate the value and agree to this approach.    Results: The coaching provided by Katie, a superb leader/coach, and Bette, their team coach, helped this team reach and sustain excellent performance. Team members experienced that special synergy that comes from true collaboration. They successfully combined their individual talents and strengths to perform at a high level.  Energized by the experience that comes from great teamwork, individuals felt personally fulfilled and proud of their individual and collective accomplishments.    Every member of the team was considered a high performer during that performance cycle due to the ability of the team to deliver a high quality product that exceeded the customer's expectations. One of the team members, who moved to a new team, communicated to a senior executive at the company that "this was the first time I experienced what it was like to be on an effective team. I had no way to compare effective teamwork until now and now, Katie's team is the benchmark." "Bette enabled me to see the potential and possibility in a group of capable individuals. She then coached us from a group of individuals to a well oiled machine that could work through difficult issues, produce a high quality product, drive results and have fun doing it.  The impact to the company's bottom line was significant."          — Katie Barta, Senior Human Resource Consultant,  Capital One Close Window