Why Team Coaching Works

Team coaching is often misunderstood as a nice-to-have or confused with individual coaching delivered in a group setting. Effective team coaching is far more strategic. It shapes how people work together, how they respond to pressure and change, and how they move from simply getting tasks done to delivering meaningful results.

Recent insights shared by Andrew Deutscher, founder of Regenerate, highlight just how powerful team coaching can be when done well. Writing for Forbes, Andrew reported a marked shift in how teams operated following structured team coaching. What stood out most was the move from reactive to proactive working.

Before team coaching, 30% of the team’s work was proactive. Afterwards, that figure rose to over 70%, which on the whole was due to a fundamental change in mindset, behaviour and performance.

From Firefighting to Forward Thinking
Many teams spend their days responding to issues as they arise, with emails often dictating the priorities. Therefore, any problems are fixed when they become urgent. This reactive way of working can feel relentless and draining, even for highly capable people.

Team coaching creates the conditions for teams to step back, reflect and align. It helps them understand not just what they are doing, but why they are doing it and how they want to work together. When expectations are clear and trust is built, teams gain the confidence to plan, challenge assumptions and act with intention.

The result is that team coaching helps teams build confidence, raise their performance and shift how they were perceived. That shift did not go unnoticed. Teams began to attract better talent and earned recognition from senior leaders, not because they were working harder, but because they were working smarter.

The Human Impact of Team Coaching
Beyond performance metrics, team coaching has a profound impact on how people experience their work.

When teams work together, they have a greater sense of being in it together, they grow in trust which in turn develops a more satisfied and experienced workforce, leading to greater sustainability. This removes the silos or competing priorities. Individuals see how their role contributes to the bigger picture, which reinforces the feeling that what they are doing genuinely matters.

This shared clarity also changes how teams respond to change. Rather than becoming defensive or resistant, teams become more proactive and open. They are better equipped to adapt, less likely to default to blame and more capable of innovation. When challenges arise, ownership will become more natural because responsibility is shared, not imposed.

Why Clarity Creates Freedom
One of the most powerful outcomes of team coaching is the balance it creates between structure and autonomy. Team coaching sets the expectation for the ways people will work together, which gives them the capacity to be freer and more autonomous.

This might sound counterintuitive, but it is consistently true. When teams are clear on their purpose, values and ways of working, they do not need constant oversight. They step up more readily and show up more consistently, because they understand how their actions connect to shared goals.

Autonomy without alignment can lead to confusion and friction. Alignment without autonomy can stifle motivation. Team coaching brings the two together.

A Strategic Investment, Not a Quick Fix
Team coaching is not about fixing individuals or delivering a one off intervention. It is about building collective capability. It strengthens relationships, sharpens focus and creates a foundation for long term performance.

For organisations navigating change, growth or increasing complexity, team coaching offers a practical and human way to help teams move forward together. When people feel connected to each other and to a shared purpose, they do not just perform better. They work in ways that are more sustainable, resilient and impactful.

In short, team coaching works because it helps teams become more than the sum of their parts.

 Source: Forbes: The Rise Of Embedded Team Coaching And Why It Matters