Interview with Jorge Salinas: the keys to team coaching

Interview with Jorge Salinas

On this occasion I have had the opportunity to talk with Jorge Salinas about the keys to team coaching and very interesting reflections have arisen in this interview that I would like to share with you. It is a pleasure to chat and share ideas with Jorge, an expert in people and team development and I would like to thank him for his generosity and humility. I hope you find this conversation inspiring as it was for me.

Biography of Jorge Salinas

Jorge Salinas is a writer and regular speaker at business leaders’ forums on topics such as leadership, coaching and talent management, in Europe and the USA. She is a Senior Professional Coach by AECOP (Spanish Coaching Association) and MCC (Master Certified Coach) by the ICF (International Coach Federation).

Professor of Master’s Degree in Coaching, HR and Management Skills at different universities (European University of Madrid, University of Santiago de Compostela, University of A Coruña) having made occasional collaborations with business schools such as Francisco de Vitoria through the IDDI (Institute for Integral Management Development), ESADE, Instituto de Empresa, San Pablo-CEU, ESEUNE and Euroforum among others.

President of Atesora Group, a company specialized in Executive Coaching, Mentoring, Talent Development and in the accompaniment of organizations in processes of change. Jorge is also a founding partner of the professional coaching school Líder-haz-GO!

Books by Jorge Salinas

Author of the novel ” The girl with the eyes of the color of my pool”, Co-Author of the book on coaching for senior management: “Desnudando el alma del ejecutivo” and Co-Author with Antonella Fayer of “The Chameleon Company”.

INTERVIEW WITH JORGE SALINAS

Q: Individual coaching versus team coaching, what are the main differences and similarities for you?
A: The first similarity has to do with the “why”. In an individual executive coaching process, the objectives set by the client (the coachee) are pursued, just as in a team coaching process, where objectives are also pursued, the only and important difference is that in the case of teams the objectives are set by the team itself and individual objectives are not worked on.

The Team Coaching Process

Sometimes, before starting the team coaching process , we have already had a briefing with the leader of the team in which he has told us the objectives to be achieved, but even if he has done so, when the accompaniment process begins, the objectives must be assumed by the whole team. The purpose of discipline in both cases (individual and team) is then the same: to achieve objectives that have not yet been achieved.

Other elements appear that are identical in team and individual coaching and that is that, once the context has been generated and the agreements have been established, (confidentiality, roles and responsibilities of one and the other, commitment, deadlines, etc.), in both cases it is necessary that they become aware of what needs to be improved or changed and want to change it, know how to do it and finally “roll up your sleeves” and end up doing it.

Maieutics

In any coaching process, both individual and team, maieutics is used as a conversation tool, that is, questions are asked, reflections are proposed, and tools are shared that allow these clients, both individual and those who are part of a team, to achieve their results.

Phases of team coaching

Q: In these phases that you are defining, both of reflection and of identifying objectives, wanting to achieve them, identifying the roadmap and taking action… In your experience as a team coach, are any of these phases more critical in team coaching versus individual coaching?
A: I would say that an especially key aspect in team coaching is generating context. Depending on the process involved and the objectives to be achieved, sometimes this is more difficult. Let’s say that it is easier to generate context when it comes to a single individual. Fifteen years ago there was more skepticism in relation to coaching, however, today, the professionals to whom your company offers a coaching process already know what it consists of and are eager to enjoy it.

Successful process

When it comes to processes with teams, things change. This afternoon I have a session with a team with whom I have already had several meetings. I remember how the kick-off went, (the kick-off session of the program): there were two especially skeptical people who came to declare that they thought that it was not going to be of much use.

It is a very common situation in projects of this nature and coaches need to know how to manage these circumstances if we want to lay the foundations for a successful process. That is why I believe that the generation of context to awaken the commitment of all participants is especially key in team coaching.

Follow the interview Jorge Salinas

Q: In this case that you have just raised, in which there is not that clear “want” on the part of the team, when there is that resistance, how should that situation be managed by the coach?
A: The good news is that in most cases we already have prior information of possible resistance from a member. In these cases, what I propose to the company that requires my services is a zero phase before the start, in which I have a previous individual interview with each of the participants in the process. I already go to that meeting with an adapted script and agreed upon with the team leader and the HR interlocutor.

During this interview it is relatively easy to get the commitment of each of the team members, or at least, an agreement not to boycott the process. Most of the time resistance appears because they have a wrong idea of what the process consists of, (for example, they believe that it is something similar to a covert assessment, that there is no real confidentiality…, etc.).

Example team coaching

Q: And what if a team member didn’t want to do the team coaching process?
A: It has never happened to me…, to be honest. I have found, for example, that the leader proposes not to participate with the excuse that he has a lot of work, or that it is something “rather for his team”.

Obviously that would not make much sense, since team coaching is something systemic and all team members must be present. If we allow someone not to participate, the agreements reached and the alliances that are established will not represent everyone and those who are not there will not be committed to the decisions that have been made.

More keys in team coaching. Interview Jorge Salinas

Q: What is the other phase in the team coaching process that you also consider key?
A: I think it is very important that the team identifies and has consensus on the objectives they want to achieve. In most cases they are clear, but what is usually not so clear is the priority that each of the team members gives to those objectives.

Thus, sometimes I see that there are discrepancies and I need them to align themselves in the importance they give to each of the objectives. In these circumstances, I propose certain dynamics that make it easier for them to reach that consensus.

Real case of team coaching

Q: What example would you like to share about a real case of team coaching, about what aroused the need and how it was solved?
A: I’d like to share one that was especially challenging for me. It is a multinational and multisectoral company, which every time it contacts me (I have been working with them for 13 years) it proposes a project that I consider difficult because they have tried other alternatives within their reach before.

A year ago I was called to work with a team in which there had been some dismissals due to complaints to the works council of inappropriate behavior and lack of ethics, which had generated a generalized bad atmosphere in the team among those who were in favor and against the measures, (areas that did not collaborate with each other, colleagues who did not speak to each other and who put physical barriers between the tables to make it difficult to connect visually, and even, in some cases, there had been scenes of some physical violence). A business unit of about seventy people, three managers and a large group of middle managers. The situation was very entrenched. Some had not even said good morning for more than two years.

Follow the interview with Jorge Salinas

I met with the three managers, whose relationship was good, and I made them an ambitious proposal: I offered an individual interview with each of the middle managers, (with a script previously agreed with themselves and with HR).

From that face-to-face meeting with all the managers, I got a commitment to solve the problem. I also facilitated a four-hour focus group, where some managers and some of the people from the three business areas of the unit were present, in which I facilitated the participants to identify the issues to be worked on and begin to reflect on how they were going to solve them.

Kick off

The third phase was a two-day kick-off with the entire management team (eighteen people), where something similar to a catharsis of the team took place with overflowing emotions and conversations that served to clarify beliefs, unresolved problems…, etc.

Of course, beforehand, I made sure to create a context of trust, to collect the commitment of all participants and to generate a space for conversation through a series of dynamics suitable for this purpose.

Catharsis in team coaching. Interview with Jorge Salinas

Q: What do you think were the dynamics or questions that helped generate that catharsis you are talking about in that phase?
A: A good alliance agreed upon by all, using the voice of the team system, putting into action the systemic laws of the teams and favoring a two-on-two meeting so that they could share judgments, emotions, requests and offers.

I call this last dynamic “the postman”, and it is essential to have the right context already created so that it works and does not become “a time bomb”.

Full assertiveness

When this last dynamic is implemented, confidentiality must be agreed upon two by two, the use of full assertiveness, not to use “politically correct” language but the use of respectful language. You simply don’t have to look good, you have to share “starkly and respectfully” what you like and don’t like about the other person.

After this, there is a sharing of sensations, (not the content) and this marks a before and after in almost all coaching processes where one of the objectives to work on is the repair of personal relationships between team members.

Team Coaching Results

Q: You say that this team coaching process was a year ago, do you know how the results have been and how the team’s situation is now?
A: Yes, in fact the project did not end there. That was only the kick off with the team of managers, then there was a follow-up a month ahead to see how things were evolving and when we saw that they were going well was when we launched the last phase of the program. It consisted of a full-day activity with the seventy people.

On that day, the managers shared with the rest of the team what had happened in the previous sessions and the agreements that had been reached.

After that sharing, I launched the challenge to the large group: And you, what do you want to do? Indeed, with a series of fun and mobilizing dynamics, people were changing their mood, which led them to set improvement actions for all of them.

Feedback

Now, after some time, I have asked for feedback from one of the main managers to find out what had remained of that process and with satisfaction and a certain degree of detail he told me some of the achievements: “relationships were repaired”, “there was a regeneration of trust”, “we were able to change the language, leaving the victimizing language we had before to start using a more responsible language”, “we have achieved greater cohesion within the team”, “now there is a much more complicit collaboration and a sense of co-responsibility that was not seen anywhere before”, “a sense of belonging to the team has developed, (before there were people who even felt ashamed of belonging to a team like that)”, and what I really liked to hear is that the alliances that had been established in the team of managers and also those that were reached in the large group, in a very high percentage, were being respected.

Frequent mistakes. Follow interview with Jorge Salinas

Q: Jorge, what are some of the common mistakes that can occur in team coaching?
A: I think it may be interesting to point out that when we carry out a team coaching accompaniment we must not forget that we are making an intervention in a team that is underway. Using the analogy of a car, it’s like trying to repair it while the engine is still running. We’re touching wires and parts inside the bonnet but the car is still running.

The team, from the first session, is a team that is on the move, there are relationships between its members, sometimes jealousy or envy, sometimes misunderstood loyalties or relationships of affection cultivated for years, that is, there is a whole systemic history and suddenly we, (the coaches), appear and we start to intervene.

Prudence

Therefore, it is necessary to be very careful with what we touch and how we touch it and to be tremendously prudent.

In team coaching, everything we do, every question we ask, must be made from common sense and considering the impact it can have.

What to improve

Another typical mistake is to “buy” what the team tells us to “work on”. It almost never corresponds to what is actually the root of what they need to improve. My habit is to investigate non-visible processes and relationships that in most cases are the origin of what is happening.

Usually the lack of trust, complicity, power struggles, entrenched hatreds, envy or old quarrels, which are not talked about because they are considered “politically incorrect”, appear as the origin or food of what is happening.

Asking the team how they want to relate when the going gets tough or what they think they deserve as a team and what’s stopping them from doing so aren’t “powerful questions” in themselves, but by digging into the answers, it’s possible for the team to come up with important insights that will allow them to move forward as an organizational system.