FOR DATA & BUSINESS TEAMS
Coaching for teams
A team that leads together.
Most data and business teams are made up of strong individuals. Fewer work as a team. This is coaching for the whole team, and for each leader in it.
IS THIS YOU?
Sound familiar?
The team meets every week, but the real conversations happen elsewhere. Priorities get agreed in the room, then renegotiated afterwards. Each member is good at their part of the function, and the business still sees a collection of teams rather than one.
None of this is unusual. Data and adjacent business teams are often assembled quickly, from people promoted for technical strength, then asked to run a function together with little time to work out how. The cost shows up slowly: slower decisions, mixed messages to the business, and a leader at the top carrying more than they should.
THE BASICS
What it is
Coaching for leadership teams combines two things:
Team sessions. The team works together on how it leads, decides and works with the rest of the business. These sessions are about the team as a whole, not any one person in it.
Individual coaching. Each leader gets their own 1:1 sessions, on their own agenda, alongside the team work.
The two feed each other. What comes up in the team sessions often gets worked through properly one to one, and what each leader works on individually shows up in how the team operates.
THE FOCUS
What we work on
Every team is different, so we agree the focus at the start. Common themes include:
How decisions get made: who decides what, and how to stop revisiting the same ones.
One voice to the business: a shared story about what the function is for and what it delivers.
Honest conversations: raising disagreement in the room rather than after it.
Priorities and trade-offs: agreeing what the team will stop doing, not just what it will start.
Working across the business: how the team builds influence with finance, operations and the executive.
WORKING TOGETHER
How it works
- 01
A conversation with the team leader.
We talk about what you want to change and whether this is the right approach.
- 02
Getting to know the team.
A short 1:1 conversation with each member to understand how the team works today, from the inside.
- 03
Agreeing the goals.
The team, its leader and any sponsor agree what success looks like and how we’ll know.
- 04
Team sessions and individual coaching
Over several months, at a pace that fits the team’s diary.
- 05
Review.
We look back at what has changed against the goals we set, and agree what happens next.
Sessions can be on video or in person, depending on where the team is based.
TRUST
Confidentiality, clearly agreed
Team coaching only works if people can speak honestly, so we agree the rules at the start. What’s said in individual coaching stays between the coach and coachee. Team sessions are confidential to the team. The sponsor sees progress against the agreed goals, nothing more. I work to the ICF Code of Ethics throughout.
FOR YOUR TEAM
Who it’s for
- A new or newly restructured data or adjacent business team
- A team about to take on more: a bigger remit, a transformation, a new strategy
- A team that works, but not as well as its people suggest it could
- A CDO who wants their direct reports leading together, not just reporting in
MY EXPERIENCE
Why me
I’ve built and led data functions for more than 25 years, including several leadership teams of my own. I know the pressures these teams are under because I’ve been in them: the budget rounds, the restructures, the board meetings where data comes last on the agenda. I combine that experience with formal training in executive coaching.
Start with a conversation
Thirty minutes with the team leader, or whoever is sponsoring the work. We’ll talk about the team, what you want to change, and whether this is the right fit.