Here's how you can navigate the challenges of working in a collaborative team as a Business Coach.

Working with a collaborative team requires a strategic approach, and coaching plays a crucial role in navigating challenges. The first step involves 1-on-1 coaching sessions with each team member to identify individual challenges and opportunities, using feedback questionnaires for a clearer picture. Once these challenges are identified, group sessions become essential for team bonding and addressing issues such as communication, role clarity, or conflict management. A coach helps develop a collaborative mindset focused on solutions. However, the team isn't just about the members, leaders also play a key role. Their ability to inspire are vital. With the support of a business coach, the team can turn challenges into opportunities.

Everyone has something they are hiding. It could be real, it could be purely in their imagination. The key to coaching is to find out what the hidden and unsaid motivators are. Some will be candid. Others aren't sure themselves how they feel. This puts all the onus on the coach. Why? Because if the coach can not transmit the impression and aura of peaceful understanding, no one will trust you with their private concerns. Only when someone knows that the coach does not have any ulterior motives can a breakthrough occur. Unfortunately, some people's perspectives are so twisted that if you offered them a million dollars they wouldn't take it: fear of loss is greater than the joy of gain. Being at peace yourself is the only way to earn trust.

Consider these trust building strategies: Model Transparency: Demonstrate openness and honesty in your communications and decision-making. Share relevant information and be upfront about challenges and expectations, fostering a culture of trust and reliability. Encourage Active Listening: Promote and practice active listening within the team. Ensure everyone feels heard by validating their contributions and addressing their concerns, which builds mutual respect and strengthens team cohesion. Provide Consistent Support: Offer consistent support and follow-through on commitments. Be dependable and supportive in helping team members achieve their goals, which reinforces your reliability and encourages reciprocal trust.

Goals need to be small enough for even the weakest player to see appreciable gains. Building people up from the beginning is key. Helping people understand that things break down into two operators: Events and Process. Everyone thinks it is, "Events" that will demarcate success. The "wedding", winning "the lotto", this is never really the case. All the big battles are won in the mundane work of process. Process is slow, boring, and uncelebrated. Goals need to be set around the process. not the end event. The end event is a natural consequence of the process. Trying to short circuit Process is like turning up the oven to 700 degrees for 15 minutes instead of 350 for 30. Did it "get cooked?" Yup. Will you want to eat it? Would you?

Everyone communication's differently. Unfortunately this is also paired with issues of ego & trust. Being able to accept an inflow of different messages in different ways from different people is what makes the coach's job unique. Trying to "lord above someone" with fancy techniques & schemas isn't going to get your most recalcitrant person onboard. The way to make it work is for the individuals to be able to tie what is happening now to something that they have encountered & overcome in the past. "When your boss asks you to complete a task, how different is that from when your significant other asks you to do something? How do you react then? Why?" Bringing it home is the easiest way to help open new mental pathways to problem solving.

With untrained communicators it is a difficult job for them to effectively understand how they feel and then how to appropriately communicate those feelings. This is evidenced by lack of precision in their speech which reflects a lack of precision in their thinking. But you can't make someone understand something they don't even have the language to consider, let alone contemplate. Conflicts can arise from difference of opinion on how to achieve a goal and, unfortunately, this is because people are playing games. Office politics games, throwing-colleagues-under-the-bus games, etc. This is borne of weak character more worried about someone else's performance instead of their own. Remind everyone that reaching the goal is what is important.

Crazy, off-the-wall ideas are the blank canvas from where the most exquisite of works can be created. Innovation comes from with-in deep-diving into the process or in comes from with-out, in the mixing and melding of ideas across disciplines. I assume it can become easy for people to become compartmentalized in their thinking - which is great for some tasks and atrocious for others. Everyone has the capacity for creation & innovation; proven every day in small matters. But let's also be real: the less interested you are as a person the less interesting you are. If you don't ingest a wide variety of information from across disciplines you'll be a very boring and dull person. More interested in staying within the lines than drawing their own.

First, it's important to establish clear communication channels and ensure that everyone's voice is heard. Second, as a coach, I focus on helping the team set common goals and create a shared vision. Third, I encourage the team to establish roles and responsibilities. Fourth, I work with the team to develop trust and respect among its members. Lastly, I emphasize the importance of accountability and follow-up. By applying these principles, teams can overcome many of the common challenges they face and work together more effectively to achieve their goals.