NGO Soul + Strategy 069. Navigating Organizational Politics: A Team Coach’s Guide - with Alexander Caillet @ Corentus
Summary
What should I imagine, practically, when a team coach starts to support my team?
What does a well-known team coach find the most rewarding about working with nonprofit teams?
Can a team coach detect any differences in team behaviors or tendencies between their for-profit and nonprofit clients?
In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Alexander Caillet, CEO and co-founder of Corentus, Inc., on all of the above questions, including how to navigate team behaviors when it comes to organizational politics as well as decision-making.
His answers may surprise you!
Alexander’s Bio:
· CEO and co-founder of Corentus, Inc.
· Adjunct professor at Georgetown University, in its Leadership Coaching Certificate Program
· Alexander also worked at other coaching and consulting companies
· His education is in Organizational Psychology
We discuss:
- Corentus’ vision: thriving, high-performing teams that result in a sustainable and harmonious future
- What differentiates Corentus’ approach to team coaching from other approaches is its blending of team coaching with team facilitation, training, and consulting
- Alexander is one of the pioneers in the relatively new field of team coaching
- The various stages of a team coaching engagement
- Corentus has worked with a range of nonprofits: Save the Children, Oxfam, Technoserve, Syngenta Foundation, AIPP, and others.
- Alexander observes interesting differences in what pre-occupies teams in the for-profit and nonprofit space, respectively. They relate to themes such as productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of processes, as well as decisiveness
- He also observes differences in terms of a greater focus on achieving consensus or even unanimity in the nonprofit sphere, rather than using decision-making methods such as voting, delegation, and authority with consultation.
Quotes:
“I was surprised to encounter issues of hierarchy, power, DEI, and dysfunction in the nonprofit sector, I had not expected these as much in this sector”
Resources:
Info on Corentus' offer on Low bono / Pro bono team coaching opportunity
YouTube video of this podcast
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