The Team Coaching Zone Podcast: Coaching | Teams | Leadership

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and two leading organizational coaches--Nancy Alexander and Ethan Hanabury--for this week's episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.   Nancy Alexander is a Principal at Nancy Alexander Consulting and is an executive coach, facilitator and consultant.  Nancy has a distinguished background with experience in marketing, strategic planning and new product and service development with Procter and Gamble and American Express where she specialized in expansion, turnarounds and repositioning.  After serving as a Vice President at Bank of America, she became a social innovator and eco-entrepreneur and founded one of the first green companies in Connecticut, inventing a business in a declining, generic industry and achieving twice the industry average customer retention rate through eco-friendly products and services, brand differentiation and loyalty, and creative communication. Her work earned national press attention and was featured in Joline Godfrey’s book, Our Wildest Dreams: Women Making Money, Having Fun, Doing Good. Nancy holds a BA degree in Sociology, an MBA from Yale and a MA in Women's Studies from Southern Connecticut State University. Ethan Hanabury is a team leadership expert and executive coach, and was a higher education leader and senior administrator.  He is an award-winning executive coach, top management team expert, and executive education pioneer.  Ethan brings 28 years of experience and perspective as a senior leader and educator to his coaching practice. As Senior Associate Dean at Columbia Business School, he led the teams that brought #1 rankings to the School’s Executive MBA and Executive Education programs; raised student satisfaction levels to record levels; and fostered a learning community that nourished tens of thousands of young women and men to achieve their professional goals. When he transitioned in 2011, Columbia Business School recognized his legacy by naming one of the graduating student awards in his honor for perpetuity.  Previous to his deanship at Columbia, Ethan was a product manager with Unilever and a CPA with Arthur Andersen.  Ethan holds an MBA from Columbia University and also is a graduate of Columbia's Coaching Intensive Program. In this episode, Nancy and Ethan share their perspectives on co-team coaching together and explore a recent engagement with a team in the higher education arena.  Themes covered in the episode include: the importance of shared values among co-team coaches; the value of co-team coaching over and above working solo; innovative data feedback strategies in team coaching; building trust in teams; experimentation and innovation in team coaching; techniques for helping teams develop practical action strategies and more.   The episode is chock full of practical tips and best practices that both new and experienced team coaches will find valuable.

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and leading organizational coach and early pioneer in the field of team coaching, Phillip Sandhal, for this week’s episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  Phil is a Master Certified Coach, a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and the Co-Founder of Team Coaching International (TCI).  Phil is an internationally recognized consultant, coach, trainer, and author. He was an early pioneer in the field of team coaching and has worked with teams in North America, Europe and Asia that include Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, Cisco, Cap Gemini, ING Bank, TransCanada, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Navy.  He is a sought-after speaker on team performance, team leadership, and team trends. He has presented at conferences in Finland, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, Australia, and of course the U.S. He is co-author of the leading textbook on coaching: Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives, with more than 100,000 copies in print and in 10 languages.  Phil is a former senior faculty member for The Coaches Training Institute and has been training coaches worldwide since 1998. As principal trainer for Team Coaching International, Phil has trained more than 1,000 team coaches from 43 countries. That training also certifies coaches in the use of the Team Diagnostic suite of team and team leader assessment tools. The Team Diagnostic has been used with thousands of teams worldwide and is in 22 languages. In this episode of the podcast Phil shares his journey from a career in journalism to discovering the field of coaching where he became a senior faculty member of the Coaches Training Institute and where he trained coaches around the world and also co-authored the well-known text on co-active coaching.  He then shares the journey into team coaching and to co-founding Team Coaching International in 2004.  In the episode Phil shares stories of hits and misses from his own practice coaching teams and also insights from training team coaches.  Some themes covered in the episode include: the Team Diagnostic; appreciative inquiry in team coaching; productivity and positivity - two essential dimensions in teams; a 3 phase approach to team coaching; the eclectic mixture of skills a team coach uses during ongoing team coaching sessions; the role of metrics in team coaching; coaching multi-cultural teams; training team coaches and more.  This episode is another opportunity for both new and experienced team coaches to gain lessons learned, tips and wisdom from one of the early pioneers in the field of team coaching.  It's surely an episode you will not want to miss!

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and leading organizational coach Gilbert Brenson-Lazan for this week’s episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  Gilbert is a Social Psychologist and the Founding Parter of Amauta International, LLC.--an organization dedicated to optimizing wisdom, efficacy and resilience with top management teams in the Americas, through the facilitation of meaningful conversations.  Professor Lazan has forty years of teaching, facilitation and coaching experience in the Americas and in 13 other countries. He is the author of 34 books and texts, and has presented in over 40 international professional conferences.  He was a founding member and President of Global Facilitators Service Corps (GFSC) and is an Honorary Member of the Asociación Latinoamericano de Facilitadores-ALFA. A seventeen-year member of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), he was past International Vice-Chair and received the 1999 IAF Global Stewardship Award, the 2010 IAF Community Outreach Award, and was inducted into the first IAF Facilitators Hall of Fame in 2014.  In this episode Gilbert shares his inspiring journey into team facilitation and coaching that has continued to evolve over a period of 40 years.  He shares his perspectives on the role of appreciative inquiry, positive psychology and solution-focused coaching in his approach to team coaching.  He draws insights on the role of meaningful conversation and its impact on neuroscience and culture change in organizations, families and communities. Gilbert shares a number of powerful stories of hits and misses coaching teams including a compelling story of a 3-year transformation of a beverage company's leadership culture and the story of supporting a community following a volcanic eruption that resulted in the devastating loss of 26,000 residents of a town.   This episode is overflowing with inspiration as well as practical insights, tips and tools that will help every new and experienced team coach take their practice to the next level!

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and leading organizational coach Krish Iyer for this week’s episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  Krish is the Founder and Chief Catalyst at Qual Aliter Associates and brings more than 25+ years of experience across industries in sales, business development, business strategy, business process consulting, key account management and coaching for leadership and performance.  Krish has worked for a number of leading companies including 3M Co., Praxis, Satyam Computers and SAP.  Prior to founding Qua Aliter, Krish was the Global Vice President in the Strategic Customer Program for SAP and led a global team supporting SAP's most strategic customers that accounted for 1/3 of the company's $20 billion dollar business.  Krish is a graduate of Columbia University's Advanced Coaching Certification program and currently works to deliver comprehensive and transformational engagements for both leaders and teams. In this episode Krish shares his journey into team coaching building on his extensive experience leading cross-cultural and cross-functional global teams.  Krish shares stories coaching teams in the technology and customer relationship management arenas.  Some key themes explored in this episode include: team coaching in a VUCA world; learning, innovation and change in teams; design thinking and team coaching; blending the roles of consultant, facilitator, and coach; coaching presence; building leader-coach capacity within teams; appreciative inquiry; focusing on business results; experimentation in team coaching and more.  This episode is overflowing with practical insights, tips and tools that will help every new and experienced team coach take their practice to the next level!

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and leading figure in the area of creative thinking, Dr. Kobus Neethling, for this week's episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  Dr. Neethling is the President of the South African Creativity Foundation and the Creator of the Neethling Brain Instruments (NBI).  He is a world-renowned scholar and practitioner in the area of creativity thinking and learning.  Additionally, he holds six degrees including two master's degrees, a doctoral degree and a post-doctoral degree.  Dr. Neethling is the author of many books and articles as well as award-winning television shows and is also the recipient of numerous accolades and awards for his pioneering work in field of creativity studies.  Dr. Neethling is a frequent key note speaker and actively consults to corporations, national sporting teams and education groups around the world.  Dr. Neethling was asked by the South African transitional government to provide creativity training to the police in order to build better relationships and later was engaged by Nelson Mandela's chief of staff to provide similar training to Mandela's staff.  Dr. Neethling has hosted an annual international creativity conference in South Africa every year for the last 21 years.  In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Neethling shares his early history and journey into the field of creativity studies, to his post-doctoral work with the late Dr. Paul Torrance at the University of Georgia, to inventing the Neethling Brain Instruments, to the establishment of the South African Creativity Foundation and to becoming a leading figure in the field of creative thinking.  He also shares insights into how teams, leaders and whole organizations can become more creative, adaptable and high-performing.  Dr. Neethling shares numerous stories from his work consulting to teams in a range of sectors including banking, mining, sales, education, sports, government and more.  Any team, executive or organizational coach interested in fostering creativity in their own practices will surely not want to miss this episode!  

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and leading organizational coach and early pioneer in the field of relationship systems coaching, Marita Fridjhon, for this week’s episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  Marita is the CEO and Co-Founder of CRR Global, Inc.—an ICF accredited coach training school—and the creator of the Organization & Relationship Systems Coaching(ORSC) program.  Her primary focus in coaching is on systemic change, leveraging diversity, creative communication, deep democracy in conflict management and the development of Learning Organizations. In this episode Marita shares her journey growing up during the Apartheid era in South Africa; to sailing up the Amazon river where she investigated the impact of death and dying on families and communities and where she discovered the concept of the “dreaming nature of human systems;”  to becoming a faculty member of the Coaches Training Institute and then to co-founding CRR Global.  Some themes explored in the episode include: the dreaming nature and emergence of systems; the 3rd entity; Relationship Systems Intelligence; holonic shifts; the dynamics of coaching systems; becoming a systems coach and more. Throughout the interview, Marita shares stories of success and challenge from her own practice coaching individuals, teams and organizational systems. This episode provides team, executive and business coaches with powerful insights and practical tips and for how to bring a systemic approach to their coaching practices.  This is an episode that all coaches will surely not want to miss!

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and leading organizational coach and early pioneer in the field of team coaching, Professor Peter Hawkins, for this week’s episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  Dr. Hawkins is a Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School, is the Emeritus Chairman of Bath Consultancy Group, the Chairman of Renewal Associates, and a leading consultant, coach, writer and researcher.  He is a thought leader in executive coaching, team coaching and board development and is the author of a number of books and papers including, among other works, Leadership Team Coaching (2014) and Leadership Team Coaching in Practice (2014). In this episode Professor Hawkins shares his journey from working in drama therapy and psychotherapy in mental health organizations, to shifting into organizational development and getting a Ph.D. in organization learning and founding the Bath Consulting Group, to becoming a thought leader and practitioner in the area of systemic team coaching.  Themes covered in the episode include: the continuum of team coaching; the 5 disciplines of successful team practice (commissioning, clarifying, co-creating, connecting, core learning) and team coaching; the CID-CLEAR team coaching process; the team leader as coach; becoming a team coach; supervision and training of team coaches; and trends in the field of team coaching.  Throughout the interview, Professor Hawkins shares stories of success and challenge from his own practice coaching teams in diverse organizations. This episode is overflowing with inspiration, practical insights as well as tips and tools that will help every new and experienced team coach take their practice to the next level. For episode show notes and more go to: http://www.teamcoachingzone.com/drpeterhawkins/

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and leading organizational coach Herb Stevenson for this week’s episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  Herb is the Founder and CEO of the Cleveland Consulting Group, a Board Certified Executive Coach, a Gestalt Certified Coach, and a Certified Professional Coach.  He specializes in executive development and coaching, succession planning, whole and large-scale change and diversity management.  Herb is also the Founder of Natural Passages, an organization that offers nature-based leadership programs for men.  He has spent the last decade reclaiming his Cherokee and Shawnee Indian heritage and provides workshops across the country on indigenous healing practices. In this episode Herb shares his journey from working in the banking industry, to making a shift into gestalt consulting and coaching, to founding the Cleveland Consulting Group and also to facilitating leadership retreats for men.  Specific themes discussed on the show include: the gestalt approach to systems change; 4 levers to improve team effectiveness: roles, responsibilities, communication and authority; constructive conflict in teams; Tuckman’s four stages of team development including accelerating team development across the stages as well as clarifying the leader’s role at each stage; Hackman’s four purposes/types of meetings: informational, decisional, consultation, coordination; team charters; the diagnostic stage of intervention; a number of assessments (The Team Diagnostic, Extraordinary Teams Assessment, MBTI-Form Q, Thomas Kilman Conflict Styles Inventory, FIRO-Business, Influence Styles and the Intercultural Conflict Styles Assessment); prioritization and ROT (return on time); the ripening of receptivity for team coaching in business; virtual team coaching; co-leadership vs. individual leadership; and the relationship of engagement to leadership, team and organizational culture. Throughout the episode Herb shares numerous stories and anecdotes from his experiences coaching teams from a range of industries including banking, oil & gas, insurance and more.  As a bonus to the episode, Herb shares perspectives from his work running nature-based retreats through his company Natural Passages that focuses on creating constructive rites of passage for men. For detailed Show Notes go to: www.TeamCoachingZone.com/HerbStevenson

Cliff Kayser, VP at Polarity Partnerships LLC, discusses his background in organization development, Eastern philosophy, and Tai Chi. He explains the benefits of adopting a positive mindset and balancing individual and team focus. Cliff also explores polarity thinking and leveraging virtuous cycles, and provides advice for coaches transitioning into team coaching and the role of polarities.

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and leading organizational coach Jennifer Porter for this week’s episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  Jennifer is the Managing Partner and a specialist in leadership and team coaching at the Boda Group.  The Boda Group helps leaders and teams assess their capabilities, clarify how they want to engage and lead, strengthen critical relationships and skills, and operate more effectively. Prior to founding The Boda Group in 2011, Jennifer was a COO of Circles and Sentient Jet, a leadership coach with Spencer & Bean, a Vice President of Einstein Bagels and a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group.  Jennifer holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University, and has pursued training and certification in: Interpersonal Dynamics at Stanford; Enneagram; The Coaches Training Institute, CPCC; International Coach Federation, PCC; Team Diagnostic Assessment; Harvard University/Kegan and Lahey: Immunity to Change; CRR Global, Advanced Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC). In this episode Jennifer shares her experience making the transition from a c-suite executive to a leadership and team coach as well as stories of hits and misses from her own team coaching practice. Themes explored in the episode include assessment in team coaching, structural dynamics, dialogue and native american counsel practices, team norms and operating principles, virtual team coaching platforms, the distinction between team training and team coaching, the link between business outcomes and team behaviors, scheduling team coaching engagements, discussable and undiscussable dialogue topics, building a "say anything" culture in teams, modeling and being bold as the team coach, finding "sandbox" clients to learn as a beginning team coach, supervision, having a plan while also working in the moment, and more.  This episode is full of value, tips and lessons learned!