The role of systemic team coaching in supporting collective leadership

Abstract

This research explored the experiences of South African Gauteng-based leaders who have completed systemic team coaching in both the private and the public sector. The research also looked at how systemic team coaching supports collective leadership. Systemic team coaching is in its infancy and was an attempt to address the coaching needs of leaders who operate in a complex and ever-changing environment in the twenty first century. Systemic team coaching recognises the fact that in the twenty first century, no one leader can single-handedly run an organisation, and therefore for organisations to survive, they need to move from relying on heroic individual leaders to a model that focuses on collective leadership, characterised by collaboration and co-operation. For this qualitative research, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were found to be an appropriate form of collecting data. Data was collected from sixteen participants composed of eight participants from the private sector and eight participants from the public sector. Key findings are that most participants found value in systemic team coaching and they felt that the programme supported collective leadership, however most participants highlighted that for the long-term sustainability of systemic team coaching, there is a need to institutionalise the programme and to train leaders and their teams so that they are able to take over and sustain the programme once the systemic team coaches exit the organisation.