Research Summary
Research Summary
The timing of team leader coaching interventions
Description
People who coach teams – including team leaders, senior members of an organization, and external consultants – must observe team dynamics and diagnose opportune moments to intervene. My dissertation, “The timing and type of team coaching interventions,” uses two laboratory studies to describe (a) how team coaches’ observations influence the timing and type of coaching interventions, and (b) how the timing and type of coaching intervention affects team outcomes. I found that most coaches identified the same events as problems; however, coaches’ differing interpretations of those problems affected the timing and type of their coaching interventions. I also found that coaching interventions had immediate effects on group processes, but had only lagged effects on team performance. The managerial implications of this work are outlined in a forthcoming article in Organizational Dynamics (with Ruth Wageman and J. Richard Hackman), in which we suggest how team leaders can improve the timing of their interventions. My dissertation was awarded the State Farm Doctoral Dissertation Award in Business and was a finalist in the INFORMS/Organization Science Dissertation Competition.