Building Top-Performing Teams: A practical guide to team coaching for organizational success

by Lucy Widdowson, Paul J Barbour

Overview

The best way for a business to succeed is through its people. While there are gains to be had from streamlining processes, reducing costs or making a strategic change, the biggest potential for success comes from how humans collaborate.

Containing more than 60 tools which can be used in a virtual or in-person coaching environment, Building Top-Performing Teams is a practical guide for leaders, HR professionals, coaches, team coaches and anyone with management responsibility. It covers how to motivate, develop, engage and reward a diverse team of employees with different levels of experience and priorities to achieve outstanding business success.

This updated edition includes new research and insights into team coaching and the dynamics of collaborative environments, as well as understanding diversity, neurodiversity and inclusion in the workplace. Incorporating essential guidance, tools and techniques that show how to promote team ways of working rather than individual-focused processes, this book also shows how to manage internal team conflict and ensure that teams are purpose-driven and working towards a shared business goal. Each chapter includes reflective questions and exercises to allow readers to identify how to apply each element of team development to their workforce.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781398620735
Publisher:	Kogan Page, Ltd.
Publication date:	06/24/2025
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Lucy Widdowson MSc MCC ACTC FCIPD is an accredited executive and team coach, Director of Performance Edge and a lead tutor on team coaching at Henley Business School, UK. During her 30 year corporate career, she has worked as a HR Director and is a UK board member for team coaching for the ICF.

Paul J Barbour MSc PCC ACTC CBP is an accredited executive and team coach, with 20 years prior experience leading businesses and teams in Kerry Group plc. A writer and speaker with strong interests in human collaboration and conflict resolution, he is also a lead tutor on team coaching at Henley Business School, UK.

Table of Contents

** Chapter - 01: Introduction – why the world needs top-performing teams and the argument for team coaching; ** Chapter - 02: Beyond tools and techniques; ** Chapter - 03: Team coaching frameworks, models and approaches; ** Chapter - 04: The purpose driven team; ** Chapter - 05: Team identity; ** Chapter - 06: Team values and beliefs; ** Chapter - 07: Team awareness; ** Chapter - 08: Team relatedness; ** Chapter - 09: Team ways of working; ** Chapter - 10: Team transformation; ** Chapter - 11: Team Coach Development; ** Chapter - 12: Conclusion – what does the future require of team coaching?

Editorial Reviews

"Lucy and Paul in their first edition crafted a tour de force on team coaching. In the second edition, they have been very thoughtful and intentional about how to make the first edition of this book better-and here you have it. This new edition incorporates a multitude of important and sometimes nuanced issues, bringing all team coaches up to the present moment."

Joel DiGirolamo

"Team coaching is a rapidly growing field, where practitioners need to keep up to date with the ever-evolving advances in concept and practice. This book provides an evidence-based perspective for both beginners and more experienced practitioners"

David Clutterbuck

"Widdowson and Barbour continue to deliver exceptional thought leadership, seamlessly blending theoretical insights with practical applications that are invaluable for anyone working with teams. Their frameworks, models, and approaches have been instrumental in helping me build top-performing teams. I have successfully applied the tools and techniques from their book across various contexts, including one-on-one coaching, team facilitation, and conflict resolution.

The 'Team Edge' model stands out as a comprehensive blueprint for teams seeking to understand the broader dynamics of effective teamwork. I have consistently used this model as a foundational anchor for my team coaching strategies, finding it to be a reliable guide for navigating complex team interactions.

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Siobhan Forey

"Building Top-Performing Teams isn't just another book about teamwork-it's a game plan for turning a group of individuals into a truly connected, high-performing unit. Lucy and Paul bring a fresh, no-nonsense approach to team coaching, breaking down why so many teams struggle and, more importantly, how to fix it. With compelling stories and actionable strategies, they show how to turn dysfunction into synergy, hesitation into trust and average performance into something exceptional. If you're tired of teams that just go through the motions and ready to build one that actually thrives, start here."

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

"Lucy and Paul's guide to team coaching is my blueprint for creating top team performance. It builds upon the critical team foundations of purpose, identity, values and beliefs. I have applied the knowledge and experience shared in this book in several large organizations which has delivered continuous improvement and outstanding results for our business, for customers, our stakeholders and in the lives of the inspired and motivated members of wonderful teams."

John MacArthur FREng FEI

"As we move away from the heroic leader towards distributed leadership, operating in complex, dynamic systems, leaders need to be able to curate and craft team performance, like a conductor or a premiership coach. Building Top-Performing Teams is written by two highly experienced practitioners, who bring their insights from practice, and blend this with the emerging science on team performance to create a book for our time. This is an ideal read for team coaches, consultants and leaders concerned with creating work relationships which deliver more than the sum of their parts.

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Jonathan Passmore

"Widdowson and Barbour have delivered a powerful and practical guide for team coaches to help them connect more deeply with their 'way of being' as a coach and with the teams they are coaching. This is an important book for team coaches supporting teams on their journey to transformational performance."

Mike Sharrock OBE

"Grounded is a word that springs to mind when I think of the potency of this book. As a new and burgeoning practice, Team Coaching - what it is and how it works - still eludes many. This book clearly situates the discipline and rightly positions it amongst the many modalities that support team efficacy. The authors ground us in the literature over the first three chapters which in and of itself is no mean task but the effect on the reader is comfort. I know where I am. They then share their own proprietary model that underpins their work with teams in an incredibly accessible manner, littering the pages with ideas/examples/exercises all generously shared. This book is a re-read, over and over again. You will feel extraordinarily guided as you move through your own practice or work with teams with this book as your companion."

Tara Nolan

"Within a notoriously hard to define field, this book is excellent in providing clarity while highlighting the evolving range and possibilities of what fits within team coaching. Lucy and Paul provide practical advice while pointing towards the literature and research that underpins best practice. There is so much to learn, ponder and enjoy within this new edition which is written in a style that is practical, learned and well-paced.

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Praesta Ireland Dr. Colm Murphy

"This is a compelling and important contribution to the team coaching literature that is extremely clear and easy to follow. There is a genuine appreciation for value and importance of supervision as an integral element to support the team coach."

Executive Coach and Coaching Supervisor Dr Alison Hodge

"If you're looking for a comprehensive overview of team coaching that balances theory and practice, then look no further. Widdowson and Barbour have created a thorough overview of the doing and being of team coaching structured around important team topics. Whether you are an aspirant or experienced team coach, this book has something to offer you."

Declan Woods

"Teams are vital to our future, and this book goes beyond tools and techniques to explore the profound impact of a team coach's way of being. An excellent read for those who recognize that presence, awareness and systemic thinking are key to unlocking team potential.

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Georgina Woudstra