Choosing the right coaching format: group or team?

As the demand for coaching grows, so too does the variety of formats it’s delivered in. One-to-one coaching is now extremely familiar territory for many organisations - but interest is rising in coaching at group and team levels. These scalable approaches can support transformation across functions and layers of seniority. However, for those buying in services, the distinction between group coaching and team coaching - particularly systemic team coaching – can be misunderstood and lead to wasted investment.

Clarity on the difference - and on what each is best suited for - is critical to making informed commissioning decisions that deliver impact.

What is group coaching?

Group coaching brings together individuals who do not work as a team. Instead, they’re usually united by a common developmental theme or challenge - such as stepping into leadership, returning from parental leave, or building confidence in a new role.

Each participant works on their own goals while learning from the experiences and insights of others. The coach facilitates shared reflection, offers challenge and support, and helps the group deepen their awareness and personal growth.

CoachHub defines group coaching as “a facilitated process that harnesses the wisdom and experience of multiple individuals to achieve personal and collective growth within a professional setting. This method stands out from traditional one-on-one coaching by involving a cohort of participants who engage in a structured dialogue, under the guidance of a skilled coach, to explore common challenges and develop new insights together.”

What is systemic team coaching?

Systemic team coaching supports a real team - one with shared objectives, collective accountability and interdependent roles. This form of coaching works with the team as a living system, exploring not just individual behaviours, but how the team interacts, makes decisions, manages conflict and delivers value together.

The ‘systemic’ aspect means attention is paid to the broader ecosystem the team is part of - customers, regulators, internal stakeholders and beyond. It’s not just about internal cohesion, but external impact.

A systemic team coach helps the team see itself clearly, shift unhelpful dynamics, and align around purpose and performance. It’s powerful work - but only when the conditions are right.

When to choose group coaching

Group coaching is often the right fit when the need is developmental and individual, even if the learning is shared. It is especially effective for:

• Building leadership capability at scale
• Supporting specific populations (e.g. new managers, high potentials)
• Creating peer learning communities
• Enhancing reflection, self-awareness and psychological safety

Because group members aren’t co-dependent in their daily work, it’s easier for them to speak freely and explore vulnerabilities. The coach holds the process firmly, and the learning often feels personally transformative.

However, group coaching doesn’t address team-specific issues like poor collaboration, low trust, or unclear decision-making. If those are the challenges, a team-based intervention will be more appropriate.

When to choose systemic team coaching

Systemic team coaching is the best choice when the issue is performance or relational dysfunction within a real team. It is most suitable for:

• Executive or leadership teams under pressure to align and deliver
• Teams navigating complexity, uncertainty or change
• Cross-functional teams with systemic challenges
• Teams that need to shift from individual silos to shared responsibility

Here, the coach works with the team over time to build awareness, strengthen relationships and improve collective performance. As Elisabeth Pavese PDH notes in her contribution to The Coach Buyers’ Handbook (Passmore and Isaacson, 2023): “team coaching is a learning process aimed at improving performance relating to an intact team’s shared goals.” In the long-term, the team coach is ultimately aiming to make space for the team to eventually take ownership of its own development.

It must be highlighted that team coaching requires greater investment and a stronger commitment from the team and its leader - but the results can be transformative and long-lasting.

Potential pitfalls and limitations

Group coaching is highly effective for personal development but has limited impact on the real-world interactions between people who must work together. Behaviour change may remain theoretical if the organisational system doesn't support it.

Systemic team coaching, meanwhile, requires readiness. Teams lacking trust or psychological safety may need other interventions first. And without a shared commitment to the coaching process, the work can stall or default to safer, less impactful territory.

This is why a careful commissioning process - grounded in a clear understanding of context, goals and readiness - is so important.

Final thoughts for commissioners

If you're responsible for buying in coaching services, the key is not just finding great coaches - but finding the right type of coaching for the problem or opportunity at hand. Group coaching and systemic team coaching both have distinct virtues and limitations. They aren’t interchangeable - and choosing the wrong one can undermine outcomes and stakeholder confidence.

As Karen Smart, head of consultancy at AoEC comments: “Choosing the right format means starting with a clear understanding of what success looks like - is it individual insight, team alignment, or systemic impact? That clarity helps ensure your investment in coaching actually delivers change.”

In other words, good coaching starts not with the coach - but with a well-informed commissioning decision.