ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to the traditional view of diversity and introduces the notion of explicit/implicit diversity. It argues that all teams are culturally diverse, at least in some latent fashion, and that therefore team coaching needs to become intercultural team coaching. The chapter suggests that coaching executive teams with lasting impact implies embracing the holographic/organic/complexity paradigm and addressing complexity faced by senior teams from multiple, interconnected perspectives ranging from the physical to the spiritual. The cultural perspective works best in combination with other perspectives, which together form a powerful, integrated, global form of team coaching. If team coaching, particularly at the executive level, were not hard enough, two additional factors of complexity increasingly need to be considered: cultural diversity and geographic distance. Working at multiple levels enables coaches to uncover complex interrelations and to have a greater impact. Executive team coaches help teams achieve sustainable high performance: reaching their targets and producing high-quality work to serve multiple stakeholders.
