Charged Moments: When tension becomes the turning point
With special guest Jen Campion
Episode 16 of the Teams Transformed Podcast
Teams Transformed is the podcast for courageous coaches, curious leaders, and anyone passionate about unlocking the true power of teams. Hosted by TCS Founder and Senior Faculty Georgina Woudstra and Allard De Jong, listen to explore transformational insights on how to coach teams with presence, depth, and emergence, diving into not just the tools, but the art of team coaching itself.
About this Episode
In this episode of Teams Transformed, Georgina and Allard welcome Jen Campion, an experienced executive and team coach, to explore a moment of emergence that unfolded in her work with a leadership team. What began as a brief, charged exchange between two team members became the doorway to deeper learning about how the team expressed difference and ensured people felt heard.
Jen shares how a seemingly small moment, when one team member voiced a perspective that landed with visible tension in the room, sparked an important shift in the team’s journey. By naming the energy in the room and inviting others to respond, Jen helped surface an underlying pattern: the team often moved past difficult moments without addressing them. That brief intervention opened a pathway for the team to begin developing the capacity to share contrasting viewpoints more openly and constructively.
Together, Georgina, Allard, and Jen reflect on the richness that lives within fleeting moments in team conversations. They explore how coaches can notice these subtle signals, stay present with what emerges, and trust that meaningful transformation often begins with a single moment of awareness rather than a fully resolved intervention. The conversation also explores the inner development required of coaches themselves, and how learning to stay present with strong emotions can deepen both personal practice and the impact we have with teams.
About our guest
Jen is a seasoned Executive and Team Coach with a background in strategy and organisational change. She brings a behaviour-focused, experiential approach and works with leaders and teams facing complexity and transformation. Clients value the balance of warmth and edge she brings, creating the trust and stretch needed for honest dialogue, courageous learning, and lasting growth.
Before setting up her coaching practice, Jen gained extensive leadership experience leading large change programmes as a Director in EY’s People Consulting Practice and, before that, as Head of Strategy and Business Planning at Tesco Ireland. Her experience spans health, finance, and utilities in the Irish public sector, and pharma and retail in global, multicultural contexts.
Jen holds an MSc in Executive & Business Coaching, a Diploma in Team Coaching, and a further postgraduate Diploma in Organisational Gestalt. She values Gestalt’s emphasis on awareness and presence, seeing it as the foundation for real, sustained change rather than quick fixes. This perspective underpins her work with teams, helping them see the system they’re part of and make conscious, lasting shifts in how they work together.
Key Themes Explored
The Power of Small Moments
Jen’s story centres on a brief but emotionally charged moment in a team session when a team member shared a strong perspective that triggered visible reactions but no immediate response. These “sparky” moments often pass quickly in meetings, yet they can hold powerful clues about how a team operates. By pausing and naming what had just happened, Jen helped the team begin noticing patterns that had previously gone unspoken.
Feeling Heard and Understood
One of the themes that emerged from this moment was the importance of people feeling genuinely heard. When another team member shared how the comment had landed for her, acknowledging both the difficulty and the intent behind it. The team experienced a new way of engaging with difference. That small exchange became the starting point for deeper work around listening and understanding.
Sharing Contrasting Points of View
The team discovered that expressing differing perspectives was a point of friction for them. Members either voiced their views very strongly or held back altogether. Through coaching conversations over time, the team began exploring how they could remain in contact with one another even when disagreement or emotional charge was present.
Staying in Contact During “Sparky” Moments
A key insight from the conversation is the importance of staying in contact when tension arises. In many teams, charged moments trigger fight-flight-freeze responses: some people push harder, others withdraw, and conversations move on too quickly. Developing the capacity to stay present and curious in these moments is a critical skill for both coaches and team members.
The Richness of the Present Moment
Georgina and Allard reflect on how much information lives within any single moment in a team conversation. Often, people are focused on tasks or on what they want to say next, causing important signals to be missed. Team coaching invites a slower, more attentive way of working, noticing shifts in energy, pauses, reactions, and emotional cues that reveal deeper dynamics.
Letting Go of the Need to “Fix”
Jen shares a powerful learning from her reflective practice. Earlier in her coaching journey, she often evaluated moments based on whether they “worked” or whether the team reached a clear outcome. Over time, she reframed this lens to focus instead on what was named, what became visible, and what new possibilities were opened.
The Coach’s Use of Self
Another important theme is the role of the coach’s own emotional presence. At this moment, Jen found herself intervening more strongly than usual, surprising herself in the process. Reflecting afterwards, she recognised how her background in consulting had trained her to manage her emotions carefully in professional settings. Learning to stay present with those feelings, rather than suppressing them, became an important part of her development as a team coach.
Inner Development and Vertical Growth
The conversation also highlights the ongoing inner work required to deepen coaching practice. Developing the ability to pause, notice internal reactions, and remain grounded in emotionally charged situations is a lifelong learning journey. As Jen reflects, the work on ourselves becomes the foundation for the impact we can have with teams.
Key takeaways
🌱 Small Moments Matter: Even brief exchanges can reveal powerful patterns within a team’s dynamics.
👂 Feeling Heard Builds Trust: When people experience being truly listened to, the quality of team dialogue shifts.
⚖️ Difference Is a Developmental Opportunity: Learning to share contrasting perspectives constructively strengthens team effectiveness.
⚡ Stay With the Energy: Charged moments often contain the most important learning if coaches and teams are willing to pause and explore them.
🧭 Presence Over Perfection: Coaches do not need to resolve every moment - sometimes naming what is happening is enough to open new possibilities.
🪞 Reflective Practice Matters: Growth as a team coach often comes through reflecting on moments rather than judging whether they “worked.”
🧠 Inner Work Enables Outer Impact: Developing awareness of our own emotional responses helps us stay present and effective with teams.
🌊 Emergence Is a Process: Meaningful change often begins with a small opening that evolves over time rather than a single breakthrough moment.
Why listen?
This episode offers a thoughtful exploration of how transformation often begins with something small, a pause, a reaction, a moment that might easily have been missed. Through Jen’s story, listeners gain insight into how coaches can notice these moments, name what is happening, and create space for deeper dialogue to emerge.
The conversation also provides an honest look at the developmental journey of a team coach. Jen reflects openly on the inner shifts required to move beyond a results-driven mindset and embrace the slower, relational work of emergence.
For coaches, leaders, and anyone interested in how teams grow and learn together, this episode highlights the art of noticing the moment, and trusting that meaningful change often starts there.
About your hosts
Georgina Woudstra is the Founder and Senior Faculty of Team Coaching Studio, an ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC) with over 20 years of experience. Georgina is recognised globally as one of the leading lights in team coaching and was among the first coaches to receive ICF's Advanced Certificate in Team Coaching.
Allard De Jong is a seasoned leadership development expert with two decades of experience solving organisational 'people problems' and accelerating leadership development. He brings a unique perspective on transformative inquiry and divergent thinking to team coaching practice.
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