Coaching gives you a great perspective on team building. I'm still a novice coach, but my main goal with a new team is to get them to think like a team: it's not about the individual, it's about furthering the team's goal. Last game a really great hitter on the team had the opportunity to win it in the last inning: tie score, we had the last bats, no extra innings, and a runner in scoring position. With a simple ground ball, she could have driven in the run. Instead she went down swinging for a home run. That tells me I have a ways to go in developing her sense of team.

NOTE: We did win when the next batter came up and got the hit we needed.

yes! coaching helps you become a better team member, and you better understand the need for meshing personalities and having the right blend of specialties, not just stars. in basketball, i like to emphasize passing, moving without the ball, and help-and-recover defense, which are crucial skills to winning, but are often neglected at the expense of individual offensive skills. there are parallel sorts of skills in product development--you don't just need features, but also testing, documentation, visual design, analytics, etc.

i recommend coaching heartily. just don't get overly invested in winning (it's an important goal, but it's not everything).