Chasing Teamership (Part III)

An organisational environment that supports, promotes, rewards and encourages Teamership contains three key components:

• Teams that lead
• Dynamic Team Leaders
• Energised team members

Each component is valuable independently. Collectively they create a network that allows Teamership to thrive.

Teams that lead

The most common dysfunction in Executive Leadership Teams is that they are actually a group that reports on their functions and not a team that leads their business.

Teams that lead - themselves and the business - play an important role in supporting Teamership. Highly visible leadership teams that are connected to the organisation’s vision, to each other and throughout the organisation act as a key promoter of Teamership behaviours. They model behaviour and create an environment that allows members to be a part of a committed team. At the same time, they are experiencing and learning about how to be a part of a high performance team. Members of teams that lead can share these lessons and experiences across the multiple teams they belong to.

Dynamic team leaders

Dynamic leadership capability extends the capacity and likelihood of high levels of Teamership. By dynamic, I don’t mean charismatic. There is danger in relying too heavily on the personality of leaders to charm others.

By dynamic, I mean the ability of leaders to operate in a range of ways in response to the context of their teams and the broader organisation. It centres upon leadership with behavioural flexibility. Dynamic leadership has the behavioural flexibility to adapt and respond to the needs of the team and the team’s context, and not an individual’s leadership preferences. Behavioural flexibility being demonstrated by leaders, models and mirrors the value of team members who are able to respond appropriately in different situations.

Energised team members

Energised individuals are both a cause and a symptom of an environment that drives Teamership. High levels of Teamership go hand-in-hand with individual members being energised and energising. This allows individuals to bring their best.

Being around individuals who participate with optimism, motivation, and vigour encourages others to do the same. It is one of the best ways to attract, retain and develop the right people in your organisation.

Chasing Teamership needs these three components. The exciting part is that for all of us, wherever we sit in the organisation, we are able to make a difference. It definitely helps if the Executive Leadership Team are a team that actually leads, but even if they are not, as team members or team leaders we can and do make a difference.

Some questions to consider this week:

• For executive leaders: Does your team role model the behaviours that support a more collaborative, resilient and performance focused organisation?
• For team leaders: How well do you operate dynamically in response to changing needs?
• For team members: How do you positively impact the energy of others?

Go well,

Keegan