Moving above the line as a team
Image by Sandeep Damre at unsplash.com

Moving above the line as a team

In last month’s post on our blog, we revisited the concept of ‘above and below the line’ and explored what we can do to move ourselves above the line, to a higher level of emotional health, should we find ourselves below it.

In our work with organisations, a similar question often arises with respect to teams. A team is obviously a lot more complex than a single individual, however there are parallels.

Like individuals, teams can operate above the line or below the line. Like individuals, a team operating above the line will generally be more effective and higher performing. And like individuals, given the right circumstances a team can choose to work together to move themselves above the line.

A team operating above the line displays similar emotionally healthy characteristics to an individual. They will, collectively, be constructive and show up in a way that has a positive effect on the other teams around them, on their organisation as a whole and on any external stakeholders they deal with.

In contrast, a team operating below the line will likely be characterised by various signs of dysfunction. Members of the team will commonly have a silo mentality, their attention turned inward and focused on their own self-interest. They will have little sense of moving together as one. Most, if not all, members of the team will exhibit one or more below-the-line behaviours such as defensiveness, blaming, self-justifying and denial directed at each other or externally towards other teams.

A common scenario we come across is where there is antagonism from one team towards another where the first team relies on the second for certain actions or information. We hear comments like, ‘They are never doing what we want, never giving us the things we need. They don’t give us the right information.’

Accepting this situation without doing anything about it is an indicator that the team is operating below the line. They are attributing blame rather than taking collective responsibility to improve the situation. Often we will ask the first team whether they have spoken to their counterparts to explain their needs. Perhaps they have run an information session to share knowledge and expectations? Almost always they have not.

When a team is above the line, they take responsibility. They are proactive in working out a way to navigate a situation and make it better.

And this is where the choice comes in. A team that recognises these below-the-line behaviours in itself needs to take conscious action to move themselves above it.

Very often, of course, much of the onus here falls on the team’s leader, at least in terms of proactively instigating the shift. There are three areas on which they need to check in first: shared vision, co-creating goals and facilitating results, and mutual accountability. We’ll touch on these briefly here and explore each further in future posts.

Building a team shared vision, sometimes framed as the teams ‘brand’, can take time. It’s important at the outset for the team to come together and explore ‘What do we want to be known for?’ What is it they aspire to? Ideally this vision will be co-created by the team themselves, not dictated to them by others in the organisation. Successfully defining the ‘what they want to be known for’ of the team will help them look outward, which will help them move above the line.

Co-creating goals and facilitating results is usually an area teams do partially well. They usually have higher, organisation-level goals or KPIs that have been set for them, with various team members having specific sets of activities assigned to them in pursuit of these goals. However, it’s less common for teams to jointly create a more specific, shared subset of activities for themselves that are clearly linked to the team’s vision. Developing such clarity about how they will enact their shared contribution to the bigger picture plays a big role in a team feeling as though they are moving together as one.

Finally, there is mutual accountability. As we said earlier, individuals working in silos is a common characteristic of teams operating below the line. However, when there is a strong shared vision and co-created goals, the team operates as more of a unit – including taking shared accountability for their performance. When this happens, blame and self-justification often dissolve away, and the team moves above the line.

Teams operating in very large organisations can find extra challenges. There are often aspects of their work that are out of their control, as individuals and as a group. However, again, when a team is able to operate above the line they will focus on those things they can control and support each other in building a strong culture together.

Gayle Hardie and Malcolm Lazenby

This article was originally published at www.globalleadershipfoundation.com

Sallyanne Sackl

Patient Care Assistant @ Western Health | CPR, AED, First Aid

1 年

Well said

回复
Moira Were AM

Community & Social Enterprise Leader | Mayor City of Onkaparinga | Governance & Policy | Entrepreneur | Diversity and Democracy Advocate | Business Innovation Views are my own

1 年

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Gayle Hardie的更多文章

  • Remembering Joy Gillies

    Remembering Joy Gillies

    Right at the end of last year, we were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Joy Gillies, a Global Fellow, dear…

    4 条评论
  • The power of observer created reality

    The power of observer created reality

    Have you ever had the experience of buying, or looking to buy, a particular brand of car and then start to notice…

  • On navigating change and asking silent questions (part 2)

    On navigating change and asking silent questions (part 2)

    In my last article I introduced the concept of the ‘silent question’ that each of us holds at the back of our minds…

  • On navigating change and asking silent questions

    On navigating change and asking silent questions

    Navigating change and overcoming resistance to change are two of the most popular topics that come up in leadership…

    1 条评论
  • Governing bodies and the art of working together

    Governing bodies and the art of working together

    This month, Malcolm and I have been contributors to Small Giants’ ‘Governing for Purpose: Foundations for Directors’…

    3 条评论
  • Transformation as distinct from change

    Transformation as distinct from change

    When thinking about this month’s blog post, I took some time to look over the posts of the last few months. Two themes…

    3 条评论
  • What does it really mean to be a team?

    What does it really mean to be a team?

    Our experience in working with teams, both locally and across the world, tells us that the most effective and…

  • Seeking peace, hope and compassion in a troubled world

    Seeking peace, hope and compassion in a troubled world

    “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” This is a line often attributed to Martin…

    1 条评论
  • The secret to better working relationships

    The secret to better working relationships

    Over the dozen years since we started our blog, there have been certain 'cornerstone' posts that we continually refer…

  • The secret ingredient of extraordinary leadership

    The secret ingredient of extraordinary leadership

    In their ground-breaking book The Extraordinary Leader*, John Zenger and Joe Folkman demonstrate the enormous…

    4 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了