Optimise the Team

Optimise the Team- January 2023

When you are asked to develop a team, where do you start?

Before I start working with a team,?I ensure I am very clear about the why.

Why now?

What makes this important now?

What is the goal, the intended outcome?

What will that look like in terms of behaviour, what will the team be doing and saying?

Way back in July 2022 I was asked to work with a team that was changing. The original team has worked together for a number of years, but there was a significant change on the horizon. The original team leader was reducing her working week to three days, her deputy was stepping up to and having an increased day to day operational control. Two brand new team members were joining. A big shift!

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Great that there was a desire to do something proactive about this change and the why was clear.

The intended outcome took a bit longer to unpick. ?It was a combination of setting up, relinquishing some control, understanding the strengths and areas of development of the team, creating a vision for 2025, being united whilst also supporting and challenging each other.

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Where did we start?

We started by looking at individual values, then moved on to team values. I was challenged as to why we needed team values. Good question! Team values are only of benefit when they are agreed on collectively and everyone in the team can see where they fit in.

They are also a good point of reference to come back to when or if things get a bit” spiky” or uncomfortable.

In addition, we also explored what is what like to be part of a high functioning team and a dysfunctional team.

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Getting under the bonnet

All team members completed a self-assessment focusing on the frequency of specific types of leadership behaviour. This is part of the Resilient Leaders Development Programme. Become a resilient leader | Resilient Leaders Elements | Online Coaching Tool

This enabled us to explore where the strengths in the team were and where there was an area of development who in the team was the strongest. This coupled with feedback from colleagues enable the team to identify a team area of development, this happened to be self – awareness.

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Working to improve self-awareness

Over the coming four sessions ( a monthly two hour session) we really dived into exploring self-awareness through carefully planned tasks, activities, reflection and team coaching. It was uncomfortable, challenging, emotional and invigorated all rolled into one. There were indeed tears and uncontrollable belly laughing, but most importantly the team moved forward together and with an improved understanding of each other and themselves.

Questions were posed to each member of the team

“ How would you know I was stressed?”

“What do I need from you if I am feeling overwhelmed?

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The impact

The work of David Clutterbuck underpins much of my work with teams and whilst you can have a vague plan of what you might do and say, ?you never really know until you actually start working with a team.

The one thing I do know is that needs to be made crystal clear why you are working with them. ?Don’t leave a team guessing as they will come up with a million and one reasons why, but never the one you had in your mind. ?

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Should you wish to find out more about Leadership 43’s Optimise the Team development please do get in touch [email protected]