Using EMAIL for team development.

We're all part of numerous groups, be they familial, social, professional or others and within each of these groups, there will be someone who operates in a leadership capacity, either through an external appointment, internal election or some other form of nomination.

Throughout life?though, we've all seen that our groups work best when multiple group members bring their different skills and talents to the fore and are allowed to excel in their spheres of expertise.

In the 1970s, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team identified 9 roles which brought different contributions to the overall team dynamic. They observed that high-performing teams have the greatest chance of success when all the roles were fulfilled by someone in the team. There are those who help the team gel, those who keep the team focused, those who have specialisms in one or other area etc.

From that perspective, our teams are full of leaders, albeit in their individual areas of strength. Gathering the collective wisdom of the leaders within our teams will not only get us to successful delivery in the shortest time scale, it will improve engagement and motivation within the team, it will reduce stress and friction and it will allow personal growth for the individuals within the team, thus bringing out the development we're looking to stimulate.

So how do we achieve that development through EMAIL? By looking at our teams and considering Every Member An Inspirational/ Impactful/ Innovative/ Insightful/ Independent/ Interdependent/ Influential/ Interesting Leader. Every one to one, team meeting or department gathering represents an opportunity to develop the leaders within the team, to inspire those around them, to bring impact to what's happening, innovating solutions based on their insights, to give them the independence to work things through, knowing that they may need to depend on others do deliver, influencing outcomes in new and interesting directions.?

This works just as well when we're a team member. From the CEO deferring to the Chief Product Officer on market direction or to the Chief Technical Officer on an IT architectural decision, through all manner of delivery teams across our companies. When we enable the leaders in our teams to bring their process improvement ideas and problem solution suggestions forward, we facilitate that team development we're looking for, we reduce the dependence on individuals so that our organisations are more resilient, we create the opportunity to learn from the good practices which have been seen elsewhere and we get value to the customer quicker.

Since you want your team to develop, try using EMAIL.

#leadershipdevelopment #growthmindset #collaboration