With the uncertainty that still exists around, “what’s next”, COVID, flu season, war, threats, politics, and how we work, leaders are looking, more and more, to coaches for a dependable, reliable, impartial, skill enhancing, confidential relationship that can form part of their personal Board of Directors.
If you ever really want to build a “real team” on purpose, you will have to give them space!
A real team needs to build their own purpose, share information and communicate in ways not generally the norm in most businesses these days and they need to figure out how they work best together. As the senior leader commissioning this team, give them the space to do these things!
For me, I still don’t get it when people don’t want to do things together or contribute. I feel a little lost, uneasy and often wonder why not? I am predisposed to be part of a team and contribute to “others”. When I am in situations where people are resistant to being supportive of the collective to achieve a specific goal, I feel at a bit of a loss.
In one of my last articles I talked about teams and one of the most crucial parts of forming a team is that every member of the team, for most of the time, puts the team objectives ahead of their own. And, they don’t break trust with the team.
Both of these things are really difficult for people at times when they work in a low trust, low team environment. This week I saw an episode of “Seal Team” on TV called Fog of War. Looking past the drama of a Seal team on crazy missions, this episode was about putting the team and trust first!
In a team, especially in a high performance oriented team, a key tenet is that team members put the objectives and goals of the team above their own for most of the time! (check out my LinkedIn Group on High Performance) .
Potentially this sets up a direct conflict with our identities. If our identities are powerful and central to us, putting the team first is going to be tough, especially where that requires us to do things or behave differently than our identity says we should.
