Team Leadership

The first function of a leader is to lead their team - beyond the individuals within it. It may sound obvious but it is complex, and effective Team Leadership is hard to come by. 

The fact is that no matter how brilliant your people are, they will not deliver to their full potential or be greater than the sum of the parts unless they work effectively together towards the wider purpose of the whole organisation. 

“It’s better to have a great team than a team of greats.” —Simon Sinek

And, the first function of a leadership team, including the CEO, is to enable the conditions for the organisation to flourish, including removing barriers to success. 

As an Executive Coach and Team Coach, I have the privilege of seeing right into the heart of organisations, sometimes in a way that they don’t yet see themselves. 

The theme of ‘teams’ has been omnipresent in so many of the conversations I’ve been having recently. So, here’s my attempt to make sense of what I’m seeing and offer food for thought, as always, leveraging the work of experts as I go. 

What’s going wrong?

Here are some of the things I am noticing that prompted me to write:

  • Over-investment in operational management - Senior Leadership Teams spending hours in meetings, fighting for air space, working through highly operational tasks/decisions that do not require them to be in the room together - but feeling productive because they are so busy! 

  • Under-investment in strategic leadership - Senior Leadership Teams rarely/never taking the time to invest in big picture thinking & co-creation - collaboratively solving problems or improving systems. 

  • Overly individualistic accountability systems (think KPIs, targets) that incentivise people to work in silos, fight over resources and blame each other for the things that are not good enough that sit outside of their department. For more on this, click here

  • Teams lacking focus and structure within which to prioritise, make decisions and communicate with one voice with the wider organisation (and beyond) - as a result of a lack of clarity around purpose. 

  • The absence of a team where a team is needed to ensure joined up working, alignment in communication and efficient cross functional systems that enable the wider organisation to perform well. 

  • Team members not feeling psychologically safe to challenge each other or be open about their mistakes and concerns - sensing that it’s too risky to be honest because, chances are, it will backfire. 

What does a highly effective team look like? 

So, if those things are not desirable, what are we aiming for? 

According to experts, such as Patrick Lencioni, David Clutterbuck, Vanessa Druskatt, Peter Hawkins, Liane Davey and many others, highly effective teams have a few things in common. The following draws heavily on the work of Peter Hawkins and my own experience. 

They have a clear, shared team purpose

Highly effective teams can articulate their reason for being - they are clear on what they have been set up to do. Their team purpose is fully aligned with the organisational purpose - but they are not the same thing. 

The purpose of a team will always be in service of their stakeholders. So, in seeking clarity, teams must consider, understand and validate their purpose as it pertains to all stakeholders - employees, board members, clients, beneficiaries, customers, investors, communities, etc. 

I often find that when I ask members of the same team about their purpose, I hear different answers. 

Also, team purpose can (and should) change to adapt to the evolving needs of stakeholders so it’s always worth exploring this regularly, even in well-established teams. 

Your purpose is your north star, guiding you to focus on the right things, at the right time, in the right way. 

Questions to consider:

  • What do our stakeholders need us, as a team, to achieve together? 

  • What is it that can not be achieved anywhere else in the organisation but in this team? 

  • What is our contribution to enabling the success of the whole organisation? 

They know what they need to do to achieve their purpose

Having a purpose is only the beginning - a necessary but insufficient condition. Highly effective teams translate the purpose into clear roles and responsibilities - for the team as a whole and the individuals within the team - which they co-create together. 

They set clear expectations and establish systems and processes to achieve their purpose collaboratively - in ways they can not do if they operate in silos. 

Questions to consider:

  • What do our stakeholders need us to do in order to achieve our purpose?

  • What is it that can not be done by anyone else/any other team? 

  • What do we need to do in this team to enable the conditions for the organisation to thrive? 

They are clear on how they work together to achieve the purpose

This bit often gets overlooked in favour of the ‘doing’ but it is absolutely critical to team success. So much time is spent mopping up sub-optimal decisions and poor communication as a result. 

High performing teams talk about how they work together - they establish expectations around behaviour, norms and culture together. They hold each other accountable for the agreements they put in place.  

For example, they talk about how they run their meetings and what they need from each other for the team to be successful. They consider how they need to show up and the qualities they need to demonstrate as they work together towards the common purpose. They call out behaviour that does not align. 

They also “embody the spirit of the team when they are not together” (Peter Hawkins) and in doing so, they amplify the collaborative, collective value of the team within and outside the organisation. 

Questions to consider:

  • What do we need from each other to do our best work together?

  • What might get in the way of us doing our best work together?

  • How do we want to support and challenge each other? 

  • How do we need to ‘be’ with our stakeholders to amplify the value of the team outside the team?

None of this happens by accident - the role of the team leader is critical. 

What do highly effective teams need from their leader?

Own the process

The team leader is responsible for ensuring clarity of purpose and facilitating the process of co-creation of what the team does and how they do it, sometimes with the support of an external facilitator or coach. 

The team leader is also responsible for managing the change process that will lead to the team working more effectively together. This includes holding themselves and the team accountable for the change. 

In practice, this means that they hold the contract on behalf of the team, at least in a first instance. They remind people to come back to purpose, they challenge behaviour that does not align with the charter, they ‘call out’ what they see and invite conversation about what is ‘really going on’. They invite the team to do the same and show gratitude when they do. 

Know thyself and show up authentically 

Teams need their leader to be self-aware - to know their triggers, to recognise their armoured responses, to name them and to choose to step into their adult ‘ego state’ where they can be: Calm, Clear, Curious, Courageous and Compassionate.  

This is important because one person’s armour is another person’s trigger (Brassy, J. et al, 2022). If one member of the team armours up because they feel threatened, it will trigger another - and so it goes, rippling through the team and shutting down all curiosity and creativity. There can be no healthy discussion when people are operating from fear. For more on this, check out this post

When the leader is open and honest about their triggers and their armour, the team can do the same and all members can support each other to shift into 'learning'.

Model the behaviours you want to see in others - especially vulnerability  

Perhaps most importantly of all, the team leader needs to model the behaviours they expect in others. They need to: 

  • Think & act strategically

  • Share the organisational dilemmas

  • Problem-solve collaboratively

  • Be curious and non-judgemental

  • Invest in team dynamics

  • Give and receive feedback to/from each other with positive intent

  • Be vulnerable and willing to have courageous conversations

The most important behaviour for a team leader to model is vulnerability as it is the foundation for trust which is the fuel of high performing teams. Without trust, there is no team. For more on this, check out the work of Patrick Lencioni and Brene Brown. 

“teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” ― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

For more on this topic, check out this post.

There’s so much to consider when it comes to team leadership, I could go on but I’ll leave it here for now. 

Team coaching is one way of investing in your team. If you’re intrigued and want to find out more, send me a message and let’s chat. 

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Stress management in leadership