You lead individuals and you lead a team. 1-1 conversations are important. And team conversations are just as important. The team is its own entity. Sure, it is made up of individuals, but when they are interconnected, there is a system that needs attention.
- What does the team need to function at its best?
- What conversations do you have about how the team works together (vs what the team is working on)?
- What do they each need from each other to do their best work? What ways of working will help them and hinder them? For example:
- “Structure and schedule for meetings
- Acceptable behaviour during meetings
- Preferred methods for communication and the norms around how to use them
- Timeliness of responding to one another using those methods
- Use of common resources, human or otherwise
- Availability of team members during non-work hours
- Level of freedom in which team members can engage one another’s staff
- Extent to which being on time is a priority” (Lencioni)
- What would enable them to trust each other?
- What are the communication norms for the team? Are those working? What could be improved?
- How compelling are meetings? Are important items always brought to the team for discussion?
- How will they debate ideas openly? How will they work with and through conflict, seeing it as a healthy part of debate? Can they be honestly confronting?
- What are the decision-making processes for this team (no assumptions remember – they may be very different from previous teams)? How will they get commitment to decisions?
- How will they hold each other accountable?
- How often and sincerely do they apologise to the team when they have made a mistake?
- How will they focus on collective results?
- What is their purpose as a team?
- “Why does the team exist?
- Which behavioural values are fundamental?
- What specific business it is in?
- Who its competitors are?
- How it is unique, compared to its competitors?
- What it plans to achieve, this month, this quarter, this year, next year?
- What are the metrics?
- Who is responsible for what?” (Lencioni)
Some of these questions are inward facing, some outward. Some are about results, some about relationships. All are necessary. Discussing tasks only will not get you the productivity that you desire.
If you want to work on your own Human-Centred Leadership, through coaching or team coaching, please get in touch via clare@clarenormancoachingassociates.com.
Here are the links to the previous blogs in this series:
Human Centred Leadership
Why Human Centered Leadership Matters
Human Centred Leadership Your Stakeholders Needs
