Lost teams should ask directions

Teamwork stands unchallenged as the dominant model of modern organisational working life. Sadly, the growth and development of this pivotal working arrangement is all too often taken for granted or skimped. If that’s happening to your team it’s time to ask directions. Time to ask a coach.

At Management Futures we find teams and their leaders simply underestimating what’s needed to attain even basic effectiveness – let alone maximum performance potential, which is being wasted at a shocking rate. It is a waste arising from some commonly held but wildly mistaken assumptions.

Unhelpful directions

• That building team effectiveness is about ‘bonding’, a suspect new-agey concept involving blindfolds, group hugs and a reliance on easy emotionalism.
• That teams develop ‘naturally’ over time.
• That team development is risky because it might take the lid of a Pandora’s Box of hidden tensions and so expose some of the players (not least the boss).
• That a few matey evenings-out together will sort it.
• That theories don’t help – that the team works in a real world that no outside coach could understand.
• That team development is too expensive in terms of time and money.

Understandable assumptions, but misdirected and not what team coaching is about. Instead, think what the team or teams youare involved in might be like if some or all of the following were true, or truer.

Helpful directions

• What if you were absolutely clear and agreed on roles, processes, functions, priorities, best use of time and decision-making procedures?
• What if you worked with a collective will to raise your game, win and lift standards rather than rely on‘business as usual’?
• What if your own team role suited your strengths and talents, you were given full responsibility for it and the backing of your team-mates when needed?
• What if you were given full recognition for your contribution to the team?
• What if you spent regular time checking aspects of howyou are interacting –to make working relations robust, healthier and keep team motivation high?

How a team coach works

A team coach combines the roles of coach, facilitator and trainer to a team, over a period of time, starting from where you are, helping you to clarify concerns and set aspirations for development – then help you get there, with a mix of challenge, support, ideas and techniques, based on solid commitment, enthusiasm and integrity. Demand some or all of the following.

• Initial discussions with individual team members to establish their views, aspirations, even anxieties.
• A summary of issues they face and an agreement on whatthe team wants to work on and howthey want to approach achieving it.
• A contract made with the team on their commitment to its development.
• A discussion impartially facilitated over ‘tricky’ or sensitive interpersonal issues.
• A ‘look out’ role in helping the team recognise blindspots in their thinking, offering objective feed-back at every stage.
• A knowledge-source on team behaviours that work for other organisations.
• A monitor of the team’s progress and bringer of ideas, knowledge and thinking tools drawn from a range of subjects including psychology, organisational development and 1-1 coaching.

If you want a team that sees where it’s going, contact Management Futures on 020 7242 4030.