In a team development session, two people in attendance had each decided the other was difficult to work with. Over time, they had found ways to avoid each other. They scheduled around each other, routed work through other people, and divided projects in ways that looked like thoughtful delegation but were really just avoidance. What the Room Revealed Partway through the session, we asked each person to reflect in writing on three things: what they …
During a recent succession planning session, I asked the room a simple question: what are you actually trying to build, a replacement, or leadership capacity? No one answered right away. Not because the question was hard, but because most organizations have never actually separated those two ideas. The Trap Most succession planning starts the moment someone is expected to leave or already has. A retirement is approaching, a key role feels vulnerable, a high-potential employee has been identified. The conversation almost always narrows to …
In a recent engagement with a large enterprise organization, an engineer on the leadership team had a moment of real clarity about himself. He realized that every time a colleague brought something into the conversation that wasn’t a hard fact, a hunch, a wider view, a sense of where things might be headed, he pulled the conversation back to facts. Every time. From where he sat, it had always looked like his colleague kept drifting off track. …
Work with teams and individual clients is a confidential process. Rarely is there an occasion for a coach to share by demonstration how they do what they do. What can be shared is a conversation on team coaching featured on this podcast hosted by Gary Nowak. In it, you will hear from me and my colleague Lisa Walsh. You can witness the different stages of a team as we form, do a little storm, and …
There is no “I” in team. But every individual in every team needs to have awareness of their “I” in order to be a strong and contributing team member. “I” in this case is knowing your strengths, weaknesses, preferences and your common stress responses as you work in a team. It sounds like: Teammate 1: I am good at seeing the big picture and can lose sight of the details. I prefer working more of …
What do you see in the photo above? A team that appears to be interested and engaged in what is being discussed. But a picture can be misleading…very misleading. What if the leader is simply telling the other members of the team what will occur? That changes the entire dynamic of what we think we see. And that is just what many have experienced when working as part of a team. Perhaps you can relate. …
