When I first started working full time as a leadership and executive coach twelve years ago, because of my footballing background, I was asked to come and do some work with a football team. They were struggling for form even though they had many talented players.
Before the first session I spoke with the Manager about what the reason for the downturn in form might have been and we began to speak with each of the players individually to ascertain their view on how the year was going. It was interesting to hear what each person had to say, and it was great spending a little time to get to know them.
It was when we went into the meeting room that I noticed something that was enlightening for me. There were groups of four players sitting at different tables, some distance apart from the others. Senior players were sitting together and young players sometimes sitting alone. This was a clue as to what might be contributing to the issue. When we began to discuss the year with the collective, I heard blame from defenders to the midfielders and attackers and vice versa. There were players attempting to elevate either their own or their small groups` contribution, at the expense of some of those around them. It was clear that they lacked trust, communication, and cohesion.
Think about the team meetings or board meetings that you attend:
- What behaviours do you see being demonstrated in these meetings?
- What impact does this have on your energy?
- How committed are you to this team/board’s success?
- How committed are you to the other members of the teams` success?
When I have worked with teams in a business and leadership setting as well as in sports, the intent for success is often there. There is often a genuine desire for people in the team to succeed. What can sometimes be missing is either alignment to a vision and goals, an inflexibility to external forces and there is a lack of trust.
Without a regular check in on trust within a team, sometimes the behaviours described above can creep into the arena and before you are fully aware, then these start to become the culture. If the culture begins to become energy zapping, then the following problems can arise:
- No cohesion, leading to reduced productivity. When team members do not collaborate effectively, tasks take longer to complete, and efficiency suffers.
- Missed deadlines and failure to achieve goals. Poor communication, lack of coordination, and internal conflicts contribute to delays.
- More conflicts, disagreements, and tension (which often happens outside of the room). These negative interactions hinder progress and create a toxic work environment because once people start gossiping to you, you can guarantee it will be about you once your back is turned.
- Low morale and negative impact on well-being: Disengaged employees are less motivated to perform at their best, affecting overall team performance. If this is impacting on your top talent, it is likely that they will leave to join a competitor.
- Poor results.
As a leader, it is vital that we help the team create the right culture. If we sense we are heading towards an undesired culture, consider some of the below to help change this quickly.
- Give time for the team to get to know each other properly.
- Clarify the purpose of the team.
- Identify the shared values of the team and each member within it.
- Agree very clear ways of working together centered on behaviours.
- Gain an independent perspective. This is a brave and valuable move to understand what your people, your stakeholders and your customers think that this team does well and what the team needs to work on. This can often be done via 360-degree feedback exercise. This is brave because it may highlight some things we may not want to hear but it will give us an external perspective on how this team is viewed. I have run this many times with teams and this has been both insightful and transformational.
I worked with the football team for a few months and loved every minute of it. I got to know them individually and began to understand that they wanted collective success. My intuition was telling me that the previous behaviours being displayed were steeped in fear. (Fear of losing their status, fear of losing their place in the team, fear of change) These are all legitimate fears and once we uncovered these and discussed how they were either no longer merited or could be re-framed, we began to see people’s barriers go down. This takes a little time, but it is worth every minute spent in getting to understand our people.
One person, in particular jumps out. They were highly ambitious and had determination to progress. They said they “would succeed with or without the team.” I loved the fact that they were backing themselves and they were clearly passionate, but I offered another view for their consideration: “This is a team game. Who will pass you the ball? Who will get the ball back with you? We should always cherish our team-mates. Firstly, we can learn from them to become even better. Secondly, without the team we are not successful, and thirdly, we may create successful relationships that will last for a very long time.”
Deep down they were an excellent group of people who wanted to succeed. They just needed to understand the importance of winning together, which they did consistently once, trust, value and rapport had been established. Once the right culture was established, we found that people wanted to join the team rather than looking for ways to transfer out of it and the subsequent performances and results improved.
Please reflect on the following questions:
- How much do your team trust each other?
- How much do your team learn from each other?
- If I was to observe your team, what behaviours might I notice?
- What is your contribution to the team in its current state?
