No time for heroes: creating effective high performing leadership teams
By Professor Peter Hawkins - Leadership Team Breakfast Seminar
© Bath Consultancy Group 2011
Three conditions necessary for
effective team coaching
• Shared endeavour – that the team can not achieve by working in
parallel
• An aspiration – to collectively achieve a level of performance
greater than at present
• An interest – in having help on the journey towards the
aspiration to fulfil their shared endeavour
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Questions to start our dialogue
1. What is going to be the biggest leadership challenge in your
organisation in the next two years?
2. In the light of that - What is your best quality question about
collective team leadership?
(a quality question is one where you do not know the answer,
there is not a yes/no answer, I can not give you a simple factual
answer, but one if we all struggle with everyone will learn.)
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How come?
• The UK government spent more on Leadership Development
between 1997-2010 than all previous governments put together
• Yet every department review reported that the senior leadership
team were not as effective as they needed to be?
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Beyond the heroic Chief Executive….
Why the world needs high performing teams
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The challenges for today’s leadership teams
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Managing expectations of different stakeholders
Both running the business and transforming it
Being members of multiple teams
Working with systemic conflict
The world becoming more complex and interconnected
Working virtually
The major challenges lie not in the parts but in the
interconnections
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Key trends in coaching
1. Focus on return on investments: Ensuring individual and
organisational benefit
2. Transformational coaching that delivers “shift in the room”
rather than just insight and good intention
3. Internal coaching communities
4. Manager as coach
5. Creating a coaching culture
6. Expectation of all coaches having supervision
7. Growth in team coaching, particularly on “coaching the team
at its edge” – how it engages with its key stakeholders
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Key stakeholder groups
Investors
Natural
Environment
Community in which
the organisation
operates
Suppliers
Partners
Customers
Staff
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Making sustainable change work
Strategy
Change
Culture
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Leadership
In what circumstances are the
following true?
a) 1+1+1+1+1+1 = 6
b) 1+1+1+1+1+1 = 2
c) 1+1+1+1+1+1 = 12
We understand ‘1’ but do we understand ‘+’ ?
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Myth of the ‘Lone Ranger’ – heroic CEO
“Our mythology refuses to catch up with us. And so we cling to the myth of the
Lone Ranger, the romantic idea that great things are usually accomplished by a
larger-than-life individual working alone. Despite evidence to the contrary –
including the fact that Michelangelo worked with a group of 16 to paint the
Sistine Chapel – we still tend to think of achievement in terms of the
Great Man or the Great Woman, instead of the great Group.”
Bennis 1997
“Not finance. Not Strategy. Not Technology. It is teamwork that remains the
ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.”
Patrick Lencioni (2002; vii)
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A high-performing team
“A team is a small number of people with complimentary skills who are
committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for
which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”
Katzenbach and Smith, HBR, March 1993
“…a high-performing team:
• effectively meets and communicates in
a way that raises morale and alignment
• engages with all the teams key stakeholder
groups in a way that grows performance
• and provides constant learning and
development for all its members and the
collective team.”
Hawkins, 2011
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The team performance curve
Performance
Impact
High
performing
team
Real team
Working
group
Potential team
Pseudo team
Team Effectiveness
(Katzenbach and Smith, 1993)
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Six conditions for senior leadership team
effectiveness
Real Team
The
Essentials
Right People
Compelling direction
Team Leadership
Solid
Structure
The
Enablers
Team Coaching
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Supportive
context
(Wageman et al, 2008)
Ten limiting mindsets in working
with team coaching
Limiting Mindsets
Antidote
1.
Team Coaching only needs to happen when the
team first forms
The best teams engage in life-long learning and
development
2.
Team Coaching only needs to happen when
things are getting difficult
If the first time you address relationship issues is in
the divorce court you have left it too late!
3.
The performance of the team is the sum total of
the team members performance
A team can perform at more than the sum of its
parts or less than the sum of its parts. It is important
to focus on the team added-value
4.
Team Coaching is about relating better to each
other
Team Coaching is also about how the team relates to
all its stakeholders and is aligned to the wider
organisation’s mission
Team Coaching is about the team having better
meetings
Team performance happens when the team, or subparts of it, engage with the teams stakeholders. The
team meeting by itself is the training ground, not the
match
5.
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Ten limiting mindsets in working
with team coaching
Limiting Mindsets
Antidote
Team Coaching only happens off-site in awaydays
Team Coaching can be assisted by off-site away-days
but the core development happens in the heat of
working together
Team Coaching is about the team trusting each
other
Absolute trust between human beings is an
unrealisable goal, particularly in work teams. A more
useful goal is the team trusting each other enough to
disclose their mistrust
8.
Conflict in teams is a bad thing
Too much or too little conflict are unhelpful in a
team. Great teams can creatively work through the
conflicting needs in their wider system
9.
“We are not a team unless we work at the same
things together”
A team is defined by having a shared enterprise that
can not be done by the members working out of
connection with each other
6.
7.
10. Team Coaching is an end in itself
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Team Coaching is only valuable when it is linked to
improving the team’s business performance
Aspects of team development
• Team development is the any process carried out by a team, with or without
assistance from outside, to develop its capability and capacity, to work well
together, with its joint task
• Team Building is any process used to help a team in the early stages of team
development
• Team Facilitation is when a specific person (or persons) is asked to facilitate
the team either a) to resolve a particular conflict or difficulty, b) to review its
ways of operating and relating, or c) to carry out a planning or strategy process
• Team Process Consultancy is a form of team facilitation where the team
consultant, sits alongside the team carrying out its meetings or planning
sessions and provides reflection and review on ‘how’ the team is going about
its task
(Hawkins, 2010)
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Team coaching
• “Direct interaction with a team intended to help members make
coordinated and task appropriate use of their collective resources
in accomplishing the team’s work.”
(Hackman and Wageman, 2005: 269)
• “Helping the team improve performance, and the processes by
which performance is achieved, through reflection and dialogue.”
(David Clutterbuck, 2007:77)
• “Enabling a team to function at more than the sum of its parts,
by clarifying its mission and improving its external and internal
relationships. It is different therefore from coaching team leaders
on how to lead their teams, or coaching individuals in a group
setting.” (Hawkins and Smith, 2006)
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The extended team coaching continuum
Team
Facilitation
Process Focus
at events
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Performance
Task and
Process Focus
Leadership team
Coaching
Transformation
Leadership Team
Coaching
Systemic Team
Coaching
Task, Process
And Stakeholder
Focus
Task, Process,
Stakeholder and
Organisational
Transformation
Focus
Task, Process,
Stakeholder and
Organisation
and system
Focus
Systemic team coaching
“Systemic Team Coaching is a process by
which a team coach works with a whole
team, both when they are together and
when they are apart, in order to help them
both improve their collective performance
and how they work together, and also how
they develop their collective leadership to
more effectively engage with all their key
stakeholder groups to jointly transform
the wider business.”
(Hawkins, 2011)
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The transformational leadership challenge
Please score the executive team between 1 (low) -10 (high) in each quadrant
Transformational
Change
2
4
5.3
1
Operational
Effectiveness
3
6.9
Working together
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3.8
5.2
Working apart
The five “C”s model of high performing teams
Task
2. Clarifying
1. Commissioning
5. Core
Learning
Inside
(within boundary)
(across boundary)
3. Co-Creating
4. Connecting
Process
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Outside
The five “C”s model of high performing teams
Task
Clarifying
Commissioning
Primary purpose
Goals
Objectives
Roles
Ensuring a clear commission for
the Team and contracting on
what it must deliver
Inside
Core Learning
Outside
Reflecting, learning,
integrating
(within boundary)
(across boundary)
Co-Creating
Connecting
Interpersonal
and Team Dynamics
Team culture
and engaging all the
critical stakeholders
Process
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Team coaching: process model
Contract
Inquiry
Diagnosis
Contract
Listen
Explore
Action
Review
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Initial clarity over desired outcomes from the team
coaching and ways of working
With team members, whole team, stakeholders etc.
Making sense of patterns where to focus
With whole team – outcomes, focus and ways of working
To the issues, the team dynamic and the context
The five disciplines and ways for the team to move forward
Choose a way forward and rehearse first steps
Review actions and get feedback
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Does your team
perform at more than
the sum of its parts?
What can you do
about this?
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Team questionnaire
• Complete the team questionnaire for a team that you currently work
with or are part of
• Choose 2 areas where you think the team most needs to raise its score
• Pair up and share the two areas you have identified.
‘Co-coach’ each other… coach asks other person:
– What is the shift required of your team to improve its performance
in these 2 areas?
– What is the shift required in you to generate this shift in the team?
– What will be your first step towards this once you leave this
seminar?
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Team performance appraisal
Goal
Indicator
Clear commission
1.
The team has a clear
commission and mandate
from the wider organisation
and those it reports to.
34 (3-4)
43
Commission collective
performance
2.
Achieving team goals is
recognised and rewarded
above achieving individual
goals.
26 (2-4)
38
Commission selection
3.
The team has been selected to
have a good range of
complementary skills
33 (2-5)
47
4.
All team members can articulate
and own the overall purpose.
35 (3-4)
41
Clarity of Purpose
Current Rating
1 low - 5 high
Required rating
5. The team is working towards
agreed goals in an effective
manner.
27 (2-3)
42
Clarity of Goals
Clarity of action
6.
The team commits to clear
actions with accountability and
follow through.
24 (1-3)
41
7.
Clear and shared ways of
working
25 (2-3)
39
8.
Team members are mutually
accountable for collective goals
25 (1-4)
44
9.
The team maintains a high level
of morale and commitment
30 (2-4)
45
Co-creating
Co-creating
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Team performance appraisal
Goal
Indicator
Current Rating
1 low - 5 high
Required Rating
Co-creating in meetings
10. Everybody is fully engaged and
involved, the team makes good
use of its diversity
28 (2-4)
43
11. The outcomes are better than
any individual could have
arrived at by themselves
25 (2-3)
43
12. Team members leave the
meetings feeling more focused,
supported and energised
27 (2-4)
41
13. The team members can engage
staff at all levels as
transformational leaders.
31 (2-4)
43
14. The team relates well to all its
key stakeholders and team
members represent the
whole team
25 (2-4)
41
Connecting with the changing
environment.
15. The team scans its stakeholder
environment and constantly
attends to changing needs and
perceptions
23 (2-4)
40
Core learning
16. The team regularly and
effectively attends to its own
development
17. The team attends to developing
each of its members.
18. All team members give good
real-time feedback and provide
support and challenge to each
other.
23 (2-4)
39
25 (2-4)
23 (2-3)
40
41
Connecting with staff
Connecting with Stakeholders
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The five disciplines of high performance
teams: scores
Task
Clarifying
86
Commissioning
93
Core Learning
Inside
Outside
Reflecting, learning,
integrating
(within boundary)
(across boundary)
Co-Creating
80/80
Connecting
79
Process
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Foundation trust – 5 key teams
– 6 critical relationships
Board5
E
E
C
Executive1
A
B
DIV2
DIV3
DIV4
D
Patients
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F
STAFF
F
Patients
Common interrupts of effective
team performance
Interrupts
Leadership Challenge
•
Lack of clarity of collective focus
•
•
Accountability only top down – not
across the team
Clarity of vision, engagement at emotional
level, communication
•
Aiming for agreement rather than
commitment
Assumptions about leadership from the
top/partner authority
•
Avoid content focus, addressing ‘conflict’
•
•
Doing to each other what others
do to us
•
Awareness of dynamics/relationship with
bigger system
•
Believing effective team meetings
= effective team
•
Seeing the bigger picture, leading ‘team
together’ and ‘team apart’
•
Agenda driven rather than outcome
driven meetings
•
Keeping focus on the ‘end in mind’
•
Seeing the power of dilemmas/working
with differences
•
Either/or solution debates
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Common interrupts of effective
team performance
Interrupts
Ignoring the smell of
the dead elk
Leadership Challenge
Courage - confronting
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But remember leadership is collective
“Leadership is both deeply
personal and inherently collective.
At its essence it concerns the
capacity of a human community
to shape its destiny and, in
particular, to bring forth new
realities in line with people's
deepest aspirations.”
Society for Organisational Learning, 1993
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If you have been …
… thank you for listening
If you want to follow up with a
conversation then –
please contact me:
[email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)7802 887418
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