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The BIG mistake you’re making with your team...and what you should focus on instead

Writer's picture: Maggie Martin RileyMaggie Martin Riley

Do you know when people most often reach out to me for help with their team?


It’s when leading their team has turned from a headache to a migraine.


And I have so much sympathy for this.  


I’m currently sitting in an urgent care waiting room to be seen for a cough that’s gone on way too long.  It might have served me better to be seen a week ago!


Anyway,  if we could leave something behind as we embark on leading in this new year, can it please be feeling so urgent in our work that we wait until the house is on fire to give ourselves permission to slow down and make a plan?


As Benjamin Franklin said, “ An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”


This kind of prevention is needed when we think about our work with teams.


Here’s the most common approach I see leaders take with establishing teams:

  • One or two sessions focused on building team rapport and helping members like one another 

  • Meetings quickly become task focused bc the work is urgent and there’s a lot to do

  • When problems arise, the focus often becomes solving one-on-one relationship issues.

This approach that focuses on building the social cohesion of a team isn’t bad or wrong but it misses an essential element of a team and highlights our misunderstanding of what teams really need to work together.


Highly effective teams have strong mission cohesion. They have a clear sense of shared responsibility for their shared goal. 


In these teams the bond around the shared goal is more important than the bond between people.


I’ve worked with many teams where everyone really liked each other but they couldn’t seem to get much impactful work done. 


To build this mission cohesion, highly effective teams spend time establishing a common identity and articulating how their individual strengths will help them build toward their shared mission. 


Anita Williams Woolley is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business


Woolley recommends teams spend time building a team charter.  In the charter, the team identifies:

 

  • Who? 

    • Think roles and responsibilities

    • Clarity on individual strengths

  • What?

    • Goals and mission

  • How? 

    • Structures for decision making etc

.  

She also encourages teams to spend time doing a premortem where they imagine they failed and now have to diagnose what went wrong.


Now before you beat yourself up because you didn’t do this at the start of your work with your team, it isn’t too late!


Teams can do this work at inflection points and January is a great time off that.  


For some this is the beginning of the year, for leaders in school this is the mid year.  We are all at an inflection point and that’s when people are most open to change. 


If you feel ready to plan a reboot for your team, I’m here to help!  


I’m offering a Tricky Teams Coaching Intensive.  This is two weeks of highly supportive, one-on-one  coaching with me where we make a plan to take on your team's biggest challenge and transform it.


You can read more about the Tricky Teams Intensive HERE or you can book a 30 minute free consultation call with me HERE and we’ll talk about what is getting in the way of your team's success and what we can do now to increase the team’s effectiveness.


This year, we get to slow down and lead differently.


Your coach in leadership,


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