The team improvement process – is there an elephant in the room?
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The situation:
M as the new MD sought coaching as he felt that after his promotion to MD there was tension in management meetings and he did not seem to engage the senior team in working towards an agreed shared purpose. -
The coaching objective:
After the retirement of the MD and an Management Buy Out the new management team had to find a way of collaborating and sharing accountability.
The situation
M as the new MD sought coaching as he felt that there was tension in management meetings. His successor had been able to make the team gel but M felt that as he was promoted to MD and others retained their positions in the senior team, there were different agendas and friction at times. He did not want to be seen as authoritarian but recognised that somehow the buy-in for collaboration and shared objectives was missing.
Working together
During our coaching sessions, we established that with the retirement of the old MD, the dynamics of the team had changed. M was now in charge and ultimately responsible and accountable for the results whereas in the past he was one of the leadership team but not with the MD hat on. Somehow the dynamics of being able to share concern, challenge each other whilst showing respect and trust had changed.
In honest conversations with his team individually and then collectively , M asked his team what they believed worked well and what they believed held them back from feeling comfortable to put forward ideas and share concerns/challenge.
Time to think was quoted by some, lack of information prior to the meeting were mentioned by others. Lack of purpose of a meeting was a third point identified.
Meetings were changed to have the purpose of discussing options, giving everyone a fair share of talking time, deciding on decision criteria and allowing challenge to take place whilst trusting that every piece of challenge was coming from a place of best intention.
Meetings were no longer places of disseminating information, team members were trusted to read the information beforehand, team members were held accountable for providing the information timely and on the basis that internal meetings are as important than external meetings and therefore the same etiquette was expected. Arrive prepared, on time and with your full attention.
The outcome
Team meetings became the place were challenge was encouraged, attendees could ask for time out to think to consider new views presented. Decisions to be taken were agreed at the beginning of the meeting and the meeting purpose was agreed upon at the start.
The systemic aspect
The team learnt that not naming the issue in a constructive and respectful way means that possible opportunities and threats to the organisation are not discovered and discussed. The team learnt to accept that decisions will generally be imperfect but if everyone is heard and has had an opportunity to provide input, then decision are likely to be more successful. The acceptance that everyone can have a viewpoint and bringing it to the table is beneficial to the success of the organisation led to open and honest discussions, shedding light at options from all angles.