We are regularly asked to deliver team development for leadership teams that are great at managing, but less great at leading.

Here are some “red zones” we find are most in need to team development support.

Sound familiar?

Leadership teams often spend lots of collective energy polishing things that already exist. They seek efficiencies and lowered risk in known processes and existing products in the service of near-term targets.

They are also great at judging the efforts of their subordinates and the performance of their suppliers.

They are less confident about engaging into important and maybe difficult relationships inside and outside the team. And they are not confident about creating, simplifying and clarifying a collective view of the future. Or inspiring and energising their people for a risky journey.

These areas are difficult, scary and counter-intuitive to those with a management mind-set.

And yet, these areas define important chunks of what organisational leadership is all about.

What is going on!?

A number of things usually.

A lack of understanding about what leadership is about.

And fear.

Individual fear about “being found out” and a fear about engaging into real, challenging and creative dialogue. And collective fear about how to make sense of, and act decisively in a complex, unfolding environment.

The red zones!

Have another look at these two diagrams that we use for some of our team development work. The areas coloured in red are those aspects that we often find are most in need of team development support.

How much of your team’s collective energy do you spend courageously and productively in these areas?

What are you scared of? 

Fear is a choice.

What is on the other side of your fears?

What will you now commit to doing?

Dave Stewart

Managing Director, The Fresh Air Learning Company

Self-belief is a powerful force, both for individuals and teams.

Put simply; if you believe you can do something, then you’re probably right and yet if you don’t believe it, then you are probably right as well.

Without self-belief there is no tenacity, resilience, or inventiveness.

Difficult stuff doesn’t get done well.

You notice the lack of self-belief in the eyes, words and body language of people who give up when the going gets difficult. Some even give up at first base.

And let’s admit it.

Sometimes we are in one camp, and sometimes in the other. Seems as if we get to choose how successful we can be for different situations and tasks, right?

The great news is that it is possible to boost both your individual and team’s performance massively.

Studies (see Reference at end) have shown that work to target improvements in “efficacy”  can result in average gains of 28% in task performance.

And get this.

This 28% uplift compares to the lesser improvements associated with setting goals (10%), feedback (14%), and skills training (17%).

There is a place for all of these approaches, of course.

BUT how many organisations understand and actively invest in the development of task-based confidence and self-belief for individuals?

And how much less so for teams?

Well, we are teaming up with our good friends at ‘Milward, Consultants in Strategic Leadership’ to explore more about self and group efficacy in the coming weeks.

In the meantime try these three things, whether you are an individual or a team:

1. Go and do the actual task live. BUT do it with a learning frame of mind. Have a coach help you make sense of your mental approach as well as your performance.
2. Do a simulation of the task, or an activity that models aspects of the task. Involve movement, spark the emotions, and engage your spirit. If you have time run the cycle a number of times, each one slightly more challenging than the former. Again, use a coach to help you make sense of the experience. A great sequence is Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation, Cogitation and Celebration.
3. Surround yourself with great people who will consciously and unconsciously encourage your belief in task achievement.

And if this has sparked your interest, then read more about self-efficacy here by Andy Milward.

Dave

Dave Stewart                                                                                                                               Managing Director

Reference:

Stajkovic, A., Luthans, F. (1998) Self Efficacy and Work Related Performance: A Meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, Vol 124, No. 2, 240-261

Check out our TrekPrep video which shows how we help clients prepare for ambitious overseas treks and trips of a lifetime such as Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp, and Aconcagua. Get in touch to find out more info@freshairlearning.com

What kind of boxes are grabbing your attention this 2014 Boxing Day?

I am just in from a great walk during which two sorts of boxes came to mind.

Every Day A Boxing Day…

The neatly presented box which defines your business offering. The one that makes it easy and safe for customers to say, “Yes, that’s what I want. I want that one”.

And the other box, the one we want to think outside of.

Both are useful. It’s not “to box or not to box”. It’s more about thinking outside of one box to define the other box your customers will know and want you for.

A Boxing Day Offer…

Boxing Day is when many of us are out in the fresh air with friends and family.

What could it be like for you to think of every day as potentially a Boxing Day? Fresh air, fresh thinking, fresh conversations, fresh action?

We are offering Boxing Days out in the fresh air facilitated by our thinking partners. Days during which you can explore the boxes you need to be inside and outside of. For you and your leadership team. Anywhere in the UK.

See our Boxing Day offer here.

There is no charge for these high value days. But there is only a limited number on offer. Get in touch now to find out more.

…and what you need to do to make them winners!

This is not a comprehensive checklist, but this team building resource does include some of the strategies that great teams work hard at getting right. Some of the “fixes” are obvious and simple. Some need you to do things differently. Others need external help.

Download this FREE resource

You have built a successful business from scratch. It has been your drive, your capacity for problem solving, and your ability to put your arms around the whole enterprise that has got it to where it is now.

And you know that performance improvement is not sustainable, and you know you are the single point of failure. You are in a place of risk. Performance improvement, innovation and resilience risks.

And as you have brought people on board, and maybe established an executive board of directors, how have the conversations changed? Are you still directing what people need to do? Are you impatient with their grasp of the detail? Do you doubt their sureness of step?

How much trust is there in the room? How much trust-based challenge is allowed? How many fresh insights are generated together? How collective are the decisions? What then gets done with purpose and energy? How much freedom of action is there?

Performance improvement, innovation and resilience often start with the quality of conversations in the boardroom. What are yours like? What would a shift from “me and them” to “us” do for you and your business? How possible is this “letting go” for you?

Dave Stewart

The Fresh Air Learning Company

Remember when you first started off in business? Or started an exciting new project?

Passionately committed to an idea, but no real clue or particular care about the route you would take or what the journey would be like?

Just a burning desire to get underway. To develop momentum. A sense of excitement and adventure.

In charge and fearlessly out of control.

And the feeling a number of successful years later?

The one when consultants suggested they conduct some form of discovery exercise to find out “what’s going on around here” as a precursor to helping you make the next big step?

“I know exactly what’s going on around here. I just need you people to do this, and do that. I don’t need discovery. I need implementation!”

In charge and fearfully in control.

When did fearless become fearful? How did that happen? What did you gain? What did you lose?

Dave Stewart

The Fresh Air Learning Company