Ready to health check your team?

How healthy is your team?

Most of us get our car checked once a year; we should be getting our bodies checked every few years;  and more and more leaders are being "encouraged" to do 360s regularly so they know how their leadership is perceived. 

So what about a health check of your team? You know, that group of people you and your organisation are relying on to do more with less.

What would a team health check look like?

Using 1 to 1 interviews (ideally) or an online survey, the whole team is asked for feedback on 

- the team's Purpose ( How clear is it? What is it? Is everyone going in the same direction? Is it compelling and aligned to the business? Do we have team goals that get reviewed regularly?)

- the team's Talent ( Does the talent match the purpose? Are individuals' skills being fully used? Are roles and responsibilities clear?)

- the team's Norms  (What are the conscious or unconscious rules of being in this team eg can the boss be challenged? How are decisions made? Are these norms productive or unproductive?)

- the team's Commitment ( Are individuals really committed to the team and it's success? What is the one team jersey people wear - of this team or some other team? Is the work of the team energetic and vital?)

- the team's Dynamics ( How is conflict dealt with? What are the patterns of energy in the team? What is the level of trust in the team?)

-the team's Core Learning ( How does the team learn from its successes and failures? Do team members give each other feedback?)

and of course, the life blood of any team; 

- the team's Performance/Results ( What are the team's performance measures? How are they assessed? Does the team get recognised?)

The individual team member responses are compiled through one to one interviews or via a survey, analysed, and then shared with the whole team, ideally as a one day workshop with the morning focused on the results (the range of scores within the team being as important as the average score) and the rest of the day focused on key gaps to develop and action planing. 

What are key conditions for a successful team checkup?

1. The whole team, not just the leader, needs to be up for it (nothing worse than having a blood test done when your veins don't want to be there) so it needs team commitment.

2. The leader needs to be prepared not to take anything personally - easier said then done sometimes as there may be implied criticism in the scores.  The leader needs to be able to role model the openness and courage it takes in having their team reviewed.

3. The leader is part of the team and definitely part of the diagnostic and debrief (I would have concerns if the leader didn't want to be involved or the rest of the team didn't want them involved - that's A&E material straight away for any team)

4. Teams don't exist in a vacuum - they are co-missioned by key stakeholders who have expectations of the team and who ultimately define team success or failure. Why not involve these stakeholders in the survey process so that their perceptions and expectations of the team are explicit and can guide the team.

Finally, self examination has its obvious challenges as we can be blind to certain things or not have the skill to explore issues.
An experienced team coach can bring the expertise and the external view that makes this a safe yet challenging process for any team, be they a new team, a stuck team  or even a perceived high performing team.

Health checks are about awareness - what is working, what needs to be improved. Isn't it time for your team to look in the mirror?

Televising your Team Meetings - what would the show be called?

The ideal is that Team Meetings are platforms for getting work done. A way for a group of people to deliver on their Common Endeavour, a demonstration of what they can achieve together as opposed to separately. Performing is key.

Everyone is engaged, excited to be there, stretched, challenged and challenging.

Yeah right!

I believe in everything I have written above and I work to help my team coaching clients to get there but practical experience shows that most team meetings are more likely to fall into the following categories;

Antiques Roadshow
Each meeting and every agenda is about the past - last week, last quarter, last year. What we did, why we did it, what worked, what didn't.

There is of course value in review and reflection but teams don't thrive and get energised on the past - teams perform on the now and for the future.  Death by looking in the rear view mirror


Winning Streak
I better give some context. This is an Irish tv show (but I am sure every country has one like it) where members of the public win, via a scratch card, a place on a TV show with the chance to win ten to fifty thousand euro via a spinning wheel and other random non skill related games.

But this program is so bad that despite the chance of winning big money most people I know would say that if they won the opportunity to be on the show that they would ask someone else to represent them as the personal shame and humiliation of appearing on it  would be too much. Even the presenters (large L for light, small e for entertainers) don't want to be there.

I see lots of Winning Streak meetings - no one wants to be there (watch the body language and the volume of email done during the meeting) or they keep sending someone else in their place. The kinder team members say things like "its only an hour a week", the less kind add up those 52 hours a year and day dream (while in the meeting) about how they could have been better spent.

The format is dull and unimaginative, no one knows the purpose of the meeting and no real work is done so there is no value.

The Apprentice
It is all about me showing everyone how clever I am and maybe, as a bonus, showing how clever you are not. People grab every opportunity to hold the microphone and convince themselves and others how great they are.

While one person is talking, everyone else is preparing their own speech or looking for attack points in what is being said.

Being visible to the boss is the key objective of a few while the silent majority are ....silent...either because they don't want to play the game or the risk of being stabbed in the back is too high. And the boss - they are either blind or get a kick from the fake hero worship.

Concepts such as common purpose, common accountability, common responsibility flee after the first meeting.

Shooting Stars
This is a comedy game show populated with celebrates. And from there it just descends into chaos and madness with the resulting look of confusion and nervousness on the faces of the celebs.

I love it as a show but as a team meeting nothing is ever achieved in the chaos of is the meeting on or not, who is or is not attending, will the boss turn up and what will be today's crisis or key imperative compared to the different crisis and key imperative of the week before and the week before.

No team norms, no acceptable or unacceptable behaviour and often just turns into a bitching and moaning session.


So which tv shows do the meetings you attend resemble?

In or Out of the Swimming Pool

We have been trying the find the right swimming class for our young boys  - a class where they will obviously learn, have fun and of course be safe.

And after trying out a number of options and talking to other parents, a key differentiator has emerged and it is this - does the instructor get into the pool or not.

I have been amazed at the number of classes where the teacher stays at the edge of the pool and tells the kids in the water what to do. In or Out? - it seems a no brainer which would be most effective and that is what we have found in terms of which classes helped the boys learn and have fun.

So it got me thinking about whether we in our roles as leaders and managers perform our roles in or out of the pool.

Do you stay out of the pool?- spend a lot of time in your office, lot of time in meetings that are not at the coal face, find yourself giving lots direction and instructions through email? All important and justifiable (but then I am sure the swimming instructors have their good reasons for not getting into the pool too).

What would being in the pool more look like for you?

• Attending customer meetings with your team?
• Attending meetings with the customers of your internal customers?
• Shadowing a key stakeholder for a morning?
• Walking around the factory or office floor and making time to talk to the team?
• Committing to and doing 1 to 1's?
• Having skip level meetings with the folks a few levels below you?
• Have lunch with your people as opposed to at your desk?

Does this make a difference?  It sure did for my kids and their swimming (they have made leaps and bounds since moving to a class with the teacher in the water with them). But in business?

The Sales Executive Council published research that a sales team performance went up 17% just from 2 hours a month of coaching from their manager.

So Summer is here (kind of) - why not pull on your leadership speedos (no one will see them I promise) and get into the water with your people.

Resurrecting your career by following the rules of the stock market

It's resurrection time as mother nature comes back to life after the Autumn and Winter recess.

So let's look at a common coaching challenge I often see - resurrecting one's career in your current organisation.

The fact that one's career needs help can often catch you unawares, like the lobster not noticing the rising temperature of the water around it in the pot.The awareness that there's an issue often comes from some form of comment or feedback from a boss or senior stakeholder  through a process like a 360. 

The analogy I use with clients who find themselves in this situation is that of their personal stock price. Historically they have experienced career advancement,  their stock price consistently rising. But now suddenly we discover that people are selling as opposed to buying the individual's stock.

Here are the steps I advise my clients to follow to get their career growing again

1. Get to the issue.

Be relentless in finding out what the perceived problem is - why is your stock price falling. Even if you have feedback, go back and get even more specific feedback. The more data you have on why people have a specific perception of you and your career, the more focused you can be in addressing the perception.

2. Identity the institutional investors in your career.

Stock prices are not based on individuals like you and me trading - its all about the pension funds and the big institutional shareholders - their decisions move the market. So as opposed to convincing the whole organization how great you are, identify who the big institutional investors are in your career. This may or may not include your manager depending on how senior they are. Very often it is some key folks a couple of levels above you in the company.

3. Get a sponsor to help you demonstrate value to the institutional investors. 

Companies need intermediaries to get them in front of investors and venture capitalists. So do you. Who is going to get you in front of the senior people while also selling your worth to them when you are not in the room. This is were a supportive boss or mentor can really help you.

4. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.

Wall Street does not support a stock just because they like you or think that you may have value - they buy based on stated intentions, follow through on those intentions, demonstrated results and constant communication of all these. You need to start broadcasting to your sponsor on a regular basis so they can both sell you and challenge negative perceptions about you that come up in senior leadership meetings. And you need to broadcast, on an appropriate basis, to the big investors in your organisations to show them your impact and value. This is not PR over results - it is visibility into your results.

The four steps above have helped my clients get focus and leverage to rebuild their personal stock price.

But! But if the above steps represent plan A, I always encourage my clients to start building a plan B no matter how tentatively. Sometimes the perception is so ingrained with very senior people that at some point one needs to be able to cut ones loses and go elsewhere. In other words, you need to think about refloating your stock in a new market.

PS: the other bit of resurrection going on here is with my blog which has been dormant for over a year. I want to try and make it a more regular process for me

Two lessons I learnt last month from Mai and Dave;

1. Don't write for perfection - just put your thoughts out there i.e. let the writer me, not the editor me, own this process.

2. Write for a few mins every day - something will come out of the simple discipline. 

The Steve Bennett Leadership Basics - what Symantec can expect

The recent appointment of Steve Bennett as CEO of my former employer Symantec has got me reaching for one of my favourite books on the software industry – “Inside Intuit – How the Makers of Quicken beat Microsoft and Revolutionised an Entire Industry

Steve Bennett was CEO at Intuit for eight years . In that time he grew Bennett left Intuit in December 2007 after serving as president and CEO for eight years. revenue grew to $2.7 billion in fiscal 2007 from less than $1 billion in fiscal 2000. He also led Intuit to being in Fortune Magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For” list for six consecutive years.

One chapter in “Inside Intuit”, called The Bennett Basics, may give Symantec employees a clue to what to expect from their new leader.

Leveraging his 23 years at GE under Jack Welch, the chapter identified Bennetts key leadership principles;

Set A Tone – a leader’s personal intensity determines an organisation’s intensity.

Maximise an Organisations Intellect – take everyone’s best ideas and transfer them to others.

Put People First and Strategy Second – getting the right people in the right seats is crucial to the success of any strategy

Foster Passion – winners care more than anyone else

Reach For More Than What Seems Possible – when the leader stretches, the whole organisation stretches.

The Steve Bennett Basics of Leadership - what Symantec can expect

The recent appointment of Steve Bennett as CEO of my former employer Symantec has got me reaching for one of my favourite books on the software industry – “Inside Intuit – How the Makers of Quicken beat Microsoft and Revolutionised an Entire Industry"

Steve Bennett was CEO at Intuit for eight years . In that time he grew Bennett left Intuit in December 2007 after serving as president and CEO for eight years. revenue grew to $2.7 billion in fiscal 2007 from less than $1 billion in fiscal 2000. He also led Intuit to being in Fortune Magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For” list for six consecutive years.

One chapter in “Inside Intuit”, called The Bennett Basics, may give Symantec employees a clue to what to expect from their new leader and his playbook.

Leveraging his 23 years at GE under Jack Welch, the chapter identified Bennetts key leadership principles while at Intuit;

Set A Tone – a leader’s personal intensity determines an organisation’s intensity.

Maximise an Organisations Intellect – take everyone’s best ideas and transfer them to others.

Put People First and Strategy Second – getting the right people in the right seats is crucial to the success of any strategy.

Foster Passion – winners care more than anyone else.

Reach For More Than What Seems Possible – when the leader stretches, the whole organisation

Review of "Creating a Coaching" by Peter Hawkins

The concept of a coaching culture existing within an organisation has become a hot topic in recent years as the suppliers and buyers of coaching seek to move beyond the historical 1 to 1 coaching format and explore how coaching can impact the many as opposed to the select few.   However much of the discussion I have seen on coaching culture has lacked research and practical case studies and hence it has begun to take on the characteristics of other Holy Grails within organisational development that have come with great fanfare and gone with an embarrassed silence.   Peter Hawkins has taken the concept on in this book (Creating a Coaching Culture)and, through a combination of a well-structured framework, numerous case studies and his usually high standards of research and practical experience, has given CEOs, HR Directors and external coaches lots of practical ideas and models about creating a culture of open and honest dialogue within teams, functions and organisations and beyond to customers and stakeholders.   I personally really enjoyed the excellent deconstruction in the final chapter of coaching culture down to its rawest and most meaningful form  - that of better quality dialogue in day to day situations, be it in team meetings, performance reviews or in the corridor. My corporate clients will see more tangible value in the idea of better dialogue than they will in a something called coaching culture.   The book is an easy read and very engaging and has challenged me as an external coach to add more value to my corporate customers. I will be sharing the book with clients as they look to move beyond coaching being often one off engagements. I will also be recommending it to participants on the postgraduate programme on executive coaching that I lecture on as the best discussion and analysis of what coaching culture is and can be out there so far.   I finished the book feeling excited about the possibilities of coaching in organisations. Peter Hawkins has moved the discussion on coaching cultures from one of aspiration to one of possibility.