Refreshing Your Own Leadership and Team Dynamics

Recently I've started a bi-monthly training session with the managers that report to me to focus in on leadership qualities and training. Essentially the thought process is to take time away from their daily grind so that they can focus on their own leadership, benefiting those that work with them and for them.

Like you can imagine, taking this time together has been very transformative, not only for them, but for me. Something about teaching leadership, makes you think of the basic principles that you are aware of that made you successful in the first place. Focusing on these tips and techniques with my team members is not only passing it along, but allowing them to hold me accountable as a leader to walk my talk.

This week our focus was on team dynamics and how there are 5 dysfunctions that can derail any team. These five I've taught for years from Patrick Lencioni's Book, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. What Lencioni does that is unique is he writes short fables for you to learn these concepts as well as have a great wrap-up chapter in the end of each of his books that sum's up what he is saying. He also has a guide if you are going to be teaching or running exercises associated with these principles which is fabulous.

So what are the 5 dysfunctions?

• Absence of Trust - Think about it, when teams have a lack of trust in each other they spend wasted time and energy questioning each other instead of focusing on their primary task at hand. They also don't discuss the most important issues at hand because they usually don't trust that they will be able to resolve them and move on.
• Fear of Conflict - Teams that fear having conflict with each other usually have what is called "artificial harmony". In this situation everyone acts like everything is fine but then a small subset of group members talk off-line or behind the scenes about how they really feel instead of bringing it up in the group setting. Absence of trust and fear of conflict sometimes go hand in hand as you usually don't have one without the other.
• Lack of Commitment - When teams are not committed to each other they often don't agree and determine a plan of action. They often don't have buy-in nor do they feel very clear about the direction they are headed in.
• Avoidance of Accountability - In this scenario, the blame game is happening. It is always someone else's fault instead of looking at yourself for how you are contributing to the problem. Not taking ownership or responsibility is a perfect way to make sure that your team has accountability issues.
• Inattention to Results - When teams don't pay attention to results it sometimes can be because it is undefined but it could also be because there is a lack of commitment or avoidance of accountability. When a team is not clearly upset when they don't achieve a goal it is clear that they have an inattention to results.

We discussed the above and how they can impact a leader when they have these things as an undercurrent running within their teams. Bottom line, it drains energy from you as a leader, impacts the overall success of your team and the organization that you work for.

This made me think allot about my own leadership style and how I can more effectively manage the anxiety level of those on my teams by making sure we have defined results that we are driving for and an environment in which others can have conflict, trust and be held accountable.

I'll be posting more on this training series that I am doing, next training will be focused on the Emotional Process Leadership Model EPLM . I would recommend you giving this white paper a read, as it really helps you define how important focusing on your own leadership and anxiety can contribute to the successful leadership of others.