Top Teams are Different

If you work with teams on their effectiveness and
performance then there are some standard tools in
your tool box. MBTI gets you into decision-making
preferences. Belbin's great on roles and contribution.
Simple models - like Bolton and Bolton's - help with
communication style and influencing. But top teams
are different. They need something more.

Top teams have to lead the organisation, not just
deliver a project or fulfill a function. They're full of
strong, successful, often competitive characters who
have personal responsibility for the delivery and
quality of a major chunk of the business. Teamwork
may not come naturally to them nor seem that high a
priority. But unless there is unified leadership,
turn-arounds, cultural change, or strategic shifts don't happen.

When the pressure  is on, teams can fragment. A top team that I am working with is
reeling from delivery pressure and a sharp staff engagement survey, looking to make
a strategic shift and instill new behaviours to support that shift. What do they need?
Four things have emerged as vital: trust, courage, skill and belief.

Trust in the integrity, competence, value and intentions of their fellow team members.
This means that, even if others' priorities and preferences are different to yours, and
their actions perverse (to you), you can look beyond the behaviour and find common
cause.

Courage, because this stuff can be personally challenging. Conflict is inevitable
(desirable even). It will get emotional (even if some like to pretend it isn't). And it
might feel easier to let things go and hope they'll improve. They won't, so stepping
up is necessary.

Skill, because becoming a top top team depends on the quality of the conversations
you have: harnessing your trust and courage to listen and speak well. These are the
top skills for top teams: insightful listening, fueled by a spirit of inquiry; and powerful
advocacy, driven by the desire to be properly understood.

And belief, because this stuff is hard and the outcome has to justify and inspire the
investment. So you have to believe in the prize, in what you can achieve and create
together. It takes full commitment to take on corporate leadership, grounding your
vision and values by modelling the behaviours they imply.

A heady cocktail: trust, courage, skill and belief.
And trust is the spirit that gives it its power.