Not much beats being part of a team that works smoothly.
Have you tried it? Perhaps you can remember that everything seemed possible. You were powerful together and trusted each other. You listened and showed each other respect. You knew about each other’s strengths and weaknesses. You were busy creating something unique together. It was intense and exciting.
The secret of a well-functioning team lies in the team’s ability to communicate.
This means, for example, that you dare to be direct and open. That you are not afraid of conflicts when they inevitably arise. That you are good at showing joy, pride and enthusiasm when that is appropriate.
In a way, your team is at an exam every single day. There is always something at stake when people work closely together. Each and every meeting, conversation, and task solving makes you either stronger, that is, even more direct, confident and open, or weaker, because something in your communication is lagging behind. When that happens, suspicion creeps in and it gets harder to communicate respectfully with each other.
The perfect team does not exist. But there are well-established paths that help ambitious teams.
When we work with Team Performance in Leadership Lighthouse, we start from the often overlooked fact that a team consists of a number of individuals. Everyone has their individual needs, which must first be met before a strong team arises.
With inspiration from Drexler-Sibbet’s research in Team Performance, we help new and established teams. Each team member will be clarifying his or her own “membership.” Why did I end up in this specific team and how can I unfold my potential here? The next step is about creating confidence in the other team-members’ trust that the task that the team must solve together is meaningful and important.
Expect to be challenged when you work with us: How much will you be on your toes in order to succeed? How willing are you to open up, showing who each of you are, thereby strengthening the community? How brave are you and how far will you go in supporting each other?
You will often – but far from always – meet our 3-4 favorite tools, models and tests. First of all, we work with you, the team members, who are present. Your experience. Your core competencies. Your willingness to get the team to perform. Sometimes, when the collaboration goes awry, you may be getting a little stingy helping the others. We help you to divvy up and talk things through.
This is done at team sessions at your workplace or takes place at residentials either at Leadership Lighthouse’s forest property on Hærvejen or another suitable place. Sometimes we get help from external psychologists or soldiers. Perhaps the full program takes place outside, in nature. The possibilities are endless, the goal in turn quite narrow: you must succeed together. You will create results that will make you proud. Each and every member of your team will experience belonging. When you all do so, you can contribute exactly what each of you is particularly good at. Then almost anything is possible!
360° videoassessment
– input you´ll never forget
- How do your employees experience your leadership team?
- What about other important stakeholders – how do they look at you?
- Do you inspire the people you work with or do you turn your backs to them?
- What stories do others tell about you and your team – and what do they wish for when they work with you?
You will find out when your team accomplishes a 360° qualitative video assessment.
The measurement is straightforward and efficient. In your team, you select a handful of respondents that you ask for help by spending an hour being interviewed. Here they are asked how they experience collaborating with you. The more clearly they describe this, the more they will create value for you.
The interviews are recorded on video and edited into a 20-30 minute summary. Afterwards the team members and the Leadership Lighthouse meet and see the statements together.
Where do the respondents hit the spot? Where does it hurt? Where can you feel the pride and joy in what you are hearing?
Probably there will be several areas where you can do even better. You will formulate a development plan with specific areas of action, success criteria and deadlines. About six months later, a follow-up 360° video effect assessment is made with the same respondents to measure the effect and to identify new development potential.
Our qualitative 360° video team assessment aims for both the analytical and the emotional part of the brain. Images of living people with mimicry and voice have a strong effect in relation to learning, memory and motivation. You will receive data and impressions you´ll never forget.
As an added benefit, your respondents will also learn from the video interview, because they have to put precise words on both what works and what does not in your team. In that process it will be natural for them to also reflect on their own career and development.
The 5 parameters
– an imperfect recipe for leadership success
- What makes people working together become effective while maintaining a high energy level and a good tone?
- What do you and your team do to stay on top?
- What kind of leadership behavior do you demand from yourself – even on a cloudy day?
If you cannot answer these questions without hesitation, there is help: In Leadership Lighthouse we have developed an imperfect recipe for leadership success. Imperfect, because we do not really believe that leadership can be put on a formula. Nevertheless, we offer a kind of recipe, because we trust our specific experiences. These are supported by studies showing that there are 5 parameters that have a special effect in relation to creating strong results through leadership and collaboration.
Insistent trust
Infectious responsibility
Hopeful authority
Disciplined presence
Intelligent courage
How should the ingredients in the imperfect recipe be mixed together and how long should the pot be stirred?
That depends on the level of development in your team. Maybe you have dosed your confidence level just fine, but need a bit of clever courage and disciplined presence? Perhaps you are especially hungry to get more infectious responsibility? Perhaps you would like a thorough taste of all 5 leadership parameters?
When you and your team work with the 5 parameters, step one is a meeting with Leadership Lighthouse, where you present your mission and strategy and what success looks like for you. We will discuss whether the 5 parameters will create the strongest effect in training sessions / workshops / action learning / team coaching / etc. or in a mixed learning set-up. The recipe will never be perfect. But the 5 parameters offer the pivotal support for you and your team’s success.
Teambuilding
– your shortcut to an effective work life
What do you get paid for? A fair guess could be: to deliver a high quality professional effort and doing it in a way that makes your colleagues appreciate working with you.
You probably can’t get help from Leadership Lighthouse to strengthen your specific craftsmanship and professionalism. But we can help you and your team to work together in such a way that you create stronger results – and enjoy it while doing it.
It’s often about simple team virtues. First of all: how do you all communicate? Do you all listen or do you mostly wait for yourself to get a chance to speak? Do you have an appreciative work-environment? How good are you at showing each other respect and do you have a well-developed awareness of how you take responsibility? How much confidence do you have in each other?
You will experience doubt, resistance and disagreement – and you will be in challenging paradoxes you will resolve, supported by the team-virtues you develop further as we progress.
In this context, external support is an advantage. We call the type of teambuilding we specialize in: G-HiT. Translated from Danish it means “rediscovering each other-Teambuilding” /Genopdag HInanden Teambuilding). When people work closely together, the hustle and bustle of everyday life can cast shadows on the relationships with colleagues. We tend to focus on others’ limitations. G-HiT reminds us who the others are, with their individual stories and their particular talents.
Headlines from a typical G-HiT process:
Nature is essential – the biggest classroom of all. We work in the undisturbed surroundings of Leadership Lighthouse’s country-house on Hærvejen or at another suitable place. No matter where we are, we will focus on learning, on efficiency and on the combination of fun and seriousness. You are 100% guaranteed to leave the comfort zone. This is where learning sticks.
