FROM DYSFUNCTION JUNCTION TO TEAM SYNERGY

How would you describe the nature of your Leadership team dynamic? Where would you rate your team on each of the five functions listed in this blog?

There comes a time in every founder or CEO journey when they realise they can no longer lead alone.  To get the job done, they need a leadership team to share the responsibility of inspiring and aligning their teams to achieve the organisation’s objectives.

To build a leadership team is to sound a tone that resonates throughout the whole organisation. The way leaders lead and interact, set the example for employees and ultimately determine the quality of the customer experience.

Leadership teams exist to share vision and empower employees to achieve. How they work together defines their dynamic. In my last blog, I defined this dynamic as the result of five key functions:

 

Contribution Voice Listening Questioning Decision making
The proportion of individual contribution to the group The honesty and diversity of views shared The degree to which ideas are understood and incorporated The degree of curiosity, inquiry, and testing of ideas The process for how decisions are made

 

As in everything in life – there are better and worse ways to perform these functions. The table below is a matrix of effectiveness with the five functions across the horizontal; and the levels of effectiveness across the vertical.

Contribution Voice Listening Questioning Decision making
Team In Synergy Proportionate Diverse Active Exploratory Pragmatic
Functional Team Equal Honest Hearing Open Democratic
Dysfunctional Team Biased Masked Turn-taking Leading Bureaucratic

 

At worst, are dysfunctional teams. These teams are stuck in dysfunction junction, working in ways that slow or hinder performance of the group.  In dysfunctional teams;

  • Contribution is biased; dominant voices tend to fill the space.
  • Voice is masked; true opinions are hidden in order to fit in.
  • There is no listening; only turn-taking.
  • Questioning is for the purpose of leading to foregone conclusions.
  • Decision making is bureaucratic; slow going, leading to safe decisions that most can live with.

Better, is to be a functional team. When a leadership team is functional, they are adequately meeting goals and expectations;

  • Contribution is equal; there is conscious effort to share space and hear all voices
  • When shared, voice is honest, real, and unbiased.
  • Listening is about hearing one another’s views and allowing one’s view to be influenced by others.
  • Questioning is open; inviting discussion and debate to tease out variables.
  • Decision making is democratic; members have an equal vote in the decision-making process.

Best, is to be a team in synergy. Teams in synergy are better together – they perform better together than any single individual could do on their own.  These teams are market leading; they outperform competitors and are often disruptors. In teams with synergy:

  • Contribution is proportionate; it’s afforded to the individuals who have the most knowledge, experience or responsibility to contribute, depending on the nature problem to be solved.
  • Voice is diverse; there is diversity of thinking and an acceptance that increasing breadth and depth of ideas contributes to better solutions.
  • Listening is active; individuals do not only listen but seek to confirm their understanding by paraphrasing and checking in.
  • Questioning is exploratory; expanding on good ideas and opening further possibilities for new and different pathways.
  • Decision making is pragmatic. Just because all individuals have power does not mean all wield it at all times. Decisions are made that ensure the best outcome with the best resources in the time you have with the aim to progress ideas and learn from mistakes.

If you’re in a leadership team; how would you describe the nature of your dynamic? Where would you rate your team on each of the five functions in the above table? Are you stuck in dysfunction junction? Are you doing OK? Or are you effectively leveraging the talent and resources available to you most of the time?

And how do you know? Essentially – it just feels easier in a team in synergy. It’s more fun, more energetic, and you look forward to your times together. You enjoy the challenge, and you feel more enriched for the experience of having been together.

Oh – and usually you get a better result; deeper learning; and stronger alignment.

Working on the dynamic of a leadership team (or board, or committee or functional team) is as important as doing the work of the team.

If you’d like to work on your leadership team dynamic – check out my transform culture program; or sign up for my Melbourne Boardroom event.  I’d love to chat.

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