And hello, everyone. As Grant said, I’m Claire. So before I get into, thriving teams today. I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians custodians of the land where we meet today.

I’m lucky to live and work on the land of the Banjlang nation of the Iraqwall people. So on the map, you can see my cursor, it’s most easily point of Australia, so I’m in Byron Bay, and and I would like to pay respects to elders past, present, and future. So wherever you’re dialing in from today, I’d like to acknowledge your first nations people also.

So in the chat, this is gonna be an interactive session. So I’d love you to type into the chat, where are you dialing in from?

So what’s your location? But also what’s your role in industry just so we can get a flavor of the different, diverse groups of people that are joining us today?

Hungry.

London, the UK, Copenhagen in Poland, Germany, the UK. Excellent. So from all over the globe, lots in Europe, and Melbourne.

And Francesco, Francesco Grant, and I used to work together in Melbourne. I moved a little bit further north. So also while I’m talking, you can just type into the chat as well what your role in industry is because I just like to understand if you’re in a leadership role or if you’re in a people and culture role and the industry that you’re working in. So today, we are gonna talk about some current leadership challenges and trends based on some research then we’re gonna unpack what it takes to build a thriving team. And I’m gonna go through the thriving teams model with you. And as we go through it, I love you to think about how this applies to your team if you are leading a team, or if you are a PNC professional, how it might apply in the context of a work that you do with teams as well. So we’re gonna share some really practical ideas and also really open to you sharing other ideas or you know, things that you’ve done to build a thriving team as well.

We will leave about fifteen minutes at the end of the session for a Q and But do feel free to ask, questions. We will be looking at the chat through the session as well. So do ask questions as you go, but we will carve out some time at the end, to do a q and a as well.

So I’d love you to type into the chat. What has been your biggest leadership challenge in twenty twenty three? We don’t need war and peace, but just, you know, in a few words, what’s been your biggest leadership challenge in twenty twenty three? If you are a consultant or coach, What have you seen as a biggest leadership challenge for your clients?

Accountability, remote leadership. Yep. We’re gonna talk a bit about flexibility, confidence. Yeah. So confidence and leaders. Pace of business and changing market with lots of complexity? Definitely.

Yeah. There’s lots of change happening around us all. Remote leadership and engaging staff. So we’re gonna talk a little bit about that search today as well as accountability.

So it sounds like there’s some consistent themes there as well. And hopefully we’ll be able to touch on some of those and if we don’t, feedback too and feedback’s something that, we need to create a normalized feedback and create a culture of feedback So I thought a good place to start would be to talk about, you know, globally. What are some of the trends that we’ve seen in twenty twenty three in terms of what’s happening in the workplace?

So I wanted to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, and I’m gonna draw on some research that was done by Gallup with the twenty twenty three state of the global workplace report.

And you you can set a number there eight point eight, trillion dollars, which is a productivity opportunity or productivity gap because so many people are disengaged in the workforce right now. And so in this study globally, there’s only twenty three percent of people who are thriving at work. So that’s one in five employees are actually thriving and fully engaged at work.

So that means that, you know, four out of five people aren’t engaged. So when I talk about thriving, thriving’s really where people feel a connection to the work that they do. They feel purpose in what they’re doing every day. There’s pride in what they do, and they take on ownership in the work that they do in terms of their performance.

So these are the people who go the extra mile. They have their teammates back and also for their customers and clients as well. The fifty nine percent, that Gallup identified that aren’t engaged, they’re calling the quiet quitters. So these are the people who are still showing up every day.

They’re turning up to work, and they’re sort of, you know, filling the chair, you know, they’re sitting behind the desk, but they’re not actually engaged in the work that they’re doing. So they’re just cruising by and doing the minimum amount, to get by each day. And so these people might just, I’m trying to put you on mute, but I don’t have that capability. I think because I’m not host.

Are you able to just crack down on mute?

So those people are the people who are a biggest opportunity. So even though that they are disengaged, they’re the people who if we as leaders are able to, you know, support these people and, address some of the issues that they’re they’re finding challenging, we’re more likely to shift them to be engaged and be thriving.

What’s quite interesting with population of quiet quitters is they’re actually the people who are also quite stressed and burned out as well. And that’s because they are feeling quite a bit of disconnection in the work that they’re doing.

And finally, there’s eighteen percent that are actively disengaged. And so Gallup was called these allowed quitters. So these are people who are super vocal. They’re the ones that you know, can be toxic within a team.

They are actively, you know, either undermining leaders or the goals within the team as well. And and they can also really, really affect what you’re trying to achieve as a leader or as a PNC professional as well. And so what’s quite interesting is the role of a leader in influencing the employee experience every day because we do wanna focus on these quite quitters so that we can make some subtle changes to how we’re leading and also how we’re actually engaging our teams, so that they actually do feel engaged in the work that they’re gonna do. So I will spend some time, a little bit later talking about some of those practical things that we can do.

So retention and retention interestingly wasn’t something that came up, but when I facilitated a similar topic in Australia, it was definitely one of the the hot topics.

And fifty one percent of people are actually actively looking, for jobs at the moment. And so when they ask their intention to leave, They’re either watching or they’re actively looking for a new job. So that is just over half the workforce. It’s actually looking for you know, a better opportunity.

And it’s a little bit of the grass is always a little bit greener. So this can be really great if you’re looking to recruit at the moment. Cause there’s a lot of people who are active in the market, but it’s not great if you wanna retain staff as well. And what’s also quite interesting of the people who are actively disengaged they’re the people who are obviously, and I don’t think it’s a huge surprise, but they’re the people who are gonna be more likely to, also be disengaged at work, they’re the ones that are also openly looking for work as well.

So I I think we need to kind of shine the light on ourselves of what we’re doing as leaders or P and C professionals to support our people to wanna stay in organizations.

And also, you know, the amount of change that you mentioned before can be a contributing factor. But we also know that seven in ten people leave a boss rather than a job. So we do have a critical role to play as leaders within an organization too.

So I think we’ve gone through these different waves of, of the way that we work since two thousand, since sorry, since twenty twenty, not since two thousand, since two thousand since COVID. So, you know, back in twenty twenty, everyone, you know, was working remotely and working from home. And we’ve gone through this stage where we’ve, moved to hybrid working. And just in twenty twenty three, more and more organizations are trying to bring, bring people back into the office or bring people back into the workplace, especially America.

So America from about July this year, a lot of the big financial services institutions, but also a lot of the tech companies have really tried to enforce and mandate people working on-site. So, you know, your Goldman Sachs and your JPMorgan have tried to push people back into the office five days a week. And some of the tech companies like Google and Amazon and Meta, have also been really really pushing for their people to be on-site at least three days a week. And so, I think what we need to actually focus on going, especially going into twenty twenty four is to really think about, beyond just hybrid work, but what does actually flexibility look like for an employee because it from all of the studies, it shows that people are really looking for flexibility, and it might be mean different things to different people as well.

So going beyond just hybrid, but also thinking about, you know, what does flexi flexibility look like as well. And ensuring that, you know, when we do bring people into the office, that we’re connecting with purpose and that Leaders, regardless of their people are in the office or not, they’re equipped to have the right conversations and, you know, give feedback and hold people accountable even if they’re not in front of them too.

So I know everyone works in slightly different as we’ve got consultants through to people that are managing big teams. But in your organization, you know, or if you’re supporting other organizations, how many days per week are employees directed to come into the workplace if you just type the number of days.

So four to five. So that’s in health care, two to three, two to three.

Yep. So a real mixture there, which is what the results are showing as well. Okay. So some some organizations are less as well. And it’s just interesting in terms of how we’ve led those messages around that change as well to bring people back.

The final, you know, twenty, twenty three stat that I wanted to go through is around people’s level of stress and burnout. Well being has been a real, focus all through COVID and even before COVID, but what’s quite interesting is in the Gallup survey, East Asia and US and Canada were equal first in terms of the highest levels of stress. So they’ve got fifty two percent of employees saying that they feel stress each day, each day. And unfortunately, Australia and New Zealand were known as being very laid back countries, but we’re actually, equal second at forty seven percent, feeling stressed every day. So compared to the forty four four percent globally.

You know, there’s really, really high levels of fatigue and exhort exhaustion. And what we need to do as leaders is we actually need to think about how we’re constructing work. What is the work structure that people have so that people don’t feel like they’re being burnt out, when they’re coming to work as well. And also thinking about the work environment, people’s workloads, what’s happening in terms of, you know, bullying or other things that might be happening in the workplace, such as organizational change, that can lead to stress and burnout as well. What’s also interesting is that younger workers and females are slightly more stressed than older workers and males as well. So, you know, it’s only marginal, but, there is a a subtle difference too.

Do we know why younger workers? So they in the report, they suggest it’s about connection, it’s around connection to work in terms of stress as well. And what was quite interesting is also in the report. They talked about the fact that Work location didn’t necessarily influence someone’s, level of stress at work. It was more about someone’s engagement that could, influence someone’s stress level at work. So that was a good question to ask.

So It’s not all doom and gloom. There is definitely some opportunities and positives into the future as well. And so the statistics did tell us, you know, that we’re three point eight we focus on engagement with three point eight times more likely to be able to influence someone’s, stress rather than work location. So often we’re thinking about work location in the context of helping someone’s employee engagement, but it’s not a huge deciding factor.

We know that companies that do implement you know, leadership development programs and follow best practice in terms of leadership are three point four more likely to be rated as a great place to work. And the stat I particularly like, because I love working with teams, is that, thirty seven percent of people say that working with a great team is their primary reason for staying. So we know that we can build a high performing thriving team that, you know, we’re gonna really be able to shift that fifty one percent of people who are actively looking for a new job, we’re more likely to retain our people if we can ensure that there’s a great work, culture, and work environment as well. And there’s also a lot of statistics around when we do focus on developing our leaders, we can actually double the rate of engaged employees, which can contribute to far higher earnings. They quoted a hundred and forty seven percent higher earnings compared to competitors.

So We talked about what your biggest challenge was in twenty twenty three. Now I’d like to kind of to look to the future. What do you see as the biggest opportunity for leaders in twenty twenty four? Or specifically for you in your role.

Made some thinking music, connections, bringing people together. Yeah. I know personally for me, you know, last year, I would still have been facilitating, I think, about seventy five percent of my work virtually. And this year, it can politically shifted in twenty twenty three where it was sort of, I would say, ninety to ninety five percent face to face. So people definitely are wanting that connection and really to connect with purpose and bring people together. So I think that will continue to be a trend going into twenty twenty four.

What else is the opportunity creating a sense of belonging? Yep. And we’re gonna talk about that as well today in terms of belonging, improving services for both customers and internal colleagues. Yep.

Bring people together, creating new ways of working for individuals and organizations, leveraging their strengths, yet. And I think that well-being and sense of purpose is a really good point that you’ve made there because I think people feel a sense of connection.

Well-being is the team and supporting the team.

Connecting ideas, building together. So there’s definitely this theme around connection I’m hearing and well-being as well. And that connection to purpose as well.

You guys are very good students. We’re going to talk about the thriving teams model that talks about some of the things that you’ve just spoken about to So let’s get into into the model. So, you know, we’ve talked about people’s intention to stay, you know, being at this all time high, at fifty one percent and actively looking for a role. And then we’ve also talked about the fact that we know that people are more likely to say when they’re part of a great team. So we’re gonna talk through, you know, a few different parts of how can actually make that magic happen where we can actually build a high performing team because lots of organizations have high performing individuals, but it’s when we actually get everyone working together that that’s you know, where we actually are able to be a thriving team and we can be high performing too.

So it’s important to start with a bit of a definition. Like, what do we mean by high performing? I think the term high performing team gets thrown around a lot. And so this is, you know, my definition of high performing. A high performing team focuses on its common purpose and goals.

Team members work together through strong relationships and shared accountability to deliver exceptional business results.

So when we talk about teaming, I think we’ve got to think about teamwork is actual real work. It’s when we’re working, you know, three challenges together. Is often through, you know, crises or, you know, big challenges at work that often galvanize the team, but we don’t always wanna be working in this state of of stress as well. We wanna also galvanize the team, you know, when, you know, when it’s just business as usual as well.

And teamwork, you know, it can be a bit messy and it can be hard because it does sometimes require us to have tough conversations, and sometimes it forces us to feel a little bit uncomfortable and get comfort in that discomfort for the greater good of the team. But I think we can all think about a time that you’ve been part of a high performing team. And, you know, it’s fun to be part of a high performing team. It’s energizing.

It’s empowering.

You know, it’s quite inspiring as well. You get you get driven and built up by the people around you too. And so, you know, I encourage you to think about times that you’ve been part of a high performing team. And and maybe I’ll get you to type into the chat. You know, what about that team made it so great?

So think about the highest performing team you’re a part of what made it so great. You can just type into the chat.

Right synergies with a clear vision. Yeah. So having that clear direction, high trust. We had each other’s backs. Yeah.

Being able to have honest conversations when things are not going well. Yeah.

Just as you said lifting each other up, being able to be authentic, and know that you have each other’s trust and support. We energized each other, picking each other up. When one of us had challenges, it was fun, yeah, feeling the energy and ism, clear objectives, trust, and various personalities.

Yeah. Excellent.

So I’m sure for most of you, this concept that I’m gonna talk through isn’t something new. It’s based off the work of Patrick Levencioni, who, obviously, is a bit of a pioneer in the high performing team space.

But we’re all part of multiple teams. So, you know, we’re part of teams. It could be project teams. We’re part of, you know, business as usual teams.

We might lead teams. We might have our peers and the teams that we’re a part of. But I want you to think about who your first team or primary team is. So when you think of your team, I don’t want you to type in the answer that you know that you should say because you’ve read the book, but if you actually really think about who your first team is, when someone says, you know, what’s happening with your team?

Who’s the first team that you think of? Who is that primary team? Is it the team that you lead or is it the team that you’re part of, and you can you can just type it into the chat.

And maybe we can we might actually have a little bit of a discussion around me. So when you think about your first team, is it the team that you lead or the team that you’re a part of?

Taying that you laid. Yeah.

Yippant times it’s both.

Send that I lead. Yeah.

My family unit, yet.

So Yeah. So Matrix ten makes it even more complex as well. So, you know, in Patrick Lenzione’s work, he suggests that your first team or your primary team should be that the more senior team. So it should actually be the team that you’re a part of, which is quite interesting because seventy two percent of people will actually say it’s the team that they lead. And the reason being is that you feel accountable for the team that you lead, but also you probably also spend more time with the team that you lead potentially.

And know, you might feel very, like that that’s your patch. But the reason why he suggests that it should be the team that you’re a part of is is we wanna break down any sort siloed mentality. We wanna lift our gaze, and we wanna make decisions for the greater good of the whole. And so this doesn’t mean, telling you that now you ditch the team that you leave, and you’re only focused on the ten that you’re a part of, you know, this is just a mindset shift. It’s about lifting our gaze and thinking when we do make decisions and when we’re with our team, are we making decisions for the greater good of the whole? And so it’s a bit of a a shift in the way that we think as well.

So I’m keen just to hear from, you know, anyone who type into the chat or anyone who, wants to come off mute.

What your thoughts are around that concept? Cause I know that it can be a bit of a challenging concept about shifting your mindset to the team that you’re a part of rather than the team that you lead.

I can start clearing that. But I think I I think for me, it depends on the moment that you find yourself with the, you know, the context of the work. Sometimes you do need to take that leading role and be more directive and sometimes coercive and and and facilitative and collaborative to get people to come together.

But I’m a big believer in you know, that once people have that, they should be given some freedom to step into their own leadership space as well, and and that they can take a leading role in the work they do that often more suited to the work that they do than I am.

As well. So it’s kind of, you know, knowing when to pick that up and drop that All. And we’re a very small team, with a big global impact, and I really rely on everybody.

You know, just step into those spaces, but I’m always there to make sure that if they can’t or don’t know how to or don’t feel secure in that, they’ve got support to do that as well. Yeah.

Thanks, Grant. Okay. Anybody else wanna share their kind of perspective on That mindset shift between the team that you lead and the team that you’re a part of?

No?

Alright.

That’s alright. So let’s get into the thriving teams model. So I’ve developed this model based on a lot of different thought leadership in, thriving teams, So I have drawn on the work of Patrick Lencioni in the context of the five dysfunctions of a team, Amy Edmondson, in the context of psychological safety, grenade Brown, around vulnerability based trust. David Clutterbark, who’s written about seventy books on teams and team coaching, I was lucky enough to study under him for ten months last year.

Peter Hawkins, he also, as David, clutterbuck does, speaks a lot about Teams being part of complex adaptive systems. We can’t be effective as a team unless we’re affected with our stakeholders as well, and teams do learn. As well as how teams learn as well. And so the model’s based off me also working with a lot of teams and a whole bunch of other research, I for you, but there was there was lots of research that went into developing the model.

So let’s get into it. So there’s three parts of the model. The first part’s around purpose. So this is the why. Why does a team exist?

All research on teams always talks about the team having a clear team purpose.

The second part of the model is around relationships.

How the team works together, you know, how the how? Like, you know, how do you build the relationships within the team? And then accountability is about, you know, what that, what will be achieved and by when as well.

So The intersections of the model equally is important too. So we’ve got connections. So how does a team connect, and we’ve talked about the fact that connection for a lot of people is one of the key, the key focuses going into twenty twenty four. Teams need to also challenge and support each other but we also need to be aligned not only as a team, but also with our stakeholders too. So I’m gonna unpack the model in a bit of detail, and then we’re gonna come up with some practical ideas that you can adopt with your teams as well.

So when we think about purpose, there’s probably four levels to purpose in when we think about it, there’s the organization’s purpose at the highest level. And so often it’s quite clear why an organization exists. And often that’s, you know, one of your recruitment strategies as well or your, you know, part of your EVP, but often it’s fairly well articulated the purpose of an organization.

What often gets forgotten is what the team’s purpose is? And like people might, you know, conceptually kind of know it, but haven’t actually articulated it in a way that’s really clear and that each team member is really bought into what that team purpose is as well. The next level is then around, so we’ve got organization team, and then we’ve got meaningful work. People need to feel a connection to the work that they do every day. And then individuals will have their own values, which is about the link for their values to the purpose of what they do as well. And so It’s quite important that we connect our teams both to meaningful work and that it’s purposeful too.

So when we talk about team purpose, this is the why the team exists. So this should link each team member’s personal values and the work that they do that you can articulate a collective purpose, but it needs to be something that’s going to inspire everybody. So, you know, sometimes I’ll, you know, do work with leadership teams and they said, oh, yeah. A few years ago, we created a team purpose and it’s this.

And it and the first question I’ll ask, you know, does that inspire you all? And most, you know, quite often, it doesn’t because it’s just these words on the page. There isn’t that real connection in terms of the purpose. So getting the team together and asking some questions such as, you know, why does this team exist?

You know, what differentiates this team from other teams?

All for teams that have been together for a while, like, what legacy does a team wanna leave? And so these can be really good questions to ask when you’re bringing our leadership team together. Or when you’re working with your team, if you’re a leader of a team to be able to articulate what that team purpose is.

So meaningful work is also really important. You know, I don’t believe that anyone really comes to work to do a bad job. Having said that, the Gallup, state of, the, workplace report suggests that we do have a lot of quiet quitters and loud quitters as well. So maybe maybe I’m wrong, but I do feel like people do wanna have a connect to the work that they do every day.

And so for leaders, it’s really important that we actually connect the why of the work that we do. And so when I wrote my book thriving leaders last year, I interviewed, Sandy from koala. So koala is an Australian based company And they’re a bit of a disruptor in the furniture industry. So they created these mattresses that come in boxes, and, they’re really big in Australia, Japan and South Korea.

And they’re expanding into, the US and a few other countries as well. And they have this massive growth So when they started in twenty fifteen, they had, you know, had no revenue. And in the first year, they had thirteen million dollars in revenue. And then when I interviewed Sandy in twenty, in twenty twenty two, they were a five hundred million dollar business.

So in a really short space of time in seven years and grown massively. And we’re really innovative.

And you know you’re innovative when a lots of other competitors start copying what you’re doing as well. And one of the things that they were really, really proud of that they did was, you know, they always tried to connect not only people to the the purpose of the organization, but also to the why of the work that they do. And they have this belief that if they connected people to the why more than the what, people would actually step up and feel really empowered to use their initiative to deliver on those outcomes as well. And so they were really obsessed with talking about the why of work as well.

So let’s talk about relationships because everyone’s spoken a bit about connection and connection is the intersection between purpose and relationships.

But, you know, how people work together is really, really critical. And there’s two fundamental components that one’s around psychological safety and the other is about trust. And I’m gonna share the differences between those two things. But what the outcome of that is is that people do feel like that they belong, and we wanna create environment where people feel safe and like that they belong as well.

So, Annie Edmondson, know, she’s popularized the concept of psychological safety. And she was actually, researching nurses, and she was researching at the time to see the correlation between errors being made and teamwork. And what she thought she’d find was the more effective teams would have fewer mistakes.

What was really interesting though as she did her research is that she found that the high performing teams reported more mistakes. And she was like, hang on a second. What’s going on here? So she had to dig into the data to understand. And what she actually found was that people felt safer when there was psychological safety to, you know, to share where they’d made mistakes or share where they had weaknesses as well.

Google in twenty twelve, did this awesome study called Project Aristotle.

And I actually would love, to do a similar study across a number of different organizations, not just Google, because obviously Google’s gotta its own culture as well. But what they wanted to unpack was what is the difference between a high performing team and a team that’s just coasting along? And so they they did a study to look at their one hundred and eighty highest performing teams to work out, like, what is their secret source? Like, what is it that they’re doing? And the number one thing that they found was that, the teams that were high performing were did have psychological safety. So psychological safety is our ability to be able to take interpersonal risks when we’re with the group or with the team. It’s where we can show our vulnerabilities and we can share our weaknesses, and we don’t feel like we’re gonna be reprimanded for doing that.

So for for for leaders, we need to be able to create a space where people feel like they have a sense of belonging and where they feel that they can actually, you know, be psychologically safe as well. I just wanna share the difference between psychological safety and psychosocial safety because I get used quite interchangeably, and there’s a very subtle difference between the two. Psychological safety is more about interpersonal relationships. It’s about communication and the culture, that happens with a group or a team, whereas psychosocial, safety is more about, your work structures and the well-being of your team based on, you know, your policies, your practices, and the way that you work. So they’re very heavily inter interlinked.

But there is a subtle difference in terms of, in terms of the difference between the two as well.

So trust So trust is a foundational pillar of any high performing team. So the difference between psychological safety and trust is trust happens on a one to one relationship level. So you’ll notice that within a team, there’ll be different levels of trust with different relationships.

Psychological safety is that group norm that happens when you’re together as a group.

And so you can observe trust the relationships you have with other people, but you can also see trust, in interactions, that happen with other team members as well. So Lencioni in his, famous triangle, with the foundations of a high performing team talks about, trusting that foundational pillar. And I really do think it is, the foundational pillar, but it’s about more than just, you know, having each other’s back it’s about vulnerability based trust. Doesn’t mean we have to share our deepest deepest secrets with each other, but it’s really about, you know, knowing that that we can, build relationships on a one to one, level and that people actually, you know, you know, see you, you feel seen, you feel heard, as well. And trust often builds when we spend more time together, but I’m gonna share a couple of tips of how you can kind of fast track, building trust with the team too.

Might has paused for a moment. Is there any questions or comments based on what I’ve said so far?

Alright. Wouldn’t Let’s talk about account One question. I wonder what’s going to get? Please. Sorry.

I can’t help. So, if you think about trusting in a I suppose in a team since it is the relationship between individuals that connection. The one about trust more broadly in the organization, in the society, in the community around us and how does that how does that affect people turning up, I suppose?

Or is it is it quite different? Do you think to the concept that you’re talking about?

Well, if I understand the question correctly, like, when I think about team based trust, I think of it as more of a one to one relationship level, do think when we talk about alignment with stakeholders as a relationship element to it as well and there are external factors, but I guess it’s, I guess a team will struggle to be high performing if they don’t trust the organization’s decisions or if they don’t trust the high high level leaders or, you know, so I think there is other levels of trust, that impact a team’s team’s trust as well. Yeah. I’m not sure if that answers your question. Yeah. It does. Yep. Thank you.

Alright. Let’s talk about accountability.

So accountability is an interesting word. I think Personally, I find it being a really positive word because I think if someone, you know, gives you accountability, they trust in you. It should be a privilege and it should be, you know, that someone actually trusts that you can actually get something done as well.

But sometimes in some organizations, people look at the word accountability, and they think about blame, they think about you know, being micro managed and there’s some negative connotations that sit with that. But when we think about it in the context of teams, it’s really about having a clear direction and expectations about, you know, what is going to be achieved by the team.

And high performing teams can hold each other accountable. It’s not about the leader just holding the team accountable, but it’s really hard for the team to hold each other accountable if they don’t have strong relationships.

There isn’t trust and psychological safety, or there isn’t a clear direction as well. So you need those other, pieces in place to be able to hold each other accountable because otherwise, egos and, politics can come into play as well when we do hold each other accountable or it’s not done in the most constructive way.

So teams need to have a really clear direction and north star that they’re working towards as well. And so team members are involved and can co create what that direction looks like. They’re gonna have a lot more buy in, to the decisions that are made as well. But a team needs to have a clear direction. So whether that’s a strategy or goals or however, whatever the ways of working after your team. You know, we need to clearly articulate what the direction is for the team and have that clarity of, you know, who’s accountable for what as well.

I’ve sort of already alluded to this. You know, high performing teams do hold each other accountable. They, you know, call things out. It doesn’t mean that we’re jerking on the leader’s responsibilities. The leader still does need to hold their teams accountable to, but high performing teams know, really do wanna depend on each other. And so, you know, there is, value in having transparency of work because there is value in having that peer, peer pressure, and I say peer pressure in a positive way because people are more like to achieve things when there’s visibility because people don’t want to let each other down as well. So high performing teams do have those your conversations and will hold people accountable and give each other feedback too.

So when we’re looking at the intersections, the intersection of purpose and relationships is around connection. So when we think about connection is about having some really clear and simple team processes or ways of working. We wanna make sure that when we’re meeting, we’re meeting with purpose, we’re really clear about how effective those meetings are as well, and we review those quite regularly. You know, I would say at least quarterly, checking in on how effective our meetings are, and being really clear about what the purpose of how we meet, you know, is it for information sharing?

Is it to problem solve? Is it to collaborate? And being really intentional with, you know, what we’re coming together and what we are trying to achieve when we do come together as well. But it goes beyond just meetings as well.

We do collaborate and there’s ways of working that aren’t written. It’s just how we get things done, whether that’s, you know, how you interact and communicate through phone face to face, you know, Microsoft teams or formal email, you know, so what are the ways that you do interact and collaborate and come together as a team.

But teams do need to get to know each other beyond the work. And we need to connect, you know, on a human level, and discuss things beyond just the work that we do every day. And so we wanna create this sense of togetherness and connect our teams as well and get to know each other. I’m not saying that we need to be friends by any means. It’s more about us actually just getting to know people as individuals as well. And high performing teams do communicate regularly even if they don’t have the luxury of FaceTime and often, you know, teams aren’t even geographically located in the same, place as well.

But it’s also about how the teams together when they’re not together. So how does the team talk on behalf of each other? How do they represent each other’s patches and seek positively or on behalf of someone else’s area too.

So high performing teams, you know, need to have healthy challenging debate and challenge and support each other as well. So when we talk about health healthy challenging debate, I know Lencioni talks about engaging at unfiltered conflict. And a lot of people, you know, feel a bit nervous depending on, your relationship with conflict and often people feel like teams shouldn’t have conflict. But what it is is we need to have healthy challenging debate. We need to get everything out in the table that needs to be said as a team. We don’t want our teams to agree. We want people to disagree because we know that that’s how innovation happens, but often we need to have psychological safety in place to be able to really constructively challenge each other, and do it in a respectful way as well.

So we do wanna disagree, but then we we we will talk a little shortly about alignment because we do wanna make sure that we aligned the decisions that we make as a team.

We often think about learning as individuals. We often think, you know, individuals learn, but teams learn as well. Teams learn come together, they support each other, but they also learn from their mistakes. And I think the thing that’s quite interesting when we look at high performing teams is they have a really strong learning culture They reflect on their mistakes. They look at the lessons learned, and they actually adopt those into their way forward as well. And so really reflecting on, like, what is that learning loop? Or learning culture that you have within your team, and is that high performing or not?

So the intersection between purpose and alignment is around, So purpose and accountability is alignment. So we want to have alignment of goals, and we really want to get commitment to the way forward as an organization too. And so we want our teams to align, but we also want our stakeholders to be aligned to So there’s a couple of really telltale signs of when a team perhaps isn’t aligned. So it could be teams lead lead a meeting And, you know, they’re both, you know, everyone’s been in the same meeting, but, you know, maybe there’s a few different versions of what’s been agreed.

So one indication that there is an alignment as a team. Another indication could be you might leave the team that you’re a part of from a meeting and you might go back to your team and you might communicate something like, we’re doing this, but what I really think is this. And that demonstrates that you’re not actually united and front and you’re not aligned as a team. It’s okay to have different views, but once you’ve made the decision as a team, you need to be aligned that way forward as well.

And finally, we want to have alignment with our stakeholders. So this is, you know, to do with the fact that we can’t be successful unless the hole is successful.

And there’s such a huge interconnection between teams being successful, as well as, you know, with partners and clients and stakeholders too. And so thinking about, you know, what are those stakeholder expectations, and sometimes they might be conflicting expectations we have from stakeholders too, But how do we actually get alignment with stakeholders in terms of those expectations and ensure that we have strong relationships as well?

So I might pause before we go into some ideas. I know that I’ve probably talked a little bit longer than I expected to, but is there any any questions or comments about the model.

No?

Alright. So let’s talk through some ideas, because, hopefully, as you’re hearing this, whether you’re thinking about the team that you lead or the team that you’re a part of or even with the clients that you might work with. Think about some of the areas that maybe, you know, are working really, really well and maybe think of how you can leverage those further. But then also think about the areas that you might need to improve too, and I’ll go through some ideas that you might wanna capture. Free to type into the chat as I’m going through some of my ideas, things that you might do in terms of best practice that you can share with others that are on the call too.

So, you know, if purpose is an area that you think you need to focus on, you know, get your team together and get everyone to work together create, just a clear statement that binds the team together. You know, what is the purpose of the team? You know, I’ve just mentioned a couple of questions about, you know, asking why the team exists.

I facilitated this, with many leadership teams before. We have had, you know, had an awesome brain dump of words on the screen. People have tried to use chat GPT. We’ve found that if we actually use our own words, we come up with a better solution. So we can’t I throw to AI. I might get corrected in the future.

But actually getting people to really, you know, share some of their values put those words up on a whiteboard and then kind of wordsmith it till you get to that statement. And you want to keep that statement front of mind. So put it on agendas for meetings, make sure that we’re revisiting it regularly.

Another thing that you might wanna do is actually articulate what the team’s values are, based on areas that might be lacking. So you might realize that as a team that, you know, we’re not challenging and supporting each other and we’re not holding each other accountable. So you might actually create a team you around that, and you might monitor that in the meetings that you have with your team. Often having a meeting observer in a team meeting can help, and rotating that role too.

In terms of relationships, you know, a great, place to start, and I couldn’t couldn’t go without, plugging FASFIVE, because I do use it with all my teams that I do work with, is, you know, using FASFIVE and the Teamscape reports are a really great tool to start start a discussion. It starts a discussion about, understanding and valuing each other similarities and differences in terms of personality, not only builds self awareness, but it just builds awareness of where someone else in the team is coming from. And it helps have discussions about, you know, how do we reach agreement and resolve to suits.

How do we actually challenge and support each other? How do we arrive at decisions? Are we deflecting to the leader? Or are we actually collectively making decisions as a team.

And so it’s such a great tool to use to start a conversation about, what’s working well with the team and where you can improve, as well as just understanding and valuing each other’s differences.

In terms of psychological safety, safety is a really interesting one because you can’t, is it leader of a team to say, how psychological safety feel? Cause chances are if people aren’t feeling psychologically safe, they’re probably not gonna tell you but, you know, asking questions like how could we feel safer as a team or, you know, and collectively coming up with some ideas.

Role modeling vulnerability as a leader as well and sharing when you’ve made mistakes or sharing when you don’t have the answer and being transparent about that enroll models the fact that we don’t always have to be perfect or always have the right answer as well.

You know, also building relationships in terms of trust, you know, beyond facet five, you know, getting people to share personal stories, you know, when you’ve got a bit more time together, you know, deep diving, getting people to share, particular career defining moments for them. But at the start of every meeting, spend the first five minutes talking about stuff that’s not work related. There’s a great book called the billion dollar coach, and he coaches, you know, Google and all these amazing companies. And he gets the executives at those companies to spend the first five minutes talking about unwork related things.

So there’s two reasons to do that. One, you get to know each other on a human level. But the second reason is that every single person, even those more introverted people have had the opportunity to speak. So then they’re more likely to contribute to the conversation that you have, because they feel more comfort as well.

So, you know, rotate the topic. What’s the best holiday you’ve been on? What’s the worst holiday? What are you binging on Netflix? I love this one. If I opened up your car boot, what’s the weirdest thing I’d find? You know, just whatever the topic is, you know, people only get you know, less than a minute to speak, but it’s just a way of getting to know each other and kind of rotating, what you talk about as well.

In terms of accountability, I think it’s about actually ensuring that you do have a clear strategy and that the team is helping, to contribute towards that strategy, if not helping to create that strategy so they have buy in, create transparency of work and reinforce, you know, when people do hold each other accountable, reinforce, yes. I’m only sorry. Thanks. I’m only actually sharing this one, by slide now. Sorry. I just got asked if I could flick the slides.

So in terms of transparency work, you know, make sure that you do normalize holding people accountable and give positive feedback If you feel like you’re having issues with stakeholders, a stakeholder mapping exercise can be a great, activity to do. That you’re really clear on the relationships that you’re holding and so that you can actually analyze how effective those relationships are and those expectations.

And if you’re trying to create a learning culture because you realize that you’re not learning from your mistakes, create a rhythm where at the end of every team meeting, we share, like, what have we learned for the week? So we’re actually creating a learning loop as well.

So the last thing I just wanted to check-in on was wanted you to have a bit of a think about, you know, the team, either the team that you lead or the team that you’re a part of, or if you’re working with a team as a consultant, where you kind of fit on this ladder to thriving. So when we talk about underperforming, this is where we we don’t feel like the team is performing where it should be. They don’t have the motivation to form or there might be a bit of a lack of accountability.

When teams are disengaged, there’s a lack of motivation, and people feel a bit detached from the organization.

When teams are complacent, this is probably your quiet quiz where people are just cruising along and doing the bare minimum.

Where your teams are performing, this is where they’re meeting expectations and getting the job done. When people are engaged, it’s where they really care about the work, and they have that sense of motivation.

And then finally, when a team is high performing, they’re thriving, there’s a sense of connection to purpose and there’s deep trust and accountability and an outcomes are being delivered. So if you just type into the chat, where where do you see, your team today?

Complacent to performing? Yeah. Often when I facilitate this session, there’s often around that dotted line, people feel their teams can be sitting.

So what I encourage you to do depending on where you do feel like your team sits is think about some of the things we’ve talked about the thriving team’s model and how you might be able to to apply that.

So we’ve got engaged performing. Yeah. Excellent.

So before we wrap up just to to, for Q and A. I sort of just say as a gift, for attending this session today, I did wanna share the first chapter of my book thriving leaders.

So Grant’s gonna send that first chapter or PDF of the first chapter out to you just to say a bit of a thank you.

But what I would like just to get you to type into the chat is What’s been most useful based on what we’ve talked about?

And what’s one action that you’re gonna take? And then as you’re typing in the chat, maybe I’ll pastor Grant, and he can, facilitate the Q and A.

I think he’s typing. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Busy. What is that? Always typing something. Yeah.

And as you’re doing that for, people who then when we, promote the session on LinkedIn, for example, and you go on LinkedIn and and tell us what you think. We’ve got three copies of Claire’s whole book, that we’ll be giving away to folks as well. I can absolutely, recommend it. I have read it from, front to back.

I’ve taken more notes, today as well. So if you’re looking for something that is really quite practical, works around that model. The model does work, you know, is it’s it’s simple enough, but more complex enough for it to touch on all the aspects of the team. So If you’re looking for, we’ll give you the first chapter, but if you’re looking for more, then, we encourage you to go on LinkedIn when we post about the sessions and and tell us what you think.

And you’ll go into the draw for one of these, I should say. Okay.

Awesome.

Great. As we’re going through, is, are there any questions for Claire comments, critique?

Observations.

Amanda, it’s just said in the chat about she loves the idea of talking about legacy. Yeah. It’s a really good one, especially for teams that have been together for a long time. I’m working with a leadership team and they’ve got a collective ten year of two nineteen years, so they’re newbies, ten, ten year service in the organization. So they’re They’re a large team with lots of tenure, and so talking about legacy and purpose is quite useful when you’ve got teams that have been together for a while too.

Think if you extend that legacy concept, it’s almost the shadow that you leave as well. What do we want people to feel and how we want our stakeholders and clients and customers to feel from the values that we hold as a team. How do we transfer that, you know, that passion that we have, say, for FASify and the way we work out or where you make sure that’s evident in in the work that we do and then has a positive impact on others.

Awesome. Francesco said about the reminder about which team the team that they’re a part of what’s quite interesting is because I feel like the concept of first team’s quite known to leaders because it’s been around for a while. And even when I was facilitating it, session with about a hundred and eighty leaders. And I asked a question and ninety five percent of people said the team that they’re a part of, and then the managing director got up and said, Are we actually behaving that way though? Because we’re, yeah, I think we’ve got a journey to go on. So I think, you know, we can know the concept, but actually what the behavior is what’s quite critical.

You know, Franchesca.

Yeah. Claire and and maybe grant, question around if your first team is the team that you’re a part of as in your most senior team, What about the leader of that team? And they’re a part of a a more senior team. How does that dynamic play out when you’ve got multiple layers Yeah. Or not part of the team, but they’re just that leader, they’re that pinnacle where where that’s everything stops.

Yeah. So I find so I feel like it’s easier if you’re the CEO because it’s easy because it’s a team that you’re a part of already. But when you’re a part of multiple teams, it’s it’s bit of a tension, and it’s a healthy tension, and it’s a discussion as well because they actually have to say their team, the team that they lead My first team is actually the team up here, and that’s the conversation that they want them to have with their teams because it does permeate up, if that makes sense. Cause, yeah, So it’s a it’s a good one to actually have an open discussion with the the leader to share that, conflict. And I shouldn’t say conflict, but that tension that they have.

Yeah. Mhmm.

Mhmm.

I’m interested in your view then, you know, where it does stop, you’ve got that individual at the top who is doesn’t have a set of peers. How do they do that? Do they look beyond their own business then? Do they look to coaches?

For example, who do the vague then get that support and guidance and connection from because sometimes the organizations look up and being vulnerable and and, you know, having no saying I don’t know can unnerve people below them. So that that pinnacle point can be a difficult spot for some leaders to be in. Differently. And I think because you want it to be a safe space so that the team feels like that they can be vulnerable as well.

But then when you’re the the the leader, what tension does that have? And after having coaches and mentors or other, you know, often you know, boards depends on your board relationship, I would say, as well, can be helpful too. Yeah. It also depends on the culture within the organization and the team.