difficult, aspects of being an executive coach is working with teams.
Much of the work I do with teams and project groups is to get them to
communicate better amongst themselves. This means, how members convey
their message and if it is clear and understandable to the recipient.
This though, is only scratching the surface.
There is a deeper process that teams have to go through first if
commincation skill-sets they've learned are going to be fully effective.
You can compare it to receiving a beautiful, well-engineered sports
car, but the only roads you can drive on are riddled with pot-holes
and uneven cobble stones. Communication skills alone are not going to
help the team if there is no infrastrature of trust, healthy conflict,
commitment, accountability and collective acheivement.
What is needed is to delve deeper into the fundamentals of
communication. By building the the roadways of communication to each
of the members, their communication skill-sets will be fully utilized.
One of the methods I use is from, Patrick Lencioni's, The Five
Dysfunctions of a Team. I've been using this method since 2003 and it
really helps to make teams more cohesive and to move them forward.
The basic idea is this: if a team has confidence to share their
vulnerabilities such as mistakes, interpersonal short comings,
requests for help etcetera then there is a healthy dose of trust.
If there is trust and confidence amongst team members, then there is
the courage for people to share their opinions, even if those opinions
are completely counter to someone else's. Every strong relationship
needs healthy conflict to bring forth issues out into the open. They
then can be discussed, clarified and settled.
If the team environment permits discourse and sharing of opinions
without any fall-out, this creates a sense of commitment to a decision
or action.
As a side note to commiment, there is the common misunderstanding that
any decision taken has to be one of consensus. The truth is people can
agree to disagree and still buy-into the decision and be commited to
action. The key is that people feel that their opinion has been heard
and considered.
If there is commitment and ownership to the process, then people will
feel a sense of accountability. Accountability for themselves to the
process, but also the accountability of other team members to the
process. This means, people are willing to give each other feedback,
both supportive and corrective, on performance and behavior.
If there is a genuine feeling of accountability, this will encourage
collective thinking. By which I mean, team members will put the
success and acheivment of collective goals before personal goals. They
understand if the entire team achieves, he/she will also achieve.
An atmosphere of trust, healthy conflict, commitment, accountability
and collective acheivement has to be present if interpersonal
communication skills are to be fully effective.
In coming posts, I'll elaborate more on
each of the steps. I use the essence of the above mentioned model, but
over the years I've built I'm aspects of my own methodology.
Cordially
Jason W Birkevold Liem
phone: (+47) 957 66 460
email: MINDtalk@email.com
web: www.MINDtalk.no
blog: www.jasonliem.blogspot.com
twitter: www.twitter.com/mindtalkcoach
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