Opus

The hidden dynamics of team performance

Jude Jennison

• Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781788602600
• eBook ISBN: 9781788602594
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Is your senior leadership team fully aligned and ready for fast-paced change?

Even the most cohesive teams can find themselves derailed by the uncertainty of change. High workloads increase stress, changing priorities cause confusion and the frustration of unresolved differences of opinion creates tension and division in teams. Join thousands of leaders and teams who have already benefitted from revealing the hidden dynamics of their non-verbal behaviour and discover how you too can use it to align your team, reduce stress, increase understanding and resolve differences of opinion with more trust and transparency so your team:

• Is full of vitality and vigour, excited about possibilities
• Has clear objectives, pulling seamlessly together in one direction
• Knows exactly what to think, say and do to get the best from each other

Drawing on a decade of Equine Facilitated Leadership to fine-tune the skills of leaders and teams, Opus reveals the 12 hidden dynamics that every team needs to make visible to achieve optimal team performance

"Unambiguously brilliant." Adrian Packer CBE, CEO, Core Education Trust

"Opus could seriously result in a significant improvement in both relationships and performance, for you and your teams." Gina Lodge, CEO, The Academy of Executive Coaching

JUDE JENNISON is an Executive Team Coach, developing senior leadership teams through disruptive change. She is the creator of the Leadership Academy Online and works experientially with a herd of horses to provide life-changing aha moments that reduce stress, align teams and accelerate results.

Step 1

THE ORGANISATION MODEL

In which we explore three crucial roles of
a team in alignment…

Key problems/blind spots

Most teams experience some or all of the following problems and sometimes they may not realise they are happening:

• The team may not be fully aligned and may work in silos.

• There may be unclear or misaligned objectives or constantly changing priorities, so the team is constantly fire-fighting issues.

• The leader of the team may need to get too involved in the detail, so the team don’t take responsibility for execution.

Hidden dynamics

The three hidden dynamics of the Organisation Model are:

1. Leading from the front.

2. Leading from the middle.

3. Leading from the back.

Outcomes

By implementing the Organisation Model, you will:

• Know how to align your team using three team roles.

• Have more clarity, more direction and more focus.

• Take more responsibility, execute more efficiently and have more accountability for results.

Chapter 4

LEADING FROM THE FRONT

In which we discover how to let go of control when
leading from the front…

Cutting through the noise

My team are responsible for software applications development delivery and support. We have a lot of legacy applications and until recently we lacked a clear strategic direction. It’s chaotic at best, and the team are always under pressure with competing and changing business demands.

We had a lot of resistance both within the team and from across the business because no one understood what we wanted to do or how we could possibly do it. We were all pulling in different directions.

When we worked with Jude and the horses, it became obvious that we didn’t know what our goals were or how to visualise them because we work in such chaos. So, we built the chaos as an obstacle course and led the horses through it. We learned to be clear on the current focus and to work together to achieve it. We discovered that we could speed up delivery and reduce the chaos by being clearer and more open with each other. Since working with Jude, we give each other more honest feedback and call out where behaviours are helping or hindering the team efforts.

The aha moments with the horses have influenced how the team works together. The team is more willing to have a go at something new, where people had previously resisted or created obstacles. We’ve moved from being the ‘always late never deliver’ team to the team that ‘knows their capacity and delivers what they say they will’. Every one of us knows how to cut through the noise – we don’t always get it right, but we know how to learn and keep trying.

Jane Huntington, Head of Applications Development and Support, Guide Dogs

What leading from the front is and misconceptions

The Organisation Model consists of three critical roles that make up an effective team – leading from the front to provide the clarity of direction, the middle which is concerned with execution and collaboration, and the back which holds the team accountable.

This chapter explores the role of leading from the front. Leading from the front provides the vision for everyone else in uncertainty and helps a team relax. ‘Vision is the ability to talk about the future with such clarity it is as if we are talking about the past’ (Sinek, 2014). Take a moment to re-read that sentence and feel the energy behind it. It creates an enthusiasm and inspires future possibilities for the team. This is the energy of leading from the front. Yet one of the most common problems in a team is a lack of clarity on where the team are going or a belief that it’s not possible, especially in uncertainty.

In fast-paced working environments, with changing priorities, it often feels as though you are being pulled all over the place. It creates confusion, disagreements and tension over competing objectives. Lack of clarity is common when priorities are changing and often, time is not put aside to agree on what the change of direction is, or even if it is necessary. Rushing after the next shiny thing is a distraction that derails even the best of teams.

There is a common misconception that leading from the front is where the power lies in a team. Leading from the front is only one of the roles in a team that contribute to achieving something together. Chapters 5 and 6 will explain the other roles that are equally important. For now, let’s explore in more detail how you lead from the front.

Clarity and direction

Somebody has to have a vision, an idea and someone has to make a decision. Where are you going?

Leading from the front requires clarity, direction and sensitivity. Clarity and direction provide the overall vision, goals and direction, so that everyone knows where they are heading. The sensitivity is critical and is often the missing link.

Many leaders have no problem providing clarity and direction because they know where they want to go, and they like to be in control. This lacks sensitivity and shifts into an energy of controlling rather than leading. This is why leaders often tell me that people are not doing what they want them to do. They think they have been clear about what is expected, but they haven’t got the buy-in, trust or respect from the team to execute.

Leading from the front therefore requires a balance between being future focused (inspiring possibilities) and holding empathy and understanding in terms of: What is achievable right now, with this team, with their skills, experience and time? And have I got their trust and respect, so that when the direction is clear, people naturally know what they need to do, together?

Leading from the front can be performed by anyone. It’s often seen as the primary role of the MD or CEO. It is also a primary role of any leader of a team e.g., a Project Manager. In reality, it’s rarely one person who says: ‘Ye-ha, off we go, this way!’ That will only get you so far. It’s an iterative process within the team but ultimately someone has to make a decision and take a stance on what the objectives are and the direction of travel, and that person can change according to the situation, context, environment, skills, experience or personal preferences.

Setting the direction sounds so simple, yet it’s one of the hardest things to do. How many times have you sat in a meeting going round and round, wondering what you are trying to achieve? This is a moment where clarity and direction are needed. Anyone can lead from the front at this point but often either everyone tries to, and nobody listens, or else nobody does. This is typical of teams who have lengthy debates, where there is no consensus on who has the final decision on what you are trying to achieve. The quality of listening is crucial and usually missing.

Leading from the front requires you to define clear objectives on both a micro and a macro level. From the overall vision and strategy of a company to the objectives of a meeting or project, clarity and direction are always needed. You can draw on your experience to set objectives that are stretching yet achievable. This is a fine balance and may require adjustment along the way. Setting aggressive targets that nobody buys into is demotivating and will lead to a disengaged or stressed team. This is the overwhelm part of the zone of uncertainty described in Chapter 2.

Everyone responds differently to goals and objectives. Some people like structure in order to know exactly what is expected of them. Others require more space for creativity. Some are driven by aggressive targets and will make sure they achieve them. Some are happy if they achieve 80% because they know it was too big a stretch. Others are demotivated by aggressive targets and would rather have lower targets that they over-achieve. Everyone’s motivation is different so part of leading from the front requires you to understand how to engage different personalities and motivations within the team, all at the same time!

It’s less about articulating what you personally want, and more about articulating what is needed in service of the bigger picture. I explore more on leading in service of a bigger picture in Step 3: The Understanding Approach, where Chapters 10 to 12 describe the different levels of awareness that help you understand team dynamics and fine-tune your decisions and communication accordingly.

With fast-paced change in most business, priorities often change. Something happens and the team need to flex and respond. In these moments, chaos and confusion often arise, and more clarity is needed. When priorities change, explain why so that everyone understands what the new priorities are and why. Encourage flexibility in the team but be careful not to become chaotic by adapting so quickly that you never finish anything.

When priorities change, teams often hang on to the original priorities as well. This increases workload and causes continuous tension over competing priorities. There is often no consensus on what needs to be dropped to include the new priority, so everyone tries to do everything. This is unproductive and not possible, leading to inefficient working and deadlines being missed. Stress levels and frustration rise, damaging the team performance.

Let go of control

When priorities change, make sure you are clear what has to be let go of, in order for the new priority to take precedence. Leading from the front is often seen as a position of control. In reality, it is the position with the least amount of control of the execution. It is forward-focused, strategic thinking and a position that requires trust and mutual respect with the rest of the team.

One of the most common problems with leading from the front is that when you focus on where you are going, you can’t see what is happening behind you. If you trust your team and are clear on what you expect from them, they should communicate with you, so you don’t need to keep checking in on them.

Therein lies the issue, because typically teams only communicate when there is a problem. As a result, the leader at the front often feels as though they are leading in a vacuum, with no idea what is happening behind them. This causes you to continually check in on the team. Every time you do this, you stall the momentum of the team. You get dragged into the detail and the drama of everyday problems.

There is often a desire to be included, to avoid being lonely and to be confident that everything is on track. Many leaders of teams want to feel part of the team and the solution, and it can often feel lonely at the front (or ‘at the top’ if you have a hierarchical structure). The more you get involved in the detail, the more the team learn to default to you. This prevents the team stepping up and taking responsibility for resolving differences and making the tough decisions. This is a common frustration in a team where the leader at the front often wants the team to step up, and the team often want more responsibility but don’t take it when it is given.

It is a vicious circle. Instead, when you lead from the front, let go of control and trust that the team will resolve differences without you. Encourage them to do so and provide clarity on what is expected in terms of both outcomes and communication, so you feel involved without taking all the responsibility. The more you focus on the direction of travel and the more you continually re-articulate the vision and direction, the more the team will learn to take more responsibility.

Figure 2: A client leads a horse from the front

© John Cleary Photography 2016

If you get too involved in the detail, let go of control and create space for your team to make decisions without you. When you repeatedly get involved in every decision, the team learn to include you in everything, resulting in more work and more stress for you. If the direction, roles and responsibilities are clear, the team can take more responsibility and will feel more engaged.

When you let go of control, you create space for the team to step up and flourish. If the team are used to being guided top down, they may need support as they take more responsibility.

Create the vacuum

When you set the direction and let go, there is initially a vacuum. There is a tendency to want to fill it and not give space to the team to work out what to do and how to do it. When you have a...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Prologue
• Introduction
• Ground Zero: Laying the foundations
• Step 1: The Organisation Model
• Step 2: The Pillars of Vitality
• Step 3: The Understanding Approach
• Step 4: The Stories Blueprint
• Conclusion: Creating the magic
• Epilogue: The life and death of teamwork
• Meet the equine team
• Gratitude
• About Jude Jennison
• Bibliography