Leadership Philosophy
Why do teams so rarely reach their full potential…and how do you ensure that they do? At Will It Make The Boat Go Faster, we believe it comes down to Leadership philosophy … and how you apply that to managing those teams.
I’m getting far too old. At 55, I realise now that I’ve been working to help develop teams, and the individuals within them, for over 20 years. I’ve worked in my own consultancy. I’ve worked with a global leadership company. And I’m having the most fun of all working with Olympic Gold medallist Ben Hunt-Davis in our newly formed performance consultancy with the snappy title of Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?
High Performing Teams
However, I’ll tell you what I haven’t come across in those 20 years – and that’s more than a handful of team members or team leaders who say they’re in a high performing team that’s working to its full potential. In fact, it’s been all too easy for people to tell me about the design team that bombed or the IT team that missed its customer objectives.
Putting people in a group together, pointing them in one direction and expecting the wisdom of crowds to prevail really doesn’t cut it in today’s fast moving, cost disciplined workplaces.
Why is that? It’s certainly not for lack of advice on the subject. I flew from Terminal 5 the other day (to wet and cold Toulouse – another story!) and WH Smith must have had over 50 publications and magazines crammed full of best intentions, best practices and stories from charismatic leaders extolling their wisdom in books about teams and the people within.
It might be from our lack of experience. I find it really interesting that many people, when asked to remember a team in their lives which they might call ‘a High Performing Team’, scratch their heads, look blank for a while and finally remember one or two teams…if they’re lucky. Maybe the school 4th XV rugby team that beat all the opposition and had a fun time into the bargain. Or the software development guys who worked over the whole weekend to deliver a complex upgrade by start of trading on Monday morning.
Teams working effectively
I’m the lucky one in terms of experience, having been in a team that performed outstandingly under pressure.
Like Ben I rowed, but for Oxford in the Boat Race in distant 1980. Despite the agony on our faces at the end of the race, in the photo you see above, we’d won.
Just.
By about four feet after 4 1/4 miles.
Having been 3 lengths ahead with a mile to go (4-0 in football terms is the closest comparison I can make!), one of our crew rowed himself to a standstill, exhausted, leaving the remaining seven to keep a revived Cambridge at bay. I’ve never felt a group of men work so effectively together to achieve what was so important to each of us. And I’d never been in a team that performed so well under intense pressure of rowing in a major race, that was for me – and others – a lifetime’s ambition.
So how do you lead your team at work, in sport and in the wider world, to start to experience the challenge and success of working to its full potential?
I’m not going to pretend it’s easy to achieve but the starting point of this process is to set and then follow some clear guidelines, trust your leadership instinct and practise, practise, practise – we know from experience that is a very good start!
Remember that practice makes permanent, it doesn’t make perfect.
Starting with the right guidelines means you’ll bake your team into the high performing unit you want and that your business needs.
