Monthly Archive for July, 2009

Some conflict between team members is healthy and should be welcomed. If people debate matters of substance with each other and examine different points of view in a robust fashion then the team will benefit. Better solutions are likely to evolve. However, regardless of how technically competent your people are there will inevitably be occasions [...]

Most firms have a handful of very competitive and professionally able people who are brilliant at generating business and delivering results. They are often very creative and instrumental in driving the firm in new and more effective directions. Usually they are able to combine these considerable talents with being effective team players. If so, the [...]

It is easy to turn a blind eye to poor performance until it becomes critical. Postponing action is common. Finding excuses is not unusual. Seeking rationalizations is far from rare. Not infrequently, leaders fail to face up to uncomfortable truths about the poor performance of those who are not pulling their weight. The best leaders [...]

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choosing sides; it must bring sides together. — (Jesse Jackson) The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. — (Martin Luther King) The acid test of outstanding [...]

Teams are apart for much more time than they are together. Most professionals spend large amounts of their time writing, reading, calculating, designing, researching and in meetings with clients. Much of the time is spent on technical or professional matters and some on business tasks. It is part of the leader’s job to create a [...]

Typically professional service teams contain a huge amount and variety of talent and experience. Often it is utilized in a rather piecemeal fashion. In the good teams, time is put aside on a regular basis so that best practice can be shared. Investment in skill development, in this way, really does bring to life the [...]

Professional service teams need to develop new services from time to time; exploit new markets; develop their marketing effectiveness; look for ways to enhance client care; introduce new systems and processes to increase productivity; and change working practices to improve performance. Innovations are necessary for firms to remain relevant and competitive. A continuing stream of [...]

When a team comes together to make a collective decision on a professional or business matter it is very easy for the leader to fall into the temptation of sounding out views around the table and then calling for a vote. The attraction is speed and saving time. However, there are dangers. Voting splits the [...]

The box ‘Questions about team working’ provides a list of questions about the effectiveness of teams. How many of the questions can you and your team members answer with a yes? How many can you answer not only with a yes but also with the observation that you do it really well? Questions About Team [...]

The jazz greats including John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong also understood collaboration; they knew that a great jazz performance requires more than individual excellence. Members of their combos listened carefully to the others and played in a tightly integrated and collaborative group environment. Not only did they work collaboratively, but they distinguished their [...]

In many professional service teams it is not only the team leaders who coach. Other senior colleagues frequently supervise the work of trainees and less experienced people. Some coaches, or supervisors as they are called in some professions, do an excellent job. They have a talent for the task and deploy first-class skills. They may [...]

The motivational benefits of positive feedback were explored in Creating the Conditions for Outstanding Performance . Acknowledging and recognizing good performance is a strong reinforcement of behaviour and encourages people to continue to strive for first-class results. There are also occasions, of course, when it is necessary to give feedback about the things that people [...]

When you are in your coaching role you may find yourself helping a team member to decide on the best way to learn a new skill. This is likely to be in response to a need that has been identified in an earlier or current coaching session. Research by Honey and Mumford (1992) shows that [...]

Those who coach for a living develop a wide repertoire of useful skills. As a busy leader of a professional service team you are probably looking for a few basic ideas to help you to enlarge your natural talents to help others to learn. Asking effective questions is the starting point. John Whitmore in his [...]

Mutual respect and trust are at the core of a good relationship between a coach and a learner in any field of endeavour. Team leaders in professional service firms earn their respect by doing their leadership job well. That includes coaching. Their competence and achievements as professionals also play a part. It is probably true [...]

Coaching is about helping other people to learn and to put their learning into effect. Notice the emphasis on the word ‘helping’. Managerial leaders do not always see their work in this light. One said to me ‘I leave that sort of thing to trainers, teachers and counsellors. I have a job to get on [...]

I like to think that the same holds true for tennis strokes: that the perfect strokes are already within us waiting to be discovered, and that the role of the pro is to give a nudging encouragement. One reason I like to think this is that when my students think of strokes as being discovered [...]

Various pieces of research, including those by Frederick Herzberg (2003) and Harry Levinson (2003), have shown clearly the importance of distinguishing between extrinsic incentives like pay and conditions and the intrinsic ones that lie deep within human nature. Ask people what makes them dissatisfied at work and you hear about poor pay, irritating bosses, uncomfortable [...]