TEAM COACHING

Instilling greater collaboration and agility across the organization

Situation & Preparation

The Leadership Team (‘LT’) was multicultural, its members originating from China, Germany, India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the USA. Our journey unfolded over a few days scheduled over 4 months. As part of the retreats preparation, we rolled-out an engagement survey specifically focused on accountability, engagement and collaboration. I silently observed the LT as they analysed the (poor) results of the survey.

A number of good practices were at play along the meeting: all participants were focused, sought clarity, had a few good laughs, wrote-down notes and individual actions… And when the CEO questioned those who didn’t say much, they provided valuable opinions.

On the negative side, many exchanges were about form more than substance. There was no in-depth group-discussion and no confrontation of different opinions. Most of the contributions were guarded, everyone obviously cautious not to step into others’ ‘territories’. Another issue was that the CEO spoke almost 40% of the time –in a rather directive fashion-, two other executives being also quite vocal, whilst the rest hardly contributed, unless prompted.

At the end of the meeting, the CEO –appearing rather satisfied with the meeting- asked me for candid feedback, and I candidly obliged: “I believe a good news is: you have a brilliant collection of talented and dedicated executives. And I think a bad news is: you don’t have a team. Your LT members’ degree of interpersonal trust seems low. They don’t engage in unguarded group discussions. They don’t talk about the ‘elephants in the room’ such as the lack of collaboration across departments, or the deeper issues at hand -the impact of their leadership-style on the engagement survey results for instance-. However, I sense you can overturn the situation quite fast, as a team, if you all put your minds and hearts to it.” The CEO requested me to elaborate and then decided to embark on a team-building exercise focused on revisiting their leadership style and ensuring it stimulates greater collaboration and agility across the Organization.

As a preparation, I interviewed all LT members one-on-one about the dynamics at play in their team, its strengths and weaknesses, and their beliefs about how the LT could instill greater collaboration company-wide. It appeared that the connections between LT members were rather superficial and that each one thought rather poorly of a few others –or even mistrusted them- but would not address issues directly with them. It also became clear that most LT members equated doing well in their job to having their own department reach its own objectives, and mostly employed a risk-averse, paternalistic management style to that end. Overall, LT members did not hold each other accountable and were far from role-modeling collaboration as a leadership team. They did not feel ‘safe’ voicing their ideas in their LT meetings, and the rather dominant manner of the CEO did not help in those matters When I shared my impressions with him, he volunteered to question his leadership style, understand its impact on the team-interactions, and then adjust to influence more positively.

Excerpts from our coaching work

The retreat days happened in a small boutique resort by the sea in Thailand. Participants were invited to participate in short and easy yoga sessions before breakfast and walks and exercises on the beach along the day. They all chose to attend every activity.

At the start of the first retreat-day, I reminded them about what we wanted to achieve, and then we engaged in a (falsely) soft exercise: share “3 outstanding and unique things about oneself … that no one else knows in the leadership team, good and not so good.” (participants had been invited to prepare this sharing a few days before, so it came as no surprise).

The CEO had shared with me his own 3 points ahead of time, and was ready to go for authentic disclosure first. Yet –surprise! surprise?-, Siew Eng, the most guarded executive, raised her hand first and spoke out –obviously impeccably prepared-. In summary: outstanding academic awards, dedication to family and (slightly) adventurous moments abroad… She seemed relieved after her statement, oblivious that she just wasted her opportunity to genuinely open-up to her peers… I was about to ‘activate’ the CEO, to ‘lead by example’ everyone into real ‘disclosure’ zone, when Edison, the charismatic Singaporean manufacturing VP, volunteered with his usual confident, cheeky grin. “First, I probably failed more times than anyone here! I had a head-start with low grades at school. Had much more fun with outdoors activities. As a freshman at university, I continued to do just enough to pass exams, as life was so good to enjoy. Until my Father abruptly died. Devastating shock. I felt I was reborn overnight as… a man, with responsibility (…)” Now we were getting the right spin…

Aranya, the materialistic, ambitious and distant sales VP from Thailand, followed suit –and took everyone by surprise-: “You don’t know that I come from a poor family, I mean really poor. My mother ran a small laundry shop and my father left when I was four years old. So I developed a sense for survival early and money quickly became important. My first job was cleaning my relatives’ houses when I was nine. I will always remember the moment when I got my first salary of… just a few dollars! That day I promised myself I wouldn’t ever lack money once I’d graduate. I know I must now get over my focus on financial security, and you are welcome to hold me accountable for this, guys!” Good-hearted laughter erupted in supportive appreciation of this courageous disclosure 9 (which Aranya and I had talked about beforehand). In one moment, the connection with Aranya had been restarted. The remaining LT members honoured her with their own candid –and brave at times- self-disclosures.

Multiple lessons were learnt from the exercise, in particular: (1) LT members knew very little about each other on a personal level, and (2) that was really hindering the building of trust in each other (3) stopping ‘pretending being perfect’, acting authentically and displaying some degree of vulnerability instead, were safe in that environment.

The next activity had everyone write down the one thing s/he appreciated the most about each of her/his peers, on their individual “Certificate of Appreciation” sheet. So simple an exercise, yet so helpful in rekindling trust… I know that most participants actually keep that certificate preciously in their desk…

Certificate of Appreciation presented to:

My next question to LT members was: “now, how do your subordinates know what you appreciate about them?” was met with an embarrassed silence. I pressed on with “what could hold a manager back from letting her or his team-members know about what they are doing well and what they could improve?”, and that led us to discuss the importance of providing frequent feedback to enhance subordinates’ sense of self-worth, capability and motivation.

Then we raised the bar, and everyone had to share candidly (A) her/his greatest value-added to the team, in just one word, and (B) the one thing s/he wanted to improve, to become a better contributor to the team. Our harvest was abundant: ‘clarity’, ‘assurance’, ‘energy’, ‘understanding’, ‘vision’, ‘consistency’… amongst others, on the value-added side. On the self-improvement side: ‘more empathy in interactions with you’ (said Aranya), ‘more authenticity’ (shared Siew Eng, who had picked up the spirit of the game by then…), ‘more listening’, ‘ask for help’, ‘be more positive’, ‘more systematic thinking’, etc…

The next exercise was simply about listing the employee’s toxic behaviors which were hindering collaboration and agility in the organization. A few examples of what came out:

  • “keeping quiet”
  • “complaining”
  • “slow response”
  • “not sharing information”
  • “lack of initiative”
  • “’no-idea’, ‘don’t-know’ responses”
  • “selfishness”
  • “gossiping”
  • “not-my-job attitude”
  • “not listening”
  • “lack of genuine commitment”

We went on to tackle the more difficult task of identifying the beliefs, fears and thinking-patterns which were underlying those negative comportments. Fear of mistake, fear of rejection, low self-esteem were amongst the findings. And it became clear the LT members had to change the employees’ beliefs and thinking first, to transform the behaviors next.

Then the LT was challenged to answer the question “who are we being as leaders, that our employees nurture those negative beliefs, fears and thinking-patterns?” A courageous and far-reaching group-conversation ensued, where the CEO bravely questioned some of his habits, and the 10 downsides of paternalism, lack of subordinates’ development and a mistake-averse culture were addressed.

Then the LT decided what beliefs and thinking they wanted to adopt, advertise and anchor instead across the company. Here is part of the outcome:

  • “we are all valuable and imperfect”
  • “everyone has something worthwhile to share”
  • “we can choose to grow from any feedback we receive”
  • “we all have grow others’ talents and self-confidence and help play at their best, not only within our own department”
  • “being authentic (show up as who we are) helps build trust”
  • “it is worth to trust others first (while monitoring)”
  • “everyone is a part of the solution”

The next challenge was for the LT to choose which specific behaviors they wanted in the company for further collaboration and agility, and would have to role-model so as to anchor them over time. Eventually they narrowed the list down to five desired behaviors.  One of them was “openness” and the team had to articulate what displaying “openness” would look like:

  • “Admitting mistake, saying sorry (for example if we didn’t listen well); welcoming / asking for feedback”
  • “Sharing information »
  • “Responding to questions (not ignoring them)”
  • “Asking for ideas and follow-up”
  • “Recognizing contributions in real-time”
  • “Providing communication channels for suggestions and feedback”
  • “Not punishing if something said is wrong (as long as it is respectful)”
  • “Listening for understanding »
  • “Withholding judgment, giving sufficient time for others to formulate their ideas”

The next days of the team journey were devoted to further in-depth work and monitoring what impact their team-resolutions had on accountability, engagement across the company. The LT designed interventions with the middle-management team to embark them on the journey, which LT members facilitated themselves, with my (minimal) support. One-on-one coaching was offered to each LT member between team sessions.

Outcome

Early along the journey, the CEO noted that “the LT [had] become a lot more authentic and cohesive in its interactions, and the subsequent improvement of the discussions-quality [had enabled] better decisions and a far higher level of commitment from all.”

At the conclusion, he shared: “I can’t believe what happened; how fast LT members gained genuine self-confidence and grew from it; how well they have come to help each other play at their best; and how their transformation inspired our middle management. The impact on collaboration and agility across the whole company is very visible, and that’s over a relatively short period of time. It’s also amazing to see how harmoniously and effectively they leverage both Western and Asian values in their collaboration. We are greatly strengthening our competitive position in all of our markets, and I believe this exercise is a major success-driver.”

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