It’s around this time of year that I see the trend emerging. I hear it directly from clients.
The new year brings new energy, most of the time! You will recognise the following:
- Teams spend some time clarifying ambitions, strategies and roles. Hopefully they check in on their ‘why’ too.
- This leaves team members feeling empowered. They feel connected and committed.
- The time spent together, working on themselves, brings alignment, ownership and accountability.
And then new challenges emerge as the weeks pass by. Some personal, some professional.
The downward trend
People focus on the urgent matters, some important matters start to get left to the side. Team meetings focus on tactics and activity.
Commitment to previously clarified ‘important’ shared objectives starts to wane.
High-achievers revert to their own agenda. Not in some ‘quitting’ way, nor a malicious one.
They’re simply programmed to row their own boat first, and fastest.
And in many cases, they’re incentivised to do so too.
The thriving Eco-system hands control back to the fear-based Ego-system.
They’re no longer a team. They’re just a bunch of individuals with a similar reporting line.
Everyone rows off beat, and in different directions. There’s no alignment and accountability suffers.
Protecting against the downward trend
If a leader and his/her team have a clear Team Charter (a way of understanding each other, trusting each other and working effectively together), they adapt to new challenges and changing circumstances quicker.
They actively use those changes and challenges as examples of what needs to change in their operating model, their working dynamic.
They grow by leveraging the discomfort they feel.
You’ve enough to deal with today, without having to do it alone.
If things blow up for you or someone else, you can share what you choose to. In a trusted and trusting team, they’ll have your back.
Creating Ownership and Accountability
You can cultivate that trust. You can nourish the ‘high-performing’ DNA of the team by bringing the team back together to address what needs to be addressed.
You can be the agent of change to free your team up to achieve what needs to be achieved.
Take time to step back and use your team members examples of challenges, awkwardness, unwanted behaviours, setbacks along with the examples of trust, wins and flow states, by reviewing:
- What’s working well?
- What could be improved?
- What are we learning?
- What will we do differently?