Leadership & Management Coaching

The reduction of the worker to a living tool...must either demoralise or...produce resentment and result in serious difficulties between masters and men
Cadbury 1914 Teamwork

Team Development

We have a unique approach to developing better performance in teams that draws upon our own experiences and the many analogies that exist for exemplary team working in the fields of sport, industry and the armed services. It recognises that Leadership is nothing without followers and yet understanding what behaviours makes followers effective in teams is something that is often overlooked in organisations. One set of commonly used ‘followership’ principles is shown below:

The Followership Principles:

  1. Know yourself & seek Improvement
  2. Be technically competent & tactically proficient
  3. Comply with directions
  4. Initiate appropriate actions in the absence of direction or orders
  5. Develop and apply a sense of responsibility
  6. Take responsibility for your own actions
  7. Make sound & timely decisions / recommendations
  8. Set an example to other followers and other leaders
  9. Be familiar with your leader & his job; anticipate his needs
  10. Keep leaders informed
  11. Understand the task - accomplish it ethically
  12. Be a team member but not a ‘yes’ man

We use these principles as a way of assessing the effectiveness of teams (at all levels) within organisations, not by some remote form filling exercise, but in ‘real time’ through facilitated discussion that does not pull back from getting to the real issues behind sub-optimal performance. These kind of discussions can be tough - they are the equivalent of a half-time team talk between the players where complete honesty is a fundamental requirement for an improved second-half performance that leads to victory. The team leader and her/his followers all participate in this process as equals before committing to the goals actions and behaviours necessary for success.

Interested? Please contact us for a free, no commitment discussion on how we can help to change your teams into ‘winning teams’!