April 2023 – How you influence the performance of your team.
We’ve all been there…those times when a boss or an executive team behaves in a way that doesn't enable us to perform at our best.
We all need the right conditions to do our best work and to be at our best, this is true for you as a leader and it's equally true for your team.
So, are you showing up and behaving in a way which will enable your team to do their best work and be at their best?
Take a moment to reflect on the question a bit deeper with these self-coaching points.
You can use Activity 1 on your Activity Sheet to capture your thinking:
Are my team doing their best work and at their best, all the time?
What opportunities are there to enhance the outcomes of my team?
How is the performance of my team impacting organisational success?
Consider this on a collective and individual basis.
Take some time to reflect on your thinking, what are you noticing?
How might you be influencing this
Consider this in terms of positive and negative influences.
The performance and conduct of your team are directly related to how you and your senior leadership colleagues are leading them.
They all have their Individual talents, capabilities and behaviours, and these absolutely influence their abilities to perform, but for them to deliver what’s good for them, you, and the business, they need the right environment.
What I mean by the right environment is the safety to be vulnerable, a trusting team and relationship with you, and feeling empowered. We covered aspects of this psychological safety in the February edition. If you completed the work, go back to it, and reflect on where you are. If you haven't done it yet, now is a good time to complete it alongside this one.
You are directly responsible for this environment and the psychological safety of your team.
Let's watch this video clip:
Every time I watch this clip by Simon Sinek, it energises me. It gets me excited about the possibility and responsibility of leadership. It also highlights the realities of a poor environment and the impacts of this on people who can do great things.
This video provides examples which bring to life the direct influence you have. You are the person most responsible for the performance of your team.
For Activity 2, take some time to listen and absorb what Simon shares about the impact of leadership on team performance. You can use your Activity Sheet to capture your notes as you are watching. What are your thoughts and feelings?
To get the most out of it, I'd recommend you watch it without taking notes, take 5-10 minutes to reflect and then watch it again, capturing the key points for you.
The focus of the video is trusting teams, but the core message is “what you do as a leader matters”. You create the environment, and your consistency in maintaining it is symbolic of how you are leading.
In February's edition of Purple Sky Thinking for Leaders, we looked at the importance of the interactions between you and the team, among the team themselves and how you role model.
Here, I want you to focus mainly on you and the impact you are having on the performance of your team.
You can use the provided Activity Sheet or your own notebook to help you work through your thinking and actions on the remaining activities.
Consider the thinking and reflections you have already done, including the key points you've captured from the Simon Sinek clip.
Activity 3 - How are you showing up as a leader?
What are the key things you are doing which are Influencing the performance of your team?
You might want to consider getting some feedback from your team/your peer group/your own leader to help you do this effectively. Being self-aware is really important as a leader, but the research shows only 10-15% of people are truly self-aware; gaining feedback and using coaching techniques is a great way to increase your self-awareness.
As well as considering these questions for yourself, they would also be useful questions to ask others for feedback:
How do I positively contribute to the performance of you/the team?
How do I slow you/us down?
How do I get in the way of our best possible performance?
What advice would you give me to ensure you can do your best work?
What advice would you give me to ensure the team Is doing its best work?
How well do I support and enable positive well-being for Individuals and the team collectively?
Does the team feel psychologically safe?
Activity 4 - Whilst you are in the process of gathering feedback and reviewing your reflections, consider how you want to be showing up consistently as the leader of your team.
Based on what you have already learnt from your own experiences and wider learning you've completed. What are going to be your consistent mindsets and behaviours to measure yourself against?
Activity 5 - Capture the mindsets and behaviours you are going to consistently apply. I'd recommend no more than 5; this is so you can focus on doing those really well.
You'll find being consistent with at least 5 positive and effective mindsets and behaviours will have an influence on your total leadership style, so as long as you are consistent with your top 5, you'll reap the rewards of this, and so will your team.
How do you identify your top 5?
Look for themes in your reflections and feedback. What are people telling you, you already do well and how it positively contributes to your team doing their best work and being their best? Stick with at least 3 of these themes because they are already working.
Look at your reflections and the advice you've been given about where you may get in the way of the team doing their best work. What do you need to do differently to address those reflections and respond to the advice?
Activity 6 - Decide how you are going to hold yourself to account.
This is important as it gives you focus and sets your intent. The best ways to set your intentions are to:
Write them up and put them somewhere prominent.
Make them part of your performance review, with yourself and with your own leader. If you work with a leadership coach, they can work with you on how to implement any changes to enable your top 5 and support you in reviewing and understanding your progress.
Share them with your team. Tell them what you want to work on based on your self-reflections and their feedback. This is a powerful way of demonstrating you care and you are listening to what they need. Ask them to share with you when they see you being consistent with your top 5 and when you are not.
I hope you enjoy the time you spend reflecting and having conversations about how you are showing up as a leader. This is about you taking your continual and ongoing development as a leader seriously. It's about you recognising and acting on the importance of the role you have.
Sometimes these exercises may feel challenging because you are fearful of what you will hear or because you aren't sure how to address the feedback you might get. You might think you don't have time for it. If these are the thoughts crossing your mind, let me get you thinking about these points:
How much time and energy does it take when the team aren't at their best?
How much more joy will you feel being a leader who consistently and truly enables their team to do their best work and to be at their best?
I hope that you found your Purple Sky Thinking for Leaders useful and thought-provoking this month.
Please let me know if there is anything that I can do to make this an even more valuable experience for your leadership learning. I’d love to hear your feedback either in the comments or by emailing me at anwen@purpleskyconsulting.co.uk.
See you in May!
Would a safe space to explore your thinking take your leadership to the next level?
Then it's time to get a Leadership Coach.
Coaching is a way to grow and develop in the flow of your work, in a way which puts you at the centre.
Contact me here for an informal conversation about how Leadership Coaching can help you.