Test Self Post

The part I enjoy most about team coaching is when I witness individual team members holding each other accountable, with confidence and respect and without the fear of conflict. Because I know this is when they’ve cracked it, when the only direction for that team is on a fast track to high performance!

Lencioni describes a team that avoids accountability as one that:

• Creates resentment amongst team members who have different standards of performance.
• Encourages mediocrity.
• Misses deadlines and key deliverables.
• Places an undue burden on the team leader as the sole source of discipline.

Which can result in conflict, strained relationships, reduction in productivity, increased staff turnover & absence, decreased sales, poor service and poor morale. You get the picture.

However, a team that holds each other accountable:

• Ensures the poor performers feel pressure to improve.
• Identify potential problems quickly by questioning each other’s approach and thought processes without hesitation – in fact its expected.
• Establishes respect among team members who are held to the same high standards.

Result : increased morale, low staff turnover & absence, high standards of performance, increased sales, great customer service – in essence high performing teams.

Trouble is, when that one person who has been allowed to get away with ‘it’ for so many years its very difficult to challenge, it has become part of your culture.

Everyone quietly wishes somebody would get a grip of it, but no one does.

I often hear comments like, ‘ah that’s just him.. (or her) you won’t change him now!

But that’s where you’re wrong.

The Growth Momentum programme includes monthly team coaching sessions where team progress is mapped, tracked and discussed regularly with the team. Culture is clearly defined, the team’s purpose, values and guiding principles are created by the team and in turn discussed (as a team) every month. So any seeds of toxicity are nipped firmly in the bed and not allowed to fester and grow into big oak trees that can’t be moved.

It really can make a difference.

Often it makes sense to get an independent pair of eyes on the issue. It can be easier for an external coach to challenge and call out the stuff that you and others have let go so many times.

Contact us if any of this resonates, let me show you what the programme can do to help you and your team achieve new levels of results!

Oh yes – what does this have to do with me and my little dog Gracie Girl climbing Pen-Y-Fan in Bannau Brycheiniog?

Well I was being held accountable of course – for foolishly claiming (after a sherbet or two) ‘it can’t be that hard to climb!’