Alliance for Leadership Acceleration

A high performance team is a self-managing, multifunctional group of people organized around a whole process and empowered with full authority for their success. Characteristics include:

• A shared mission or purpose that motivates and inspires members
• Autonomy and authority for task performance
• Interdependence and shared leadership
• Broadly-defined jobs and many responsibilities
• Meaningful participation in decision making
• Higher performance than individuals not organized into teams

Although all high performing teams share certain characteristics in common, there are also some important distinctions between them.  Organizations need to recognize these distinctions. If you take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to teams, you very likely will experience some problems such as:

• Poor performance as team members try to use a structure that doesn’t fit with the nature of their work processes.
• Frustration at the difficulty of working together productively.
• Disillusionment with the team concept as relationships grow difficult and people thing fondly of the “good old days before those nuts in management put us into this crazy team.”

​For example, these are four very different types of teams. Each type is differentiated by their need for specialization and coordination.

​Key Points for each Type:

Type 1 – Swim Team: high specialization and low coordination. Work is divided between various specialties. Each specialty consists of a distinctive set of skills. There is little coordination needed between specialties.  Examples:  Geriatrics team providing care for elderly, High School Teachers.

Type 2 – Football Team: Made up of people from different disciplines. Requires a high degree of coordination. Examples: Product Development Teams, Hospital E.R., Executive Leadership Team.

Type 3 – Bowling Team: Low in both specialization and coordination. Team members share same skill set but have little need to coordinate or communicate. Examples: Telephone operators, Bill Collectors, Bank Tellers.

Type 4 – Volleyball Team: Members share common skills. High need for coordination. Generally organized around completing a “whole task” and cross-trained to do one another’s jobs.
​

What about the other teams that you interact with? Are they the same, or different? How might the way you approach each differ?

Are you part of a team that needs alignment? Ask us about our 1/2 Day Team Alignment Workshop.

Marketing gurus always tout that you get far more bang for your buck by developing existing customers than trying to find new ones. The same value and resulting higher benefit applies to developing talent internally rather than sourcing it externally. However, so many executives have experienced first-hand, the myriad of failed leadership development investments. That doesn't mean there isn't a good solution.

In fact, leadership development solutions that work are well documented.  The requirements include the right balance of: assessment data, skill building, 1:1 coaching, peer solution development, real-world application, time, and accountability. But there are very few programs available to bring in-house, that integrate all of these areas, are proven, measurable, adaptable, and scalable.

The best organizations want development of leaders to happen internally, across teams, so they can work within their culture and learn from employees as they transform from manager to leader. But developing custom curriculum takes time and is somewhat unproven--ultimately a risky and hefty investment in today's agile, fast-moving corporate environment. The question is no longer "should we build or buy?" when it comes to strong leaders and middle management; the question is, "how do we build leaders in a cost effective way and show measurable results?"

This is the reason we're suddenly seeing so much adoption of the LEAP University approach. While LEAP has historically been a "public" offering allowing organizations to send one or two leaders to be developed, we're seeing a significant uptick in organizations that are bringing the program in-house to develop a broader cross-section of their leaders from within.

LEAP University is scalable to fit organizations in two ways:

CERTIFY INTERNAL RESOURCES. Certify and develop internal experts to coach, facilitate, and manage unlimited LEAP cohorts internally, across the organization, gives you maximum flexibility and scalability. Additional benefits include:

1. Stickiness. The program isn't an event that happens, but a culture of leadership learning that is being developed.
2. Acceleration. Having internal resources who understand the existing culture and are available to members and leaders alike, helps accelerate the transformation of both individuals and the organization for lasting improvement, not short-term gains.
   
3. Transformation. In addition to transforming managers into leaders who collaborate, improve productivity, and develop high-performing teams, the organization has a growing pool of highly skilled leaders where change initiatives and strategies are more easily integrated into the business for strong results.
   

ENGAGE AN EXTERNAL EXPERT. Sometimes, culture, quest for external knowledge, or availability of resources call for bringing in a third party professional. In this scenario, organizations contract with our LEAP Certified Coach/Facilitators to organize, assess, facilitate, and coach through the transformation. Benefits of bringing in an external resource include:

1. Leveraged Resources. No need to allocate internal resources  who don't have the time or the required expertise.
   
2. Expertise. LEAP coaches and facilitators are experts with a wealth of knowledge who have completed rigorous certification and have a track record of leadership and achievement in their own right. Their "outsider" experience provides credibility and examples that contribute to accelerated learning and support learners with their specific challenges.
   
3. Acceleration. Detachment from internal politics and confidentiality can mean more willingness and openness during the transformation/journey -- ultimately accelerating the right changes in the individual or team. 
   

Buying talent is expensive and risky because ultimately you don't know what you will get. Building your existing talent is less risky and pays much bigger dividends to the business. Which pathway is right for your organization? There's no one right way, it's a decision best determined by honest reflection of your organization's needs, culture, and resources.

If you own a consulting/coaching business, chances are, your business is you. And there’s only so much one person can do! Even though I’ve been running a successful consulting business since 1999, I still have peaks and valleys. And, I work with a lot of really impressive coaches and I see them struggling with the same challenges. After some reflection, I’ve boiled it down to three main struggles:

When I created LEAP® the Leadership Acceleration Program it was to fill a gap in leadership development offerings. What I didn’t realize was that having a packaged leadership development offering that targeted high-potential non-executives, also helped me with these three business challenges.

If you’ve been looking for something to help you grow but retain your sanity, LEAP might be the perfect program. We recently added 5 additional LEAP Certified Coaches in Washington (now we’re at 12) and we’re looking to expand the reach of LEAP in new markets outside of the Pacific Northwest. I would love to talk with you!

Our LEAP Coach Certifications happen 2-3 times per year. Learn more about the business model that makes this such an attractive program for coaches and consultants.

1.    STOP – When you sense you’re being ‘triggered’ or know what your triggers are and want to interrupt the pattern so you’re not sucked into an emotional or ineffective response.

2.    FOCUS on breathing.  Get oxygen to the brain in order to function most effectively. 

• Get oxygen to the brain in order to function most effectively. 
• Consciously slow down your breathing and breathe deeply

3.    REFRAME the assumptions and REGAIN perspective.  Work to suspend judgment and keep from jumping to conclusions.  Be curious and move away from “right/wrong” thinking. Questions such as these will help:

Know someone who needs to beef up their emotional intelligence muscle? With LEAP, the Leadership Acceleration Program, we work with managers/leaders to do just that.

Remember that you think and therefore you feel.  There are many choices when thinking about any given situation.  By changing how you describe the event to yourself, you can alter how you feel.  Use the scenarios below as a guide to identifying what's happening in a given situation and then practice changing your thinking about events.  It will take work and practice before some of these skills begin to become more automatic.  Challenging and examining thoughts can lead to increased emotional contentment and happiness.

Perceiving the world as black and white:  Not everything in the world is right or wrong, or black or white.  There are many grays and many choices.  Some are partly right or a better, if not perfect, choice.

Perfectionism:  Everyone makes mistakes.  Only through failure can we learn.  Edison tried many filaments to create the light bulb.  It may have taken you many tries to learn to ride a bicycle.

Pleasing others:  It is pleasant when others are pleased; however, it is not possible to please everyone.  Not everyone is going to like you no matter what you do.  The most important thing is to like YOU.

Catastrophising: It would be nice if everything were to go well, however, it often doesn’t.  If negative things happen, it is very unfortunate and even sad, but it is not usually a catastrophe.

Dependency:  Everyone can learn the skills necessary to be independent unless they have suffered a major stroke or other debilitating illness.  Learning new things takes time and practice; however, the effort pays off in feeling more positive about oneself.

Collecting Blame: It is not possible to control other people’s behavior and decisions nor is it possible to resolve emotional issues for them.  The only one you can change is yourself.  It is possible to support others emotionally, to care about others, and to offer some assistance.  It is not helpful to anyone if you become overly responsible or emotionally consumed by others.

Dwelling on the dangerous events in the world:  Constantly thinking about the negative produces anxiety.  Worry ahead is not helpful.

Labeling:  Calling others names (you jerk) may be momentarily satisfying; however, this process maintains anger and depression.  Describe the event rather than label.  (He dropped the ice cream on the floor.)

Life Must Be Fair:  It would be nice if things went our way.  However, life is filled with unfairness and unfortunate events.  The more important focus is how to cope with life when it isn’t what we want.

Know someone who needs to beef up their emotional intelligence muscle? With LEAP, the Leadership Acceleration Program, we work with managers/leaders on these very things.

Emotion is an ever-present energy in the workplace. Harnessing this untapped resource in a positive way can have a tremendous impact on the reasoning side of business.

The EQ Competence Framework includes 3 foundational areas: Attitude, Feeling, and Behavior. 

Within these lie three “Personal Intelligences” and three "Interpersonal Intelligences” which can also be thought of as competencies because all of these can be developed by anyone who chooses to develop them.

PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

• Self-Regard (Attitude) – The degree to which one accepts and values oneself.  To be ‘okay’ with oneself or having limited self-criticism.  “However I am and others are is OK.”
• Self-Awareness (Feeling) – Knowing one’s internal states, preferences, resources, and intuitions.  Includes: emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence.
• Self-Management (Behavior) – Managing one’s internal states, impulses, and resources.  Includes: self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, and innovation.

INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

• Regard for Others (Attitude) – The degree to which a person accepts and values others (distinct from liking or approving of what they might do.)  “However you and others are, is OK.”
• Awareness of Others (Feeling) – Empathy: awareness of others’ feelings, needs, and concerns.  Includes: understanding others, developing others, service orientation, leveraging diversity, and political awareness.
• Relationship Management (Behavior) – Adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others.  Includes: influence, communication, conflict management, leadership, change catalyst, building bonds, collaboration and cooperation, and team capabilities.

IQ has long been an important factor in the business world. However, when we look at the most successful leaders, we see more than IQ—we see EQ.  

Know someone who needs to beef up their emotional intelligence muscle? With LEAP, the Leadership Acceleration Program, we work with managers/leaders on these very things.

One step to predictable and enhanced team performance is understanding the common characteristics of teams that achieve exceptional results. Characteristics of an HP team:

• A common purpose/shared mission,
  
• Autonomy and authority,
  
• Interdependence and facilitative leadership,
  
• Clear Roles with broadly-defined jobs,
  
• Meaningful participation in decisions,
  
• Effective relationships.
  

One of the best models we’ve seen for creating HP teams is from a book called “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni.

Know someone who needs help creating and sustaining high performing teams? LEAP the Leadership Acceleration Program is the answer!

Delegating effectively is as much about getting more done as it is about empowering others and creating a high-performance organization. Delegating is often misunderstood and before we talk about the six steps to delegating effectively it is first important to understand what delegating is and what it is not.

Delegating is about sharing work, sharing authority, and providing employee development. Delegating is not about dumping your workload on someone else, letting go of all responsibility, or assigning work and checking the box done - never checking back to ensure it was done and done well.

Once you have defined what you need to delegate, then you can follow these 6 steps to delegate effectively:

1. Provide CLARITY about what you want done:  be specific and provide needed instruction.
   
2. MATCH the right task to the right individual.
3. Establish LEVELS of authority and autonomy – don’t hesitate to provide challenging assignments.
4. Determine RESOURCES and support for the individual.
5. Give clear DEADLINES for completion and discuss how & when you will check-in for follow-up.
6. Provide FEEDBACK on performance when assignment is complete.

Delegating effectively is one of the top 5 most consistently self-reported challenges that leaders struggle with. If you would like to know more about how LEAP the Leadership Acceleration Program can help you (or someone you know) become more effective at delegating, join us for an upcoming webinar.

In traditional organizations managers set goals, make decisions, establish and manage the budget, set policies, control the flow of information, etc.  In these organizations, managers are the “thinkers and planners” and employees are merely the “doers”.  This sets up an attitude of compliance in the minds of the workers.  People’s hearts are not in their work. They learn to get by, do the minimum and watch the clock.

In high-performance organizations, leaders recognize the value and potential of their human resources and want to get the most possible from them, so they create a culture and organizational design in which people participate in goal-setting, making decisions, and solving problems. People go beyond compliance to commitment in their motivation. They want to be part of the organization and are excited to contribute to its success and improvement.

What do you think would happen if your employees truly felt and acted like partners in the business?  What if they saw it as their business and not just your business?  What would be the consequences?