In the face of today's BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear, incomprehensible) world, the need for "teamship infused leadership" is more important than ever. It requires leadership courage and self awareness to uncover blind spots and break out of limiting autopilot patterns. Yet, paradoxically, the most effective way for leaders and senior management to transform their organizations is to uncover the organization's synergy of teamship AND leadership - and harness that power to become higher performing, more results focused, increasingly effective, and organizationally and individually growth oriented.
This is not about abandoning organizational structure but evolving it to support continuous learning and innovation, decentralized decision-making, and authentic collaboration. In the process, leaders will evolve to model vulnerability and actively challenge the status quo, realizing that genuine transformation is possible only when a teamship mindset it firmly entrenched in the organization.
Beyond the buzz words, teamship underpins a bias for schedule and time attentiveness, getting it right (early), taking smart risks and experimenting, fostering curiosity, encouraging candor, keeping it simple and focused, and holding a space where the best in everyone rises to the surface and is celebrated. As James W. Tamm so succinctly coined in his book Radical Collaboration, "Collaboration starts inside you first, then moves out into individual relationships, teams, and organizations." Teamship encompasses the whole - and when it imbues leadership, a powerful potential emerges.
Your TEAMSHIP INFUSED LEADERSHIP JOURNEY can begin right here, right now!
You can only fully understand the system of an organization (or the Mount Everest Massif) by contemplating the whole, not any individual part of the structure or processes. Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing all elements holistically. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing ‘patterns of change’ rather than static ‘snapshots’ of tasks or objectives.
Through a systems lens, the objective of a team coach is to harness the collective collaborative potential in an organization by creating and building a potent teamship mindset and framework.
Teamship is an organizational state – not a certification or series of checked off boxes from a workshop or seminar. In tandem with progressive leadership, it becomes a catalyst that can effectively connect the interdependencies of most or all organization systems.
I thought I had a plan around my goals, but am unclear where I am currently heading. Even though I am a VP, I feel stuck and lacking motivation and orientation as to what I should be doing in my career.
As the team lead, I am concerned we are not performing like we used to - collectively and individually. The more we try to collaborate, the more we struggle to find common ground, and the more ineffective the Team becomes.
Our organization continues to struggle with how to adapt to all the changes in the workplace the market, and how to retain good employees. Teamship seems to make sense conceptually - I understand why and what. I remain unclear how to turn things around.
We have talented, bright, and experienced people on the team, but we seem to be lacking the will and direction to effectively collaborate, create and perform. We are functioning more like a working group than a high performing Team.
Every person on the team knows what is happening, but is afraid to speak up. Because we need that person's experience on the team, we avoid the conflict. Unfortunately, the situation is getting worse and adversely affecting the team's performance
I have a hard time trusting the people on my Team. I find myself micro-managing far too much because I don't have the confidence in my peers. Team members are lacking in trust and psychological safety and it is negatively impacting our performance.