I’ve been working with teams for the last twenty years as a coach – and prior to that was in a variety of junior and senior global and virtual teams myself. I was also on the UK Board of the ICF for two years.
In all that time, I’ve come to realise the importance of team resilience – particularly when the pressure is on. Because whilst there are many external pressures on teams and organisations that we may not be able to control there are also a lot of things that we CAN influence and change. The problem is, so many teams get stuck in what I call the ‘victim spiral’ and put all their energy into feeling helpless, ‘done to’ and powerless – this isn’t helpful for them, for their collective health and well-being or for the organisation.
Here are what I believe to be the six characteristics of a resilient team:
- The team has a common purpose
- The team has a high level of trust for each other (or as Peter Hawkins in his book Leadership Coaching says :’enough trust to disclose their mistrust’)
- The team has candid and honest conversations
- The team can think resiliently
- The team manages its energy as well as its time
- The team has habits/rituals/behaviours that support its resilience
I’ll explain these characteristics in more detail over the coming weeks.
P.S. If you’re interested in all things team I wanted to let you know about a podcast that my colleague Lois Burton and I recorded for you. It’s a 35 minute listen on How to deliver outstanding results as a Team Coach (the Ten essentials). There’s a worksheet that goes with it too. Contact pat@lynnscottcoaching.co.uk to receive the podcast and the worksheet.