Years ago I worked for a South African consulting company. In my first year I brought in just short of R1million, representing a greater than 100% return on their investment in me. I also built a team, with the help of the area manager, of cracker-jack facilitators. After I left to start my own business, I [...]
In the book "Leading Teams" the author, Professor J Richard Hackman of Harvard University, describes five conditions for effective teams. Here is a view on the model which I have introduced here at; Five Conditions and Three Outcomes for Teams. But what about the personal attributes of the leader? Can anyone create the five conditions? [...]
a model for working with teams
Five basic conditions for creating and maintaining effective teams
team build games are an excellent way for teams to learn new skills and behaviours. But how do you go about setting up a successful team game
There is a shift in the balance of power that happens in a typical coaching, mentoring or managerial relationship. The model offers a passage through four quadrants each of which offers clues to how to manage a relationship conforming to the quadrant.
The illustration for this note, 'Sword of Purpose', comes from the highly developed work of Wylie Beckert who posts on DeviantArt as 'Wylielise'. I would strongly recommend anyone with the slightest interest in visual art to visit her website to see the magic she has created and reflect on the skill and care she brings [...]
There are many models describing change. Here is one offered to us on the I-Coach masters programme. I used two pictures because the formal 'four-box' picture just does not get near to describing the confusion, frustration and despair that accompanied the learning process for me. I would like to have extended the 'despair' block right [...]
Conversation is a powerful mechanism to draw a team around a plan of action if we understand how the process works and how to harness the dynamics. This is how my friend Arthur Gobey describes how ideas align: The arrows at the top are supposed to indicate how people arrive for a conversation with different [...]
Our theoretical stance, as coaches, describes what we believe about mankind and how we expect change to take place. I believe as multifaceted people, we can benefit from different perspectives in coaching. These perspectives should preferably be congruent but even if they are not, as long as the coach and client are clear on the [...]
