Team working and development School Senior Leader Level 7 Apprenticeship
Welcome & Introductions (PowerPoint will be shared & a Podcast will be available for each session)
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Aim
AIM & OBJECTIVES
To explore how senior leaders create the conditions for high-performing, collaborative and continually developing teams.
Objectives • Analyse how team and organisational dynamics influence engagement, collaboration and performance. (K10) • Evaluate approaches to strategic workforce development and building capability for future organisational needs. (K11, S1, B5) • Explore how senior leaders communicate strategic direction and translate vision into meaningful action for teams. (S13) • Consider how to create an open, high-performing culture with clear goals, accountability and appropriate empowerment. (S16, B1) • Evaluate how senior leaders influence and build constructive relationships across teams and organisational boundaries. (S17)
What creates a high-performing team? What makes it work? • • • •
What do people do? What does the leader do? What conditions enable people to perform? What happens when things go wrong? High performance is not simply about having high-performing individuals.
Reflection Identify one team you have led, worked in or observed that you would describe as high-performing
What made the difference?
What creates a high-performing team? What made the difference? • • • •
What do people do? What does the leader do? What conditions enable people to perform? What happens when things go wrong? High performance is not simply about having high-performing individuals.
High-performing teams are shaped by interacting conditions Purpose Shared direction and understanding of why the work matters
Clarity Clear priorities, roles, expectations and accountabilities
Trust Confidence to contribute, challenge, disagree and take appropriate risks
High-performing teams are shaped by interacting conditions Interdependence People working across roles and boundaries rather than in isolation
Adaptability Capacity to learn, respond and adjust as circumstances change
Leadership Creating and maintaining the conditions for collective performance
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Lencioni) Inattention to results Avoidance of Accountability Lack of Commitment Fear of Conflict Absence of Trust
Where would you intervene? A team is delivering results – but beneath the surface: • Meetings are polite, but difficult issues are rarely challenged. • Two strong individuals dominate discussion and decision-making. • People increasingly work within their own areas rather than collaboratively. • Deadlines are met, but problems are escalated upwards rather than resolved within the team. • Development tends to focus on immediate performance gaps rather than future capability. • The leader is becoming increasingly involved in operational decisions.
You are the senior leader. What concerns you most and where would you intervene first?
Breakout • Catch up • Discuss the following prompts and prepare to give feedback
Discuss 1. What is really happening within this team? 2. What would you tackle first – and why? 3. What would you do, rather than simply tell the team to do? 4. What might happen if you intervene in the wrong place?
Senior leadership is not only about the team you need today…
…it is about building the capability you will need next.
Consider: • • • • •
What capabilities will we need in the future? What skills and knowledge do we already have? Where are our vulnerabilities and dependencies? Who has the potential to develop further? How will roles and ways of working need to change? • What happens if key people leave?
Preparing your workforce for what comes next… …you cannot develop future capability by looking only at your organisation today.
Reflection… What change on your organisation's horizon could have the greatest impact on the capability you will need from your people? • What capability will you need that you don't have enough of now? • What should you be doing about it already?
From vision to action… …people cannot contribute to a strategy they do not understand.
Senior leaders need to translate:
WHY Why does this matter? WHERE
Where are we trying to get to?
Senior leaders need to translate:
WHAT What does this mean for our organisation/team?
HOW
What need to change in practice?
Senior leaders need to translate:
ME What does this mean for my role and contribution?
Senior leaders need to translate: The LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE Can people explain the strategy… …or have they simply been told about it?
Empowerment or abdication? Empowerment does not mean letting go of accountability.
The leadership tension…
Too much control → dependency, compliance, bottlenecks
The leadership tension…
Too little clarity → confusion, inconsistency, unmanaged risk
The leadership tension…
Effective empowerment → clear direction + appropriate autonomy + accountability
The leadership tension…
Effective empowerment → clear direction + appropriate autonomy + accountability
Breakout • Catch up • Discuss the following prompts and prepare to give feedback
Discuss: •
Where is the line between empowering someone and simply leaving them to get on with it?
•
What happens when you need to lead and influence people over whom you don't actually have direct authority?
•
How do you maintain accountability without taking ownership back from the people you have empowered?
Leading across boundaries Senior leadership increasingly means influencing beyond your direct authority.
You may need to lead across… Teams Different priorities, pressures and ways of working
Functions Expertise and accountability sitting in different parts of the organisation
You may need to lead across… Matrix structures People accountable to more than one leader, project or workstream
Organisational boundaries Partners, stakeholders and other organisations you cannot simply direct
Reflection… How effectively can you lead when you cannot rely on your position to make people follow?
Reflection: Team working and development Thinking about your leadership practice... • What has challenged your thinking most during this session? • Where might you be creating dependency when you intend to empower? • What future capability does your team or organisation need you to start developing now? • What is one thing you will do differently as a result of today?
Connecting to your EPA Your Strategic Business Proposal Think about how your proposal demonstrates that you can: • Build organisational capability – consider the people, skills, capacity and development needed to deliver your strategic proposal successfully. • Turn strategy into action – show how you will communicate direction, create ownership and establish clear responsibilities and accountability. • Lead through others – consider how you will engage, influence and empower the teams and stakeholders needed to implement and sustain your proposal.
Aim
AIM & OBJECTIVES
To explore how senior leaders create the conditions for high-performing, collaborative and continually developing teams.
Objectives • Analyse how team and organisational dynamics influence engagement, collaboration and performance. (K10) • Evaluate approaches to strategic workforce development and building capability for future organisational needs. (K11, S1, B5) • Explore how senior leaders communicate strategic direction and translate vision into meaningful action for teams. (S13) • Consider how to create an open, high-performing culture with clear goals, accountability and appropriate empowerment. (S16, B1) • Evaluate how senior leaders influence and build constructive relationships across teams and organisational boundaries. (S17)
Looking back across all ten classrooms…
…what stands out for you?
Your leadership journey continues… Keep questioning Keep learning Keep challenging Keep developing others Keep leading with purpose
Learn. Share. Grow.
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