Teams that operate effectively are an organization's most impactful asset. At their best, elite teams are force multipliers that are assembled, guided and operated according to simple and effective principles that amplify the skills and contributions of its team members.
​​
However, most teams don't reach 'elite' levels, usually due to issues with individual leadership, group leadership, or lack of virtuous processes in team operation that keep everyone on elite teams focused on the most important issues.
​​
Does this sound like any of your teams? ​​We can help. We WANT to help. After all, working on elite teams is infinitely more rewarding than being on struggling teams.
Are your teams struggling?
We've all seen high performing teams - admired how sound the people dynamics are, how clear the roles are, and how aligned everyone is behind the vision/mission. Progress on those teams is almost always happening (and well-communicated), and the right kind of gut checks are applied and just part of their operating DNA.
Over the course of our careers, we've been part of - and built - high-functioning teams with these hallmarks. Unfortunately, we've also found these teams to be the exception rather than the rule. A far more common team is one that's not operating anywhere near its best, usually due to one or more of the following issues:
​​
-
They don't align behind a shared vision or goal, or are even unable to articulate one clearly
​ -
They make slower progress than they should, squandering valuable time and resources
​ -
They persistently disagree and bicker internally, often requiring outside leaders to step in and resolve unproductive arguments
​ -
They keep chasing new ideas before they've executed on - and learned from - the last one.
​ -
They have poor interactions with partner teams, both internal and external. It's hard to align with others when you're not aligned yourselves.
​ -
They consistently miss deadlines, citing excuse after excuse for their repeated misses
-
They deliver solutions that don't actually solve critical problems for the business
​​
​​The good news is, teams that overcome (or can avoid) these problems are MUCH more productive than teams that avoid addressing them, and we specialize in helping teams and leaders learn to operate much more effectively and reliably, building their confidence and yours.
What holds teams back:
Composition - Imbalances or missing contributions required to function at a high level
​​​​
Discipline - Missing the basic skills required for blocking and tackling
​​​
Communication - Lack of alignment around goals, priorities and strategies
​​​
Role clarity - Unclear or dissonant definition of responsibilities
​​​
Leadership - The team leader(s) fail to effectively confront or correct critical issues
Our Organizing Principle:
To be successful, leaders must understand how to effectively scale their impact by getting the most out of their teams, using skills they rarely learn while becoming standouts in their core discipline.
Fortunately, anyone can learn these skills - in the areas of team-building, critical thinking and communications - to become exceptional leaders at any level.
Why leaders often struggle (and how we help)
Most tech organizations recognize that “leadership” and "management" and “individual contribution” are different skill sets. For example:
​​​
-
They create separate career paths for individual contributors (IC's) vs. Managers
-
They have general awareness of common issues when moving standout IC's into management without the right training
-
They usually recognize when teams don’t perform well under the leaders who were highly capable ICs
​​​​
But it’s common for those same org leaders to struggle with knowing what exactly is needed to help these top contributors cross the bridge into being exceptional leaders that fuel high-performing teams, including:
​​​
-
Investing in the critical first step of creating the right leadership team, and understanding / managing the personal dynamics, interactions and gaps within that team.
-
Establishing critical team cadences and processes that set shared expectations and updates, and reenforce virtuous dynamics within the team
-
Creating a shared vocabulary, mental models and frameworks for team operation, including alignment, critical-thinking, problem-solving, and communications.
-
Re-wiring the “hero mode” habits they’ve been rewarded for, and building the delegation and Socratic leadership skills that empower their team members.
​​
We've built long, successful careers in the games industry on the foundations of coaching teams and individual leaders how to learn and apply these rare but critical skills.
A practical, comprehensive approach to coaching
Most self-help materials in the realm of leadership are either highly targeted to a narrow slice of the craft of leading, or are mostly collections of random anecdotal lessons. Sadly, most corporate-sponsored training leadership programs are too generic. While these are useful, they have significant limitations for leaders who really need to hone and develop their own craft of leadership to be effective.
​
We help fill in the gaps and connect the dots for both individuals and leadership teams so that these managers, directors, presidents and executives can learn to operate high performing teams at any level of an organization.
​​​
-
We focus on directly guiding your most valuable people and leadership teams to scale their positive influence on the organization by helping them build, lead and operate highly effective teams - of all kinds.
-
We provide a holistic suite of concepts, frameworks and principles that are designed for practical application - at all levels of leadership and across a spectrum of areas - not just single, theoretical improvements.
-
We built our careers on driving virtuous processes and building healthy dynamics and interactions; skills that we teach effectively so they can be adapted to succeed in your teams.
-
We’ve developed a our own pedagogy and library of methods that connects our work and that makes it easy to apply to different organizations and situations. This enables our clients to build the mental framework and tools to thrive, and do it quickly.
Learn more about HOW we coach, and what we teach