It's a leaders dream to create a high performance team.
Creating one needs deep thought & reflection. It cannot be done overnight.
There are several tradeoffs that need to be made. One of the most common tradeoff is the one between Autonomy & Responsibility.
Some leaders prefer to start at either end and slowly move the slider to the other side.
More often, this choice is governed by who the leader is and what they value.
Often leaders who value risk taking, spontaneity & change like to start with Autonomy/Freedom.
Leaders who value stability, grounded-ness and certainty start with responsibility and go to the other side.
While both strategies work, a leader needs to bring in "who the team member" is - as well, to the equation.
The figure below describes the variance in Responsibility & Autonomy creating different possibilities in their continuum.
The general direction is to move towards interdependence with a fine balance of Autonomy & Responsibility.
Codependence (High Responsibility, Low Autonomy)
This is when some team members assume caretaker/saviour responsibilities and take on a disproportionate load of responsibility onto themselves. This could also be a result of the team capability dynamics, where one or a couple of the members know more than the others.
Superficially this looks good. However a longterm display of this behaviour creates a lack of accountability in others.
Dependence (Low Responsibility, Low Autonomy)
When both responsibility and autonomy are low, this is a direct recipe for creating a low performing team.
The team is dependent on the leader for direction & accountability.
This creates for a tardy decision making and blame games.
Independence (High Autonomy, Low Responsibility)
A state of high autonomy ideally should help in building self-organising teams, provided the responsibility quotient goes up. Without that, we build a chaotic system around, without any semblance of order. Team could be happy but may not be productive.
What can a leader do to nudge their teams towards interdependence?
If you have Co-dependence in your team, support the saviours with additional bandwidth and prevent burn out. Also pay attention to level-out the task loading.
If you have Dependence, invite participation in decision making and co-create with your team.
If you have Independence, assign responsibility for deliverables to all.
Watch out for your own value system interference, to have more of autonomy or responsibility.
Remove your coloured glasses to notice what the team really needs from you.
#coaching #executivecoaching #highperformanceteam
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