One of the major challenges facing parliamentarians, senators or congress is putting aside rivalries and working as an effective team towards collective goals.
Bringing powerful people together to work as a team under public scrutiny when the stakes are this high is not the perfect recipe to build trust.
And we know that building trust is key to high performing teams. What’s more, there’s no time for team-building off-sites. Nor budget 😉
3 teamwork boosters that every team would benefit from.
You could argue that a new cabinet is, in fact, the ultimate challenge in teamwork. Unfortunately, most of us will be thrown into a similar dysfunctional and mistrusting team at some point and need to hit the ground running.
Disclaimer! We are experts in teamwork, not politics.
The steps below are proven ways of improving team performance, but take the Cabinet examples with a pinch of salt.
Step 1. Create a team charter
Why? Doing the groundwork now to get the team on the same page will save time (and tears) further down the line.
How? Get the whole team involved in these two crucial conversations and use Saberr's tried-and-tested coaching frameworks to facilitate.
- Creating a team purpose statement: Teams that know their “why” perform better. Agree a purpose statement to rally behind and direct decision making.
- Agreeing team behaviours: Teamwork is hard but defining your own team culture helps massively. Decide on the ways of working that are best for the team.
Step 2. The story of my values
Why? To get to know each other's motivations and build trust.
How? Each person shares their top value and the story behind that value. A profiling tool like Base helps massively. We've imagined what the Cabinet's results could look like. As you can see, they have different views on controlling people and resources. So we'd suggest having a candid discussion about about Power and Control means to them.
Key take-aways: People frequently misunderstand each other's intent. And there’s more bringing us together than setting us apart.
Step 3. Regular One-to-Ones.
Why? Regular one-to-ones (or 1-1's) are a chance to strengthen relationships with your manager, share feedback and stay up to date.
How?
- Schedule a regular cadence for 1-1's with your manager and/or direct reports. We generally advise that 1-1's should take place at least once per month but given the unpredictability of government affairs, start with once per week.
- Set an agenda in advance. One-to-ones are most effective when both parties think about what they want to get out of it and add agenda points beforehand.
We imagine Dom Cummings and Boris Johnson’s One-to-One Agenda may look something like this.
