At a time when our company Everest Motivation Team Pte Ltd is expanding its team members and staff, I decided to execute a solo expedition ( my first ) to the remote Atacama Desert in north-west Argentina. During this arduous 25-day journey where I was the only human in about 400sq km of rugged high altitude desert and mountains, I managed to make the first Singapore solo ascents of two major 6000-metre high peaks; including the world’s 3rd solo via Argentina, of Ojos del Salado ( 6882m ) , the highest volcano in the world. [ Pictures at the expeditions website http://www.everest.org.sg ]
Chances of airborne rescue should anything have happened was nil. To help me gain that edge I needed to have supreme management of my emotional states; to supplant negative, unproductive states with ones of excellence. Self-coaching was essential, especially at times when I kept imagining, in a slightly exhausted, hypoxic state, I had a ‘ partner’ climbing alongside( ! )
This story, it’s lessons and actual cognitive behaviour techniques to run your mind-body states at a top level are contained in the presentation GOING SOLO: Lessons in Leadership; as well as a 2-day seminar on self/team leadership. If you have staff or are industries where much of your key people are ‘ flying ‘ solo ( eg consultancies, real estate agents, financial planners ) this seminar will help them get in touch with some of the most powerful , yet hidden resources in each of us to succeed.
Contact us at for an appointment to discuss your staff coaching or leadership needs.
TEAM THEORY AND TEAM APPLICATION
If your 10 -year old child has an issue or problem, you wouldn’t approach the problem as though he were a 21-year old would you? So why do so many organisations prescribe solutions for their adult staff and team when, in fact some ‘ teams’ are barely teams, but merely ‘ infants’ . And others are at their ‘prime’, performing at high levels.
If you are familiar with the Tuckman model of team development from the 1960s, Bruce Tuckman’ studies showed that teams go through the classic 4-stage process of FORMING ( roles, unclear, plenty of grey areas in work objectives ), STORMING ( people jostling to have say, cliques form, power struggles ensue ), NORMING ( agreement on most major areas, team tasks/roles clear ) and PERFORMING ( team is more strategically aware; the team knows clearly why it is doing what it is doing. Little direction needed from leader ).
Should you have an issue with your team next time, ask yourself first: what level of maturity is my team at?
An educated guess will go a long way in helping you adapt responses, challenges and motivators to that particular stage. If your team is still FORMING, consider steps to create clearer roles, duties, mutual expectations and trust within a team before attempting to thrust them into situations which demand complex, cross-departmental agreement before progress is made. Many ‘ teams’ in Singapore’s corporate world are not even teams by the Payne Team Development Inventory that we use, but merely workgroups and such structures demand a different approach to take the group to the next level.
Again by shifting leadership styles and gaining more understanding of ourselves and our teams, we able to coax the most our of ourselves and our people.