So, you want “better” leaders?

Clare Carpenter – Executive Coach at Hult Ashridge Executive Education – likens the ever-shifting nature of a team and its environment to a dance: partners, music, and steps may change, but the performance itself stays strong.

The question for organizations, she says, is how to develop “the superpower of attention and noticing”. Part of what shapes the strength of a team’s performance is leadership’s ability to recognize and respond to difference, notice hidden shifts happening between people and identify patterns of behavior. And being consistent in this high level of awareness builds sustainability.

From Steenstrup’s experience building high-performing teams at Seco, it’s just as important to develop observation and reflection capabilities across the entire team. He emphasizes the need to develop the collective ability to learn from what teams observe about themselves. In his view, “it’s really about how you help the team see itself.”

“High-performing teams recognize that they are embedded within a wider system, and see this as an opportunity to work systemically,” says Dr Stefan Cousquer, Professor of Strategy and Leadership at Hult International Business School.

They embrace feedback, strive for ongoing improvement, and care deeply about the work they do together. “They have strategic conversations about what they care about – not just what they know about – to help guide them through complexity,” adds Cousquer.

The foundation to this is psychological safety. “You need to create a high level of trust and a culture where difficult conversations can take place, without it destroying relationships,” says Steenstrup. Trust enables mutual accountability, open communication, and, crucially, a culture of learning.

Peer-to-peer learning is an especially important capability in the context of transformation, because it leads to innovation, creativity, and willingness to take risks. But beyond that, it informs the way in which teams deliver on their tasks, says Cousquer – “such as how they accelerate strategic initiatives, how they develop new relationships to enable transformation, or how they collectively create a case for change in their organization.”

And this is where team coaching is most powerful.

Clare Carpenter – Executive Coach at Hult Ashridge Executive Education – likens the ever-shifting nature of a team and its environment to a dance: partners, music, and steps may change, but the performance itself stays strong.

The question for organizations, she says, is how to develop “the superpower of attention and noticing”. Part of what shapes the strength of a team’s performance is leadership’s ability to recognize and respond to difference, notice hidden shifts happening between people and identify patterns of behavior. And being consistent in this high level of awareness builds sustainability.

From Steenstrup’s experience building high-performing teams at Seco, it’s just as important to develop observation and reflection capabilities across the entire team. He emphasizes the need to develop the collective ability to learn from what teams observe about themselves. In his view, “it’s really about how you help the team see itself.”

“High-performing teams recognize that they are embedded within a wider system, and see this as an opportunity to work systemically,” says Dr Stefan Cousquer, Professor of Strategy and Leadership at Hult International Business School.

They embrace feedback, strive for ongoing improvement, and care deeply about the work they do together. “They have strategic conversations about what they care about – not just what they know about – to help guide them through complexity,” adds Cousquer.

The foundation to this is psychological safety. “You need to create a high level of trust and a culture where difficult conversations can take place, without it destroying relationships,” says Steenstrup. Trust enables mutual accountability, open communication, and, crucially, a culture of learning.

Peer-to-peer learning is an especially important capability in the context of transformation, because it leads to innovation, creativity, and willingness to take risks. But beyond that, it informs the way in which teams deliver on their tasks, says Cousquer – “such as how they accelerate strategic initiatives, how they develop new relationships to enable transformation, or how they collectively create a case for change in their organization.”

And this is where team coaching is most powerful.