Team Development

Below are a few questions relating to circumstances that teams, and their leaders, can get into. If you answer yes to any of these, then perhaps it is time to change the dynamics within your team.

  1. Are you leading a new team?
  2. Is your team just ‘doing the job’ or are they fully committed to your leadership, the organisation’s direction, and to each other?
  3. Is there conflict within the team?
  4. Has your team undergone significant change recently?
  5. Does your team need some ‘time out’ to regroup and to think/plan ahead?
  6. Do you have a ‘leader-full’ team or are you doing all the problem solving and initiating for them?
  7. Is staff turnover high within your team?


Lois will work with you to design an individual programme to move you and your team forward. She will work with you and the team to ensure positive change happens.


 Hints for turning a ‘so so’ team into a high performing team.

  1. The first step is to take a long hard look at yourself– what behaviour are you encouraging within your team? Emotions are ‘catchy’ and if your energy is flat, if you are critical, or if you are cynical about the organisation then you are probably getting back what you put out. Change your attitude, your responses to staff and your level of support towards individuals within the team. Then sit back and watch positive change happen.
  2. Tell them exactly what you expect using plain language (the vision, strategies and goals) and be prepared to listen to their responses. It is okay to provide clear boundaries but give them sufficient flexibility to achieve results in their own way.
  3. If you are not certain you are getting honest responses to your request for feedback take your courage in both hands and get a neutral third person to do a team audit. Staff will be more forthcoming if they understand that their answers will remain confidential and only the general issues passed onto the team leader. This should be followed by an open discussion with the team on how things could be improved. If you have any doubts about your ability to lead such a discussion (without retaliating) then a facilitated session is your best bet.
  4. If there is conflict between differing personality types within your team, or if the team is new and needs to get better acquainted in order to work well together, it can be useful to undertake a team profile for each team member. Lois uses the Team Management Index to assist people to recognise their preferred ways of working and to understand the impact of their preferences on others. The team can then use this information to safely work through the impact of their differing personality types.