Leadership can be learned

There is a lot of focus on leadership if you go by the leadership courses and leadership training on offer. And leadership can be learned. You learn it fastest in and with your team, because leadership is also about being in charge. About the interaction between the team you are leading and you as leader. Most managers are in two teams: the management team, in which direction is (pre)discussed, and the team you lead. Team4Teams provides collaboration training in which collaboration in the various teams is central.

Taking leadership

Leadership is about space and direction.

Taking space, giving space

You get the lead, the team waits (anxiously), what kind of lead do you want to be? And the team wonders; can we go to him or her? Does our new manager give room for personal input, room for creativity, room for specialisation? And for you as a new manager: does the team run like a train, or is there sand between the wheels? What space do you get yourself? And do you take yourself?

Giving direction, finding direction

Looking at successful leaders, one notices that they give direction. A successful leader formulates the common goal. They have gone through a process of finding space. Space in themselves, in the organisation, space in licensing the job, space in the team itself. And they check whether goals are attractive, challenging and fit into a bigger picture, including, for example, whether the goal is sustainable.

This process is accelerated once you make space for brainstorming. This also allows you to hear what is going on, what thoughts are on everyone's mind. Who shows initiative, who gives support. A team coach supports such a kick-off. The effect lasts a long time.

Self-organising teams

Gaining leadership in self-managing or self-organising teams is a fragile process. There is a lot to do about it and the impetus to move to self-organisation is sometimes primarily driven by looking at where savings can be made. Self-organisation that is well off the ground reduces costs, but the process towards it requires a substantial investment. An investment in each other, because only cooperating teams come to self-organisation, get job satisfaction out of it and save the organisation costs. As soon as teams shirk or, feeling pressured, survive, change stalls and there is a chance of damage. Self-organisation is a trend, but also one with occasional damage.

Leadership and taking charge in a self-organising team is a process in itself. Sometimes there is a cooperating team leader, sometimes the team itself organises all processes and leadership tasks are distributed among team members. What is better depends largely on the team members themselves. Whether it succeeds also depends on the degree of influence the team members themselves have (had and still have) on the process to make improvements.

Our team coaches accelerate the process of collaboration and change.

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Manager or executive

Leaders are 'tested' by the team and by their manager. You get the leadership from an organisation. Then you get it from the team. And then you earn, prove your leadership by being placed in front of issues and managing to generate solutions to these that until then were (not) seen as 'out of the box'.

This pressure from below and above transform, reorganise to shared goals is the most important task. Not shielding but engaging and aligning with each other helps. Include and not exclude.

It sounds so simple, but situations in teams and in organisations are constantly changing. How do you find the energy in each other to tackle them with an open mind?

Team building and team training support a supervisor, manager and the team to get and keep a positive outlook.

Director or director

It's about content (results), processes and strategy. But don't forget the quality of working together! A collaborative team makes all the difference. Yet less attention is paid to it than you would like. Collaboration should come naturally and requires no maintenance. A board maintains everything in an organisation, and is there also enough 'periodic maintenance' of cooperation?

Ask yourself: are we going to gain more by better computers and software programmes, by realigning procedures or by paying attention to collaboration? In many organisations, there is an understanding that much will depend on how well teams and team members know how to find each other, dare to speak to each other and adopt a learning attitude. But getting to a high level of cooperation hardly gets any attention.

Sometimes it is the delusion of the day that gets all the attention. Sometimes there is a desire, but no idea how to achieve a higher level of cooperation - in return for a reasonable investment.

Shared leadership will not get off the ground if you give too much space or too little.
Leadership also does not come about if you give too little direction or too much direction.