I recently worked with a management team whose leader has changed. Quite common in large companies where you can apply internally for a position, you can access a leading role at regional or global level or, you can come from another market or company to lead a local team. Whether a new CEO is coming, a CxO – leader of a business or division function, the new leader needs a period of accommodation and knowledge of the team, understanding the typical they have established over time, the way they work, decide, resolve or debate, conflict or negotiate, need to understand the dynamics of relationships, influencing factors and, above all, he needs to understand what the team brings from his past and no longer serves the present and future that the new leader would like to create. 

What I heard, repeatedly in teams, in the first team coaching session in which they invited me to work with them, was the team's attempt to reassure the new leader that they know each other well and trust each other and that's all that matters. On the other hand, the leader repeatedly told them ... “ ... I'm glad to hear that. But keep in mind that you do not know me and I do not know you and, here, we must work together and make progress... ”.

From here begin the questions about what assumptions guide this whole dynamic, which should take the step towards working together efficiently as soon as possible.

What can you expect when you take over a new team?

If you take over a team that has a history, had another coordinator, boss, CEO, CxO of any kind, remember that their history is stronger than your presence there and that there are many things from the past, some exciting, some painful or annoying, which will come to the surface when you expect less if you do not have a certain presence and ability to observe and understand what is happening. A new leader comes with a mandate and a set of expectations from those who gave him this task and wants to get results with his team, as soon as possible. Rarely do you allow yourself to take too many months available, only for accommodation, in today's dynamics of the environment in which we carry out our activities.

There are some important aspects that it would be useful to follow in the first weeks, without having an exhaustive list here.

First of all, it would be interesting to observe the patterns of your team. How do I discuss certain topics: relationships between certain departments, access to resources, the relationship with the region or global ones if you are in a multinational corporation, the attitude related to hybrid work or things completely at home versus going back to the office, the way they pose the problem in terms of workload and the level of fatigue accumulated in recent years. These patterns can say a lot about the mentality of the team: they are rather positive and solution-oriented or rather tend to complain and look at you as a saviour who came to solve all their problems from the past. Many times, a leader puts in place one-on-one meetings in the first weeks to have the opportunity to get to know each one. It is a very healthy practice but, in this way, it's hard to tell the real dynamics because everyone comes with their own perspective and will tell you at the beginning what they expect you to hear or, what he wants to hear. Create opportunities to see them at work together, without your leadership or intervention, to identify these patterns.

Another important aspect is informal leadership. There is no team without an informal leader that influences the dynamics and sometimes channels the information. This does not always give access to all aspects of the reality of the team you take over. Informal leadership is extremely good at times in need of mobilization or at times when someone needs to express the opinions of those who are more introverted or less experienced, to put delicate themes on the table or to become an agent of change and a supporter of innovation projects. Often, the informal leader becomes a successor or has the potential to take the initiative and more important tasks because he already has the enthusiasm and energy along with the motivation to assume this. But it can also be a trap in informal leadership. For the new team leader, it is important to develop a healthy and principled relationship with this informal leader so that the team does not perceive that it is treated differently or to try to influence certain decisions based on the fact that, being at the beginning, you do not have the overall perspective.

A third aspect I would like to mention is the surprise of the moment: the detachment from the past, the team becomes present and available to start creating with you and to become attentive and eager to collaborate for your vision of the future and the way it works. I had the opportunity to see many leaders who came to the new team with a very clear vision, rolled up their sleeves and got to work. However, reality has shown that the team does not connect immediately because there is inertia and there are personal attachments to their territory or to the ways of working with which people have become accustomed. No matter how seductive the new vision or the new proposal for collaboration is, habits are stronger than change.

When is it good to start a team coaching process?

As I detailed in a past article, team development with the support of a coach is a process, not an event. At the top management level, the first 100 days are important for any new CxO. It is like a landmark developed over time and confirmed by good organizational practices because in the first three months, this process of knowledge and alignment takes place. People take steps to part with the old way of working, the transition to a new stage of team operation is made and the new leader has the opportunity to formulate, affirm his vision and gain grip for its implementation. In these 100 days, the team's alignment process begins and, it is not so much a rational alignment with objectives and indicators as, especially, an emotional alignment, in a new kind of relationship.

Experience shows that a good time to start a process accompanied by a coach is in the middle of this 100-day interval or close to this term. The team had the opportunity to have individual meetings and discuss the most important issues related to objectives and start the accommodation process, which can be difficult.

There are often observations from leaders taking over teams: ” complain rather than come up with solutions! ”, ” I quarrel in meetings and feel the need to intervene! ”, ” There are older frustrations that need to be resolved! ”, ” we fail to give up habits that are clear that they are not healthy! ”, ” I notice that they do not delegate and come to our meetings with very operational aspects! ”, ” continued to repeat in one how things were done in the past! ”. And other such statements ... These are, in fact, the patterns we were talking about above and, once identified, the presence and accompanying of the team by a coach creates the premises to make it possible to break them and change into more efficient and productive behaviours and patterns for the team.

Even if you have given them this feedback based on your observations, keep in mind that there is a formal hierarchy relationship between the team and the new leader. Therefore, like children whose parents draw attention to inappropriate behaviours, the team may be tempted to deny their presence and, either to continue them or to suppress them artificially. An external and independent coach, through the observations he offers to the team and through his skills or certain specific techniques, can support the team to reveal and become open to discussing and working to grow in effectiveness.

When do you realize that the alignment stage begins?

There are two essential and simple aspects, the same time, that you can observe. The first is when the team begins to look consistently at solutions and the future and less at the obstacles and difficulties they face. It is a turning point this moment of the willingness to give up the things it downloads from the past, no matter how good or challenging it may have been.

The second aspect is related to the mitigation of the polarities in the team: the dialogue between functions that are traditionally in tension or conflict becomes constructive, the polarity between past and present disappears and, as I said above, people are beginning to focus on solutions and the future. The polarity between the team as a whole and you, the new leader who did not belong to their environment, disappears or attenuates a lot and people treat you naturally, as one of them. This phenomenon also occurs if you have been promoted from within the team.

How can you measure progress?

Change does not begin overnight and, a first warning is that the goals you set with your team are progress goalsabout how you work and make decisions together and not business goals.

Progress can also be measured by less tangible indicators such as people's sense of confidence in their ability to achieve certain results, through the atmosphere that becomes more open compared to the present state. They can, of course, also be tangible indicators such as the length of meetings or the number of members who actively participate and contribute to the situation in which they participate through observation and not through involvement.

Whatever you choose to measure, the alignment process always has two components: the rational component of defining the indicator and the understanding by all team members that that indicator is important to all of you. Emotional alignment is necessary for the team to support, over time, the observation of behaviours that will tell you that you are making progress, remain available to provide feedback on changes and want to celebrate every progress you make.

How do you team up with the chosen team coach?

An important thing is to accept that working with a team coach does not mean that it serves your own agenda, but works for the benefit of the whole team. When the team feels that it is not a process dedicated to the team, but is meant to supplement the efforts of the new leader to convince on some objectives or ways of working, the whole process remains in the policy area and is not effective. Team coaching can also reveal aspects related to your driving style, it can favor a form of feedback that you should not expect, you yourself must prepare and come into the process with all the openness and availability to bake with the team.

Many times, during this journey, between team meetings, the leader has brief meetings with the team coach. Transparency is needed on these meetings and their purpose for the team to remain confident in the process and to continue to be open to collaboration and construction.

A final thought

The team coaching process does not end once I leave the room or the workspace. It continues through assumption, follow-up and the implementation of the agreed ones, and this is not just the responsibility of the leader. It is a delegated process and its leadership, over time, can be taken over by any of the team members by truly putting trust and autonomy into practice, two extremely busy terms but, often unused.

Article published on PRwave.ro