True team effectiveness leads to high performance across an organisation and an upturn in productivity, engagement and cultural behaviours.
How do you maximise the performance of every team whilst engaging individual leaders and professionals?
Expecting leaders to work as a cohesive team is understandably a big ask. Often they’re a group of independently minded-individuals who are confident, competitive and driven, with a clear view of what success looks like.
They may be functional experts with deep expertise. Their success to date has often been built on the results of individual teams and business units. Their experiences, including outside your organisation and in different geographies, may have led to them developing different values, behaviours and approaches.
Hanover’s team effectiveness development process
Given these variations and differences, how can a team best come together to set direction and deliver value for your whole organisation? Through our deep experience working with hundreds of senior leaders and their teams, Hanover has developed an eight-step team development process that leads to high performance.
Whilst these steps provide a blueprint for team development, we always apply them in a tailored way that maps to your context. It’s essential that the outcomes of each stage and the overall process reflect your team’s and organisation’s priorities - this is always our primary focus. Underpinning the process is the need to revisit, refocus and renew over time; the process shouldn’t be a one-off.
Your leadership team must revisit their purpose and accountabilities, refocus in response to change and continually renew their goals and ways of working. This is especially important in response to major contextual changes (e.g. an acquisition or significant change in strategy) and as team members leave and join.
The team development experience
Whilst every team development engagement is different, our blueprint typically starts with agreeing objectives and measures with the team lead. The Hanover team then provides insights into the makeup and diversity of each team before meeting each team member individually to explore and understand their context and objectives.
One or more interactive workshops (in-person or online) then enable themes and insights to be played back to the team before moving through the subsequent stages of the team development journey.
Hanover’s workshops allow ample time for discussion and the exploration of real organisational challenges. We know from experience that it’s much more effective to cover a small number of topics in-depth than to try and briefly cover a large number.
It’s essential to maintain momentum to avoid the team reverting to their previous ways of working. Regular facilitated workshops help to ensure accountability and long-term progress - we partner with many of our clients in this way.
Parallel to team development, it’s common for one or more team members to benefit from individual coaching from the facilitator or a different member of the Hanover team. This helps to engage and develop individuals in line with their personal goals and career objectives whilst also benefiting the wider team.
testimonials
Team & Board Effectiveness
"I just wanted to say, if it wasn’t already evident from yesterday, that I thought our away day was really excellent. Both morning and afternoon sessions were really insightful, full of content and as a result I think we’re on the front foot with defining our purpose and future. We’re stronger for our time yesterday; thank you for making it a great day."
- Head of IT & Cyber Security
Team & Board Effectiveness
"I really enjoyed the experience – the Hanover facilitator was excellent. We covered a lot of ground and I feel we are now far more understanding of one another and this will, I am sure, lead to significantly enhanced interactions and higher levels of productivity."
- Managing Director, Distribution & Marketing
Team & Board Effectiveness
"From my perspective the session went very well indeed. A perfectly timed intervention based on building foundations. The Hanover facilitator was perfect and incredibly flexible with the agenda but also in recognition of the fact that we like both process and outcomes – they drove us to this space."
- Chief Executive Officer, Wealth Management Firm
Team & Board Effectiveness
"It has educated me, not only on my personal behaviours and those of my team, but most importantly it has stepped beyond this into interaction. Useful tools and awareness that I will seek to carry forward."
- Executive Leader, Ministry of Defence
Team & Board Effectiveness
"The whole process was nicely interactive, inclusive and safe, hence plenty of discussion. Very revealing - some of the best self-reflection I have done and real utility for whatever job I am in."
- Executive Leader, Ministry of Defence
Meet our Team & Board Effectiveness experts
Explore