What It Takes To Solve A Leadership Team Stalemate
Use Proven Psychological Principles To Make the Most of Your Team
Many leadership teams are unaware of these essential skills that transform team friction into team cohesion — making it easier for the team to leverage their differences and take coordinated action.
Get To The Root of the Issue
To Create A New Path Forward
Here’s the truth: if your company is held back by communication or people issues, it won’t change by itself.
Stalemates are often a result of conflict that’s gone underground. This can look like people working in siloes, avoiding conversations, tense discussions in meetings, or even taking detours in the office so as not to interact with a team member.
Stalemates can go on so long it’s no longer clear what the reasons are for the tension.
“False harmony” sometimes creates an illusion that the trouble is gone. Or sometimes leaders act as the go-between for team members. When this happens, team dynamics often get worse and the leader ends up exhausted and losing focus on their own visionary and strategic tasks.
Issues get worse until they reach a breaking point — unless you take charge of fixing them. Finding the root of the problem often requires a deeper probing — untangling the historical as well as present day reasons for the conflict so teams can move on without the same problems resurfacing in new ways.
My work supports both the team leader — helping them out of a time-consuming “hub” role — and supports the leadership team — helping them “deal with their crap,” develop more effective communication skills, and create new ways of working together.
Save Time by Building Skills ‘On the Job’
Rather than teaching skills in trainings or workshops that don’t translate into different behavior back at the office, we work on team skills while you work on your business goals.
Having expert guidance while you discuss issues helps you create better connections between team members. This speeds up their ability to work together and helps you solve the business issues faster.
This also works in decision making. When barriers to people speaking up in meetings become evident, we can address them. You can make faster and better decisions when you know you’re getting everyone’s candid input from the outset.
Another benefit of working on team dynamics while you pursue your business goals is that the communication patterns are more apparent and changes can occur in real time.
You don’t have to rely on people accurately (or honestly) reporting problem areas because problems surface as you work together. Since people are often unaware of the behaviors that create obstacles for others (or their reasons for those behaviors), seeing the problems play out in in real time and in front of trained eyes and ears, shines a light on the issues and creates pathways for change.
As a result of this work, leaders are less burdened with people problems because they’re no longer acting as the go-between. As more communication channels are opened between team members, people can cross-check their information, become more responsive within and across departments, and get work products out faster.
Use Business Metrics To Track Progress With Teams
“That which is measured improves.”
~ Karl Pearson
Rather than focusing on “team health” as an abstract concept, my work focuses on clearly linking team behavior to business goals such as implementing strategies faster, meeting deadlines, improving customer service, and gaining higher profit margins.
Team issues that interfere with achieving these goals are identified and brought to light so people can make changes (it’s hard to change behaviors without being aware of them). Sometimes this means managing mismatched communication styles, leveraging team members’ strengths, or engaging the right kinds of conflict.
Sometimes teams get bogged down with personal conflicts that play out in unproductive ways. This often occurs with family businesses where family members avoid conflict altogether and drive it underground, or engage in personal disagreements without clear business boundaries.
When we work on team issues while pursuing business outcomes, we can make strategic changes in real time that have a cumulative effect.
We use the business outcome metrics, not just team satisfaction reports, to assess whether solutions at the team level are working — whether they’re providing more value creation, more revenue, stronger profits, more efficient processes, and so on.
The enhanced wellness and fun at work become an added bonus, not the target itself. — It is, after all, a business!
What Clients Have To Say
“We worked with Nancy for a year and got clear about who our ideal clients are, streamlined our business offerings and took away all kinds of roadblocks. During that time, we grew our team, grew our business, and increased our revenue by 300%.”
— Urvi Mehta, Co-Owner of Clients Online
“Every call with Nancy was a breakthrough. My biggest takeaways were clarity that helped me focus on the right things at the right times and the mindset work that helped me believe in myself.“
— Sandy Moll, CEO of Advanced Business Solutions
“While working with Nancy I was able to identify and confidently make the changes I wanted in the way I lead and communicate with our team and in our business. This contributed to a team effort resulting in triple digit growth in key areas of our business over 12 months.“
— Jamie McNaughton, VP, McNaughton Inc.
Typical Clients…
My clients come from a variety of industries. Some are in the utility, construction, or manufacturing fields. Some are in the financial arena. Some are in professional services. Some are in tech or start-ups. Many of the companies I work with are family-owned. Some of them run on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System).
The common thread between them is a commitment to improving their ability to work together. Most companies I work with have a strong culture of teamwork; they value their people and want to develop their potential. When team issues arise, they’re dedicated to working them out. Many of them, by their own admission, wait too long to reach out.
I bring a commitment to work with people in all their complexity and make it simpler. Not by glossing over what’s complex, but by understanding and leveraging it.
When it comes to business issues…
people are often the problem, and always the solution.
About Me
As a clinical psychologist (PhD, 1989), I discovered that many business owners were experiencing tremendous stress trying to juggle both business operations and complex team relationships. In 2016, I transformed my clinical psychology practice into executive coaching and consulting, bringing psychological principles into the business world. Some clients affectionately call me their "Business Therapist."
My Journey
My fascination with human behavior has centered on three questions: What makes people behave the way they do? Why do tensions drive people apart when so much is at stake? And what prevents them from achieving what they truly want?
As I worked with visionary leaders (often labeled as having ADD), family business members, and business partners facing relationship breakdowns, I saw how these talented individuals needed psychological insights to:
Effectively manage conflict
Handle the weight of leadership decisions
Adapt to constant change
Today, I help leaders and their teams bring out the best in themselves and each other so they can create greater value for all their stakeholders—including their families and communities. I blend insights from positive psychology, behavioral design, neuroscience, and systemic team coaching to enable businesses to thrive both financially and relationally.
Quick fun facts about me:
I’m the third kid out of a crew of six (five of them girls)!
My top strength on CliftonStrengths 2.0 is “Learner.” It’s fun for me to discover and share up-to-date methods and ideas.
I’m a Kolbe Certified™️ Consultant [instinctive strengths]
I’m an AQ [Adaptability Intelligence] Practitioner Certified through AQai.
I’m an author and speaker.
I love country and acapella music. My favorite bands are Zach Brown Band and Pentatonix.