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 simple, yet essential skills that transform team friction into team cohesion making it easier for the team to leverage their differences and take coordinated action.
I Help in Three Ways:
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. To untangle team dynamics and find the root of the problem, you need a fresh perspective and a new framework for understanding the issues.
My work supports both the team leader — helping them out of a time-consuming “hub” role — and supports the leadership team — helping them get to the root of the conflict, master essential 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 — speeding up their ability to work together and helping 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. Getting everyone’s honest input up front helps you make faster and better decisions.
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 real time 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 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 targeted — whether that’s a lack of leveraging the diverse talent on the team, different communication styles that aren’t being recognized or accommodated, or engaging in the wrong kinds of conflict.
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 becomes an added bonus, not the target itself. — It is, after all, a business!
What Clients Have To Say
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.