Management teams at all levels, and individual team members in particular, are often disengaged and disconnected from the management function itself. Statements such as, "we lack common goals or they are unclear", "I have no influence", "I am not listened to nor taken into account", and "I do not feel valued – actually, nobody does", are commonplace. The authors argue this is because we have been entrenched in an era of guru leadership but that it must come to an end if our management teams are to rise to the top. An individual is not capable of controlling the complicated system of an organization, with its countless variables, especially in conjunction with the rapid change in both the economy and market forces, which are unpredictable and uncontrollable. No matter how talented the individual, no one person is in a position to manage this complex system alone – not even a guru leader.
The authors contend that what is needed now are resilient trendsetters who will bring about a new era of top-performing teams that together form a "collective guru", which they refer to as a Stellar Management Team.
In this book, the reader undertakes a metaphorical journey to the stars, which symbolizes top-level interaction and collaboration. The journey is the development from an ordinary management team into a Stellar Management Team, which elevates its operation up to a new level of performance and success.
Table of contents
WAKE UP?
PART ONE – Do you want to fly?
1. Not thinking is heavy
Provoke thinking with gravity factors
Gravity Factor No. 1 - Emphasizing individual responsibility
Gravity Factor No. 2 – Multitude of bilateral discussion
Gravity Factor No. 3 – Dominance of numeric indicators
Gravity Factor No. 4 - Tight schedules and overloaded agendas
Gravity Factor No. 5 – Fixed roles
Gravity Factor No. 6 – Director-centricity prevents taking responsibility
Gravity Factor No. 7 – The loud ones override the quiet
Slow thinking combined with fast decisions
Hasty intuition takes us fast – even astray
New thinking instead of being in a rut
Stop and think together
2. Systems thinking – basis of new thinking
New elements from systems thinking
The systems dictatorship
Eight systemic ideas for stellar team designers
Systemic Idea 1: There are invisible forces in the management team
Systemic Idea 2: Paradoxes are compulsory
Systemic Idea 3: Spontaneity creates miracles
Systemic Idea 4: Resistance belongs to systems
Systemic Idea 5: Everything affects everything in a system
Systemic Idea 6: Leadership renews itself constantly
Systemic Idea 7: Control is an illusion
Systemic Idea 8: Change is a constantly changing phenomenon
Systems oriented management team enables Superproductivity
Success factors of The Stellar Team
Towards the star
The two levels: primary and secondary goals
Core of Part One: thinking, systems and guiding star
PART TWO – Secondary goals are the launch pad
3. The course is set
A management team needs a mission of its own
The best mission is a defined mission
Make your mission alive
Make your guiding star visible
Goal heat is dangerous
(1) SMART goal narrows too much!
(2) Goal may weaken morality?
(3) Goals may prevent learnin
(4) Goals may lead to over-performing
(5) Linearity of goals is rare
(6) Controlling through goals is an illusion
Deepening goal thinking
How to follow your star?
Strategy makes your mind focused
Individual significance of focus
Focus of the strategy
4. Respect internal and external stakeholders
Customer experience is always right
Customer experience is redeemed at contact points
Keep your eyes open
Internal stakeholders must be taken seriously
Board of directors – Influential actor in the background
Board of directors meets the expectations of Stellar Team
5. Meeting practices in order
Fine-tuning brains in the management team
First: The brain is a machine for creating connections
Second: The brain presents most decisions by intuition
Third: We have the brain of herd animals
Good decisions are induced with questioning
New energy to the meetings
Best practices of theme meetings
Developing standard meetings
Refreshing postures
6. Success metrics in the cockpit
Metrics connected to strategy
Primary and secondary success metrics
Priorities regarding measurement of primary goals
7. Strengthening the launch pad
Coincidence generates different results than control
A different kind of success
Chance will favour the conscious developer
Coincidences as a new management team focus
Constant or repeated renewal?
Success focused operation
How should this be?
Core of Part Two: Secondary goals as launch pad
PART THREE – Attraction of primary goals
8. Commitment is the core of guiding star
There are two types of commitment within ourselves
Two types of egoism – the right and the wrong one?
A reward system steers
Is collective responsibility a collective mistake?
9. Trust creates energy
Trust is worth exploring
Trust in competence is easily detected
Trust in agreement means integrity
Communication styles build trust
Four dimensions of behaviour
Open communication style
Straightforward communication style
Reliable communication style
Accepting communication style
Trust as regards attitude is perceivable
Individual tendency to trust
To trust requires the courage to take risks
Can you accelerate trust formation?
1. Relation factors
2. Hope and expectations
3. Methods and techniques
Sharing dreams is trusting
10. Diversity and conflict competence
It is useful to shy away from diversity
Court of identical members
Court makes war against divergence
Heroes build peace
Look in the mirror
Behavioural styles in practice
Management team is a sum of styles
Influencing the structure of the management team
Conflicts are "business as usual"
Unclear goals blur the vision
Attitude handicap is crippling
Incompetence frustrates
Changes confuse the team
Time pressure plays on the nerves
Lack of leadership creates shaky ground
Overcoming the fear of conflicts
Conflict competence is a team skill
Ideas for overcoming fear of conflicts
Minesweeper
Referee
Meaning amplifier
Development is possible
11. Feedback puts wings on development
Systems offer opportunities for operations
Systems intelligent way of initiating change in a system called a team
Correct your understanding
Asking for feedback takes courage
Acknowledging feedback requires consideration
12. Collaboration is a choice
Positive psychology supports The Stellar Team
Positive psychology in the cockpit
Management team is milking and being milked
Appreciative approach inspires
Common reflection and three levels of learning
Core of Part Three: the attraction of primary goals
PART FOUR – To the stars
13. Hey, we are airborne!
Right people in right places
What’s inside the hat of a real leader?
Speed to fly from role diversity
Roles are a concept of interaction
Roles and counter roles are dancing together
Role chart of a Stellar Team member
A. Influencer
B. Strategist
C. Developer
D. Coach
E. Synergy Builder
Captain of the team
A management team member can never take his hat off
Disagreement poisons the system
Member of a management team between a rock and a hard place
The chair really matters
Change of role must be recognized
14. Resilience prevents motion sickness
Change management in change
Paths of change in the brain
The northern neighbour of the USA
My brain is unfinished but the situation is stable
I think now like this – and I change my brain
New paths of the change management team
Planned and unexpected change
Need to control is controlling
Change causes dysfunctional behaviour – and always evokes emotions
How does recovery from change take place?
Resilience helps bouncing back
Characteristics that speed up recovery from change
Strong resilience is the sum of equally strong characteristics
Spontaneous management team learns
Change management team in urgency on a burning platform
"Burning platform"
"Sense of urgency"
Amygdala makes decisions on a burning platform
Elements of success: agility, competence and condition
15. The journey is long when travelling alone
A thinking management team
A sensing management team
A coaching management team
Coaching leadership as philosophy and modus operandi
How to create synergy?
How does synergistic collaboration produce more than the sum of its parts?
Effective means of building synergy
Three basic needs of a traveller
Core of Part Four: roles, resilience and synergy on our journey to the stars
The journey of The Stellar Management Team continues…
Acknowledgements
APPENDICES
Appendix 1 – Coaching guide for management teams
Coaching – individual co-driver on your journey to the stars
Team coaching – boost your engine on the way to the stars
Clarity for definitions
Goals and results of team coaching in management teams
Team coach supports towards the guiding star
Appendix 2 – Self Care Guide for Management Teams
References and Sources
Index
Biography
Vesa Ristikangas is a Senior Leadership Coach and Partner at BoMentis, a business and management consultancy in Finland.
Tapani Rinne is a Trainer, Personal Resilience Coach, and CEO and founder of Ambitio Group, Finland.
