In the past year, most management teams have been tested on their ability to adapt and adjust goals and priorities, help ensure that the organization's various processes and units work well together, and provide a place where members can get advice and support so that they are even better able to fulfil their leadership role.
For some leadership teams, the pandemic has really brought out the potential of collaboration. Groups that have previously been quite poor have been solving problems together, following up on key interfaces and dependencies, and being consistent and clear in their communication to the organization.
Thomas Nesset Midelfart
Psychologist and specialist in organizational psychology, Bang&Midelfart.
Author of the book "Effective leadership groups".
Unfortunately, for other groups, the opposite has happened. In a situation where you can only communicate and interact through digital channels, and where the individual manager has more than enough to deal with their own unit, you end up with a situation where members behave like a collection of individual managers rather than a coordinated team.
By Thomas Nesset Midelfart
The paradox of the management team
The paradox of management groups is that, although they often consist of highly competent and experienced managers, this is the type of group in an organization that is most challenging to make effective and efficient. There are many reasons why this is the case, but at the core is probably that the members have obligations both to the creation of results in their own area and to the collective that the management group constitutes. This can lead to tension related to different interests and goals, and thus challenges in gathering the entire group around a common direction in their work.
After a few months in crisis mode, where crisis staff, crisis communication and crisis management have been priorities one, two and three for most managers, many management teams are now in a situation where it is important to adapt to the new working day.
A working day that will be very different from what we have been used to, and that could potentially last a long time.
Based on the research on leadership team effectiveness and the collection of data from Norwegian leadership teams in recent months, it seems that there are three challenges in particular that leaders of leadership teams need to address.
Read also: How to manage conflict in the workplace
Challenge #1: Balancing crisis management and ongoing operational issues with strategy and the long-term perspective
Managers and management teams have had, and to a large extent will continue to have, a fountain of operational issues at their fingertips. It's easy to lose sight of the more long-term challenges unless you take explicit action.
Effective team leaders are now putting aside the management team's previous issue map and making a clear dichotomy in the work of the management team:
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Crisis management and ongoing operations.
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Strategy and the longer-term perspective.
This should be handled in different meetings/forums to ensure that operational matters do not take up all the space.
Initially, it is also important to clearly define which strategic issues and tasks are particularly urgent to address, for example by discussing the following questions:
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What strategic matters and issues are crucial for us to have on the agenda now, in the next 2-3 months?
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Which of the things we worked on before the coronavirus, is it important that we keep up the momentum even during the corona epidemic?
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Which issues can we postpone or spend less time on in the next 3-6 months?
Be explicit and concrete about what is important now and what is not. Many managers mistakenly believe that there is an implicit, shared understanding of this in the group, but don't assume that your managers will figure it out on their own.
Challenge #2: Little reflection on own functioning in the management team
The corona situation is completely new to everyone, we haven't been here before and we don't know how best to handle it or what the most appropriate ways of working are. However, we are now starting to gain some experience, both in terms of what works well and even better, and what works less well. However, this learning needs to be explicitly highlighted so that we continue with what works and adjust what needs to be improved.
The paradox, however, is that it is more important than ever to be a learner, especially in a changing environment such as the corona epidemic, while at the same time it is also more demanding than ever to be a learner. We find that we don't have time to talk about how we work when there is a fire around us and a state of emergency. As a team leader, you must therefore conduct a 30-minute learning session at least every 14 days where you answer the following three questions:
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Have we spent our time on the right things in recent weeks?
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What specifically has worked well in recent weeks?
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What specifically should we adjust in the next 1-2 weeks?
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Who is particularly important to collaborate on what?
Challenge #3: Wear and tear in collaborative relationships
In a situation where it has largely only been possible to communicate and interact through digital channels, and where the individual manager has more than enough to deal with their own unit, it is a natural consequence that there is wear and tear in the collaborative relationships across departments. Because while Per, who manages a small department, is single, without children and with plenty of capacity to follow up on cross-functional tasks, Morten has three children who come home early from school and a large department that is busy in most areas. And when Per and Morten have to work together, there is great frustration on both sides, either because of perceived pressure from one or a lack of response from the other.
In addition, under pressure we tend to "overestimate" our strongest qualities, and what is normally a strength can become an irritant. For example, the thorough leader can be overestimated and become cumbersome, the structured person becomes rigid, the listener becomes unclear, and so on.
As a manager, it is therefore important that you encourage and act as a role model for generosity in the management team. This is a state of emergency; different people experience and handle the situation differently, and previous clarifications of expectations do not always apply. If you as a management team are to get through this together, you simply have to "give each other a little slack", and tolerate that everything doesn't work as it used to, and that individuals sometimes have some overestimates that irritate.
It is more important than ever that the management teams function well, and that they are clear and consistent on priorities and ensure an aligned organization pulling in the same direction. It is possible to achieve this with targeted and focused efforts!
Good luck to everyone!
