Helping leadership teams do difficult work together.
25+ years advising senior leaders · PhD in organisational psychology · Led teams and departments in-house
People now have different authority, new peers and reporting lines, while old loyalties and history still affect how they work together.
Everyone can explain the priorities in their own area, but there is no shared view of what the leadership team needs to make happen together.
Difficult points are softened in the meeting, raised afterwards or allowed to become personal.
Leaders defend their own areas, cross-business decisions stall and work that depends on several functions keeps being pushed back and forth.
Other members have been drawn in, trust has shifted and the problem is now larger than the original incident.
Some problems cannot be solved one person at a time. They are tied to how the team makes decisions, handles disagreement, works across boundaries and follows through.
We start with the issue the team is already dealing with. As we work through it, what is getting in the way becomes clearer.
People may be working from different assumptions. Authority or accountability may be unclear. Leaders may be expected to collaborate while their responsibilities pull them in different directions. The team may have moved into action before agreeing what it is trying to achieve or what should come first.
The aim is to resolve the issue and strengthen how the team handles difficult work together.
CASE STUDY
A Managing Director contacted me because his executive team kept returning to the same issues.
He had explained what he expected, tried to be fair and constructive, and given people time to improve. Still, the same situations kept coming back. He was frustrated and could not see why.
In a series of facilitated sessions, we worked through live issues from the business. It became clear that difficult conversations were being avoided and some performance concerns had never been named.
The team needed to deal with those issues and get better at handling pressure, giving feedback and having harder conversations.
The team became more direct and effective.
The Managing Director described the work as “way deeper than DISC”.
The camaraderie of the executive team is higher. The effectiveness of how we engage is higher. We’re more efficient and we’re having more fun with each other… and we’re doing the work.
Managing Director, Public Utility, USA
He later engaged me to coach him and two members of the team.
I am an organisational psychologist and executive coach with more than 25 years’ experience working with senior leaders.
Earlier in my career, I led teams and departments with responsibility for people, performance and profit. I know what it is like to be accountable for results while dealing with competing priorities, strained relationships and demands from across the organisation.
I designed and led global leadership programs with participants in Australia, the UK, North Africa and the United States, ranging from six weeks to twelve months. See Results with Clients.
The areas where I was stuck were not those I would’ve expected. I wouldn’t have been able to identify them by myself. The strategies Michelle suggested, I’ve been able to directly put in place at work, and they have made a significant difference.
Manager, Health Industry, UK
If you have a team issue to resolve or a leadership team to align, book a conversation.
Based in Melbourne. Working with leadership teams across Australia and internationally.
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