Resilient Teams

“I’d tell members that they need to create teams where individuals can be open and honest. I think that’s the ‘secret sauce’ that weaves through everything. If people can trust one another, they’ll feel safe and confident, be more likely to improvise, and be able to do the right thing at the right time when adversity strikes.”  ~ Bradley L. Kirkman

A leader is truly only as strong as their team(s). In previous blog posts I spoke to the idea that leaders aren’t superheroes who know it all and do it all on their own. A strong team brings all their unique strengths, skills and attributes to the organization and the creating and nurturing of teams is a critical responsibility of the leader.

In today's increasingly complex world organizations and teams face a variety of challenges. Resilient teams are able to bounce back after adversity. A core role of leaders is to build a culture of ‘resiliency’ - more than resilient individuals, an organization needs resilient teams. Kirkman and Stoverink in their book Unbreakable discuss the concept of brittle vs. unbreakable teams. Resilient teams may bend from time to time under the weight of adversity but they don’t break.

Three resilient actions these unbreakable teams excel in are sense-making, coalescing, and persisting. In order for leaders to build resilient teams they must focus on developing team qualities and culture to support these three critical resilient actions. Leaders who build resilient teams focus on team collective confidence (vs. individual), team psychological safety, team capacity to improve (an always learning/adapting mindset), and a strong team roadmap (deep understanding of each other's roles, knowledge, skills and responsibilities).

What things are you doing as a leader to build resilient teams in your organization?

“Resilience isn’t about avoiding challenges; it’s about embracing them and emerging stronger on the other side.” - Kirkman and Stoverink