I hope you had a rejuvenating summer break. What was the highlight of your summer? For me, it was creating a new model for developing teams. After many iterations and refinements, am chuffed to have reached this point.
As we transition back into our professional routines, it’s the perfect time to refocus on our purpose and goals.
Transitioning from my Head of Leadership Development Coaching role at Barclays to running my own company has been a journey of reinvention. During a business course on personal identity, participants noted the breadth of my expertise, likening me to a ‘Swiss Army knife.’ I’ve embraced this analogy (for now!) as it perfectly captures my diverse skill set.
With deep expertise in coaching, leadership and team development, mentoring, DEI, and culture change, I am your Swiss Army knife for development, offering a holistic, multi-lens approach to drive performance, inclusivity, and culture within organisations. By combining behavioural insights with transformational leadership, I empower leaders and teams to excel in high-pressure environments, fostering cohesion and high performance.
Just like in my own journey, we all need to continually reinvent ourselves to stay aligned with our evolving goals and aspirations.
💡What aspects of your career or personal life have you had to reinvent? I’d love to hear your stories and insights.
🎯 Easing Back Into Work Mode: Practical Tips
To help you ease back into work mode, here are some tips:
- Set clear goals: Start with a list of priorities for the week. Breaking down tasks into manageable steps can make the transition smoother.
- Organise your workspace: A tidy and organised workspace can help you feel more in control and ready to tackle your tasks.
- Reconnect with colleagues: Catch up with your team to get back into the loop and rebuild your work relationships.
- Plan your day: Structure your day with a mix of tasks to keep it interesting. Include breaks to avoid burnout.
- Reflect on your break: Think about what you enjoyed during your time off and how you can incorporate some of those elements into your work routine.
- Stay positive: Focus on the aspects of your job that you enjoy and the goals you want to achieve.
🛠 Introducing the BUILD Model
I’m conducting a brief, anonymous survey to gather insights on team challenges and development practices. Your responses will help refine the BUILD model, which I developed over the summer to elevate team performance.
Grounded in the latest research, BUILD fosters high-performing, inclusive, and resilient teams. The survey takes 2 minutes to complete and will assist in fine-tuning BUILD before testing. Thank you in advance.
Link 👉 https://forms.gle/nm5AUqDdnzw7sE2i6
This new team assessment tool diagnoses and enhances team effectiveness, providing actionable insights tailored to your team’s needs.
🍌 The Monkey Fable: A Lesson in Mindset and Behavior
This week I shared a LinkedIn post, prompted by a healthy debate on culture, mindsets, and behaviors. Here’s the full version:
Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad tell a compelling fable about four monkeys in a cage. Bananas hang from the roof, accessible only by steps. Whenever the monkeys try to climb the steps, a blast of cold water stops them.
After a while, they realised there’s no point in trying to get the “forbidden fruit,” and give up. The hose that blasts the water was removed and one of the original monkeys replaced with a new one. On seeing the bananas, the new monkey starts up the steps, but the other monkeys, pull it down before it gets blasted by water. The new monkey tries to scale the ladder, only to be repeatedly pulled back. Finally, it accepts the group code of conduct and doesn’t bother to go for the bananas.
Over the next few weeks, the rest of the original monkeys were replaced one at a time with new monkeys. By the end of the experiment, with perfectly ripe bananas sitting on the platform above, and monkeys that have never seen a jet of water, none of the animals tries to climb the steps. They’ve all learned the unwritten rule: “you don’t grab the bananas around here.”
This story vividly illustrates how deeply ingrained mindsets can dictate behaviours within a group or organisation. These mindsets – our beliefs, attitudes, and implicit biases – shape our actions, often in ways we don’t even realise. It’s a powerful reminder to question and challenge the ‘unwritten rules’ that govern our behaviours.
🍌 Have you ever encountered a ‘forbidden fruit’ in your organisation? How did you respond, and what did you learn from the experience?
🤔 Reflect on Your Mindset: Are You Holding Yourself Back?
In my 20 years of developing organisations, I’ve seen many change efforts fail because they focus solely on altering behaviours without addressing the mindsets that drive them. You can’t change systems and processes if they clash with the underlying mindsets that people hold.
Immunity to Change is a framework, I often use to identify and overcome hidden barriers to change. This approach involves exploring key questions such as:
o What is it that you want to achieve ?
o What are you doing or not doing to achieve it?
o What hidden commitments are holding you back? What are those subconscious commitments that conflict with your goals
o What assumptions are driving these commitments? What beliefs support these hidden commitments.
🚀 Embrace a Growth-Oriented Approach
As we navigate this new season, let’s not forget that true transformation starts from within. By challenging our ingrained mindsets and embracing a growth-oriented approach, we can unlock new levels of potential—for ourselves, our teams, and our organisations.
I encourage you to reflect on the questions and consider how they might apply to your own leadership journey. Remember, the journey of change is continuous, but you don’t have to walk it alone.
V
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