Teamwork – Memories of the past and something learned the hard way

Teamwork – Memories of the past and something learned the hard way

"When I started my job as a manager years ago, I was quite a ****head. I had a thought, a vision and will, but I didn't really get to share it with others", said Kole to Jaako that cold November morning.

Jaakko recalled that when he suddenly became a judge at the age of 35, he had no coaches or personal training to support him, even though the team consisted of almost thirty top experts. "Fortunately, there was so much dune that I didn't have time to overthink the situation until broken", describes Jaakko.

It was a wonderful time for both of us young leaders, but have we learned anything in the journey since? Well, something has caught the wounds of both of our lives, and we thought of summarizing a couple of very important things for you readers.

1. Open communication:

Encourage team members to share their thoughts, ideas and concerns openly. Open communication creates trust and helps solve problems quickly.

2. Clear goals:

Make sure the team has clear and mutually agreed goals. This helps everyone understand what to aim for and how to get there.

3. Clarity of roles and responsibilities:

The roles and responsibilities of each team member should be clearly defined. This reduces confusion and helps the team run smoothly.

4. Supporting cooperation:

Create an environment where collaboration is easy and encouraged. This can mean, for example, providing common tools and facilities or creating practices that support teamwork.

5. Positive work atmosphere:

A good working atmosphere promotes teamwork. As a leader, your task is to create and maintain a positive atmosphere in which work is done.

6. Psychological safety:

Psychological safety is important so that team members dare to take risks and bring out new ideas. A sense of security arises from a predictable and fair operating environment.

What does psychological safety mean?

Jaakko recalled his youth as a leader and stated "nothing was said about that at all". "I probably should have...", Kole recalled his own beginnings of the peak years, when there was a lot of pressure in all directions and he himself increased that pressure with his own absoluteness. At its worst, it even led to panic attacks, when the feeling of control in every single thing was not 100 %.

So what will it lead to if there is no psychological safety in the team? It leads to that competition between members, feelings of fear, risk avoidance and silence enter the team. Even humping. The feedback people get is filtered.  

Creating psychological safety is important so that the team can work efficiently and productively. Here are some key principles to help create psychological safety:

A predictable and fair operating environment:

A sense of security arises when the operating environment is predictable and fair. This means that acting within the norms of the group is predictable and safe.

High level of requirements and safety:

A high level of requirements requires psychological security. Without security, a high level of requirements can create anxiety, but with security, high performance and productivity are achieved.

Meaningfulness and motivation:

Safety is created when everyone can work based on their own meaning and driven by their own motivations.

So how did the men end up?

Everything went well with Jaak because he was himself and I didn't analyze the situation too much. At the end of the day, it's about respecting people and being on the same level. Let's give each other space and respect. Later, of course, experience was gained from the other extreme. 😊

And what about Kole? Still looking for himself but hasn't had a panic attack in ten years... 😊 

As sources, a touch of each: Timothy Clark, own experiences, Simon Sinek and Patrick Lencioni as well as a total of more than 100 years of traveling around the world, combined with being inspired by the greatness of MTTC's other coaches of blog posts.