Building Effective Teams in an Age where Transitions are BAU

Introduction

Groups of Senior leaders in the modern workplace are often referred to as the LT – the Leadership team.  In fact, I have been part of many to varying degrees of success over the last 20+ years.  Typically, it is a selection of department heads or people close to the top of the organisation, and it is chaired by the CEO.

But are they a Leadership team?  I believe there's a profound difference between this gathering of similar level people who are really a ‘team of leaders’ and a genuine ‘leadership team’ where everyone arrives with collective responsibility for the organisation's success.

A genuine team forms when its members recognise, they're united by something that can only be accomplished together, something beyond departmental objectives. Simply it is the purpose that should define the participants of a team, not the job title.

With organisations experiencing a wave of changes in AI, hybrid work models, economic uncertainty, where transitions are business as usual, the need for true leadership teams with collective purpose has never been greater.

Key Indicators Your Team Needs Coaching

I often use Patrick Lencioni's influential "Five Dysfunctions of a Team" model when coaching teams, systemic or otherwise.  The following indicators reveal where coaching interventions can create the most significant impact with teams. While these dysfunctions exist in many teams, they become particularly costly for leadership teams navigating transformational change. Look for these warning signs that suggest your leadership group needs to evolve from a collection of department heads into a genuine team with shared purpose and accountability

1.      Absence of Trust

When leadership team members guard their vulnerabilities and mistakes, they're signalling a fundamental trust deficit. You might notice this when team members share polished updates rather than works-in-progress, or when challenges are framed as "someone else's problem."

This absence of trust often manifests as departmental silos where information becomes currency rather than a shared resource.

What to watch for: Conversations that feel transactional rather than transparent; minimal personal disclosure; and a tendency to present only finished solutions rather than iterative solutions or emerging challenges.

2.      Fear of Conflict

Healthy conflict is essential for innovation, yet many leadership teams operate with artificial harmony. When meetings consistently run smoothly but tough decisions get delayed, or when real disagreements happen in corridors rather than conference rooms, your team is likely out of practice of productive conflict.

What to watch for: Meetings where important topics become "car park conversations"; nodding agreement in the room followed by private resistance; and a cultural emphasis on politeness over candour.

3.      Lack of Commitment

True commitment emerges from clarity and buy-in, not command and control. When a leadership team constantly revisits supposedly settled matters or when execution falters despite apparent agreement, commitment issues are likely at play.

What to watch for: Ambiguous meeting outcomes where different leaders leave with different interpretations; passive resistance to implementation; and the same strategic questions resurfacing repeatedly.

4.      Avoidance of Accountability

In functional teams, members hold each other accountable regardless of reporting lines. When accountability flows only vertically (from the CEO down) rather than horizontally (between peers), there's a coaching opportunity for the connections.

What to watch for: Missed commitments without consequences; blame-shifting between departments; and leaders who focus exclusively on their direct reports while ignoring peer performance.

5.      Inattention to Results

When team members prioritise departmental victories over collective outcomes, they reveal the final dysfunction: inattention to shared results. This often manifests when leaders celebrate their unit's achievements despite the organisation missing its broader goals.

What to watch for: Reward systems that incentivise departmental rather than organisational performance; scorecards that don't capture cross-departmental value; and celebration of individual successes amid collective challenges.

What are Some Critical Opportune Moments for Team Coaching Interventions?

1.      Purpose Discovery and Recalibration

Leadership teams need periodic recalibration of their shared purpose especially during significant transitions. The question "what can only be achieved when we work as a genuine team?" becomes particularly powerful when facing disruptive change.

AI and digital transformation create natural moments for this recalibration, as they demand new forms of cross-functional integration.

Coaching pointer: Ask your Leadership-team to identify three organisational outcomes that genuinely require collective leadership rather than individual expertise.

2.      Transitional Intelligence Inflection Points

While individual Transitional Intelligence helps leaders navigate personal career shifts, team Transitional Intelligence enables collective navigation of organisational change. This capacity becomes crucial at inflection points those moments when the gap between "what was" and "what will be" creates maximum tension.

Coaching pointer: During major transitions, create deliberate space for team members to share both their hopes and fears about the change, focusing on building collective rather than individual narratives. Create your own Transition language and vocabulary to create safe phrases for challenge.

3.      Strategic Realignment Around Technology Shifts

When technology initiatives create new organisational silos rather than integration, it signals the need for team coaching. This will happens with AI implementations, if technology expertise becomes concentrated in specific departments rather than embedded throughout the organisation.

Coaching pointer: Map how information and decisions about technological change flow through your leadership team are they creating connection points or new divisions?

4.      From Reporting Forum to Building Connection Infrastructure

True leadership teams don't emerge spontaneously, they require deliberate infrastructure to support genuine interdependence. This includes both temporal structures (how time is allocated) and relational structures (how conversation is facilitated).

Coaching pointer: Audit your leadership team meeting agendas for the past quarter. What percentage focused on reporting versus collective problem-solving? This ratio reveals much about your team's current function.  A great beneficial read here is Time to Think by Nancy Klein (Book review here) which shares how shifting to thinking out-loud in teams can stimulate the best solutions.

Developing Team Transitional Intelligence is vital for AI Adoption in business

Teams with high Transitional Intelligence demonstrate distinctive capabilities:

• They are comfortable with complexity and contradictory ideas, choosing to explore and understand them rather than rushing to find a quick solution.

• They acknowledge both continuity and change, avoiding the false choice between "revolution" and "business as usual"

• They navigate uncertainty with resilience, maintaining focus and energy through setbacks and challenges during AI adoption.

• They adapt quickly and effectively, adjusting their approaches and mindsets as new information emerges, rather than clinging to outdated methods.

• They foster emotional awareness and empathy, recognising the emotional impact of change on themselves and others, which builds psychological safety and trust.

• They build strong social connections and collaborate openly, leveraging diverse perspectives to solve problems and innovate with AI solutions.

• They manage the human side of change, understanding that AI adoption involves not just technical implementation but also shifts in roles, behaviours, and mindsets.

Final Thoughts

In an age of continuous transition, the competitive advantage increasingly belongs to organisations with genuine leadership teams rather than groups of functional experts with limited integration.

True team functioning creates the foundation for successful transformation. When leaders move beyond departmental advocacy to organisational stewardship, they create environments where technological advances like AI enhance rather than threaten human capability.

The journey from reporting forum to leadership team begins with honest assessment. Look for the dysfunctions outlined above, identify your critical transition moments, and consider whether team coaching might help unlock the collective intelligence your organisation needs.

Remember: Purpose creates a team, not vice versa. When leaders unite around what can only be accomplished together, they create the connections that make transformation possible.