Page 50 - Develop your leadership skills- John Adair. -- 2nd ed

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How to turn the core leadership functions into skills ■ 41

■ Handles failure. Success is often to be found at the edge of
failure. A high-performance team picks itself up quickly
after a failure, learns the lessons and presses forward.

■ Rides out the storms. The test of a high-performance team
comes in the storms that overcome other, less stoutly made
teams. The true evaluation of teamwork is in the difficult,
demanding change situation.

When it comes to teamwork, remember that success often
breeds failure. Successful teams sometimes become overconfi-
dent, even arrogant, and that is when they start making ‘below
the waterline’ mistakes, the ones that can sink your organisa-
tion. The price of excellence in teamwork is eternal vigilance.

As a leader, you should have a relationship with each member
of the team – an equal but different relationship – as well as a
relationship with the team as a whole. That will involve you in
talking and listening to each individual. Your observations and
conversations may lead you with some of them to take the role
of a coach and counsellor.

If you work for an organisation you may well have to appraise
each team member. Appraising or evaluating individual perfor-
mance is actually a natural expression of leadership. If it is
formalised or systematised in your organisation, you should
take steps to avoid appraisal becoming a bureaucratic routine.

Motivating

If communication is sister to leadership, then motivation is its
brother. ‘Motivation’ comes from the Latin verb for ‘to move’.