The Unified Team

The world is changed by those who can inspire and unite.

Whether it's Martin Luther King giving a dream for the civil rights movement. Nelson Mandela uniting South Africans as a new nation. Or a team unifying around a shared goal.

We achieve by working together as one.

While this is magical when it works, it more often than not doesn't work. It doesn't happen by chance. Because human forces are working to divide your team.

It happens when we have a strategy to unify the team.

So what's your strategy? Most people don't have a strategy. They think adults will naturally get along.

In today's podcast I wanted to talk about the three types of people that make up teams. Why by default we end up with divisive forces. And how we can create the conditions so teams do unite.

Business wants to be scientific.

Managers want to see data, facts and evidence to base decisions on. The last thing anyone wants to do is to put the company at risk. No-one wants to be blamed for being reckless.

So we buy based on logic.

But when we sell logic to people they resist. We buy proven tech and initiatives, but employees don't use it. Because people have their own opinions, preferences and concerns.

Every change is made with the promise of a better future.

But it's only scientific if we precisely know the outcomes of every eventuality. Science isolates variables and seeks to make choice into maths. Art is based on a best guess that we can make something more appealing.

Change in organisations is a guess that what we do makes a better future.

Better is subjective. Who is it better for? And how can we know another choice wouldn't be better?

We make business decisions never knowing if another is better

Never knowing how the variable of different people will respond.

In the clip Clark Ray, Tony Walmsley and I talked about change. From a football manager's perspective. To the implications for business and politics.

Links:

Clark's Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/10thman/

Clark’s Website:  https://www.clarkray.com

Tony Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-walmsley/

Tony’s Website:  https://theleadersadvisory.com

Rob's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robmcphillips/

Rob's Website: https://robmcphillips.com/

Every life has value and lessons.

Hollywood and the mainstream media look for the blockbusters. But often the insights and lessons we need come from people like us. People living everyday lives who have seen something that we haven't.

A book has a life's experiences encoded into a few hours read.

Those few hours can let us vicariously experience a lifetime of insights. Someone who's worked 30 years in a narrow field can have the insights we need. Not Nobel Prize winning, but enough to solve the problems we face.

Michael Ward is a man who has lived a full life.

Business Owner. Management Consultant. Author.

He's spent many years working in, and with, organisations. He's written popular books on Management and on his passion, Climbing. He's also ghostwritten a number of other books

Now he helps people share their ideas and lessons with the world.

He works with them to structure and write books that make an impact. People who might not otherwise ever contribute their ideas. Whether through lack of time, writing skills or confidence.

We had a wide ranging discussion covering Psychology, Politics, Economics and much more.

Links:

Michael Ward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-ward-7a4671227/

Should You Write A Book PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z1DwF-s-gqZSlXEBGOS4RvUEnlOg4ysg/view?usp=share_link

Michael's Website: https://michaelwardghostwriter.com

When we gather together, there's pressure to agree.

Groups create norms. And belonging often means we have to conform. Challenging those norms threatens the group.

And so it can put our belonging at risk.

As a result there is a dynamic to agree. To choose people like us. To conform to the pack for safety and harmony.

But we become blinded to danger.

We make poor decisions that threaten the group's safety. We don't see what was obvious to others. It happens over and over again in all kinds of groups.

The key is in having diversity of thinking.

But this means we have to create the safety to challenge. And the ability to be challenged internally. All, so we can safely navigate the real external dangers.

In this podcast episode Clark, Tony and I discussed diversity, conflict and groupthink.

If you had one shot...

One opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted...

Would you capture it or let it slip?

We never know when an opportunity will fall to us. And often they fall when we're not prepared. We kick ourselves for not having the presence to say what we later think of.

That moment slips because we weren't ready.

Mastery means training to be better when we need to be. It's mastering the extra 20% that most people won't put in the work for. It's preparing for any eventuality.

All so when the moment drops into your lap you're ready.

Jung coaches personal mastery so that when those moments arise, his Clients are ready. They take their shot. And don't regret fluffing their lines.

In today's podcast Jung and I talked mastery and his journey.

In this clip he tells about a pivotal moment in his career. In front of 2,000 people his CEO belittled and ridiculed him. He spoke about how he responded and how that helped him to grow.

How would you respond in that moment?

Links:

Jung's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jung-wing-wan/

Website: https://jungpersonalmastery.com

Where does power come from?

Does our authority come from our position? Or from our presence? Our belief will affect how we show up.

People who see their power as their position will seek to build their status.

People who see their presence as power, will seek to engage to develop their influence.

We aren't always in control of, if and when, we get a position of power. But we are in control of developing our presence to influence others. We can develop our skills to communicate effectively.

Pallavi Sidhra is a Coach helping women leaders to access the magic inside themselves.

We discussed life, communication and relationships

250 years ago the founding fathers drew up the U.S constitution.

They had been able to learn lessons from older nations and avoid some of their mistakes. This disparate union of states grew to become the world superpower. Today, there is a new and ambitious union that is looking to launch itself as a global player.

As a region it is having to unify many tribal interests in massive unified goals.

I'm always interested in examples where groups unify behind a single goal. It is also a great source of opportunities, but it has a very different culture to the western world. The result is we have a lot of misconceptions about doing business in the Middle East.

Corina Goetz is doing her best to smash those stereotypes.

Corina grew up in Communist East Germany. She moved to London when she could. As a German (especially as an East German) she felt misunderstood and stereotyped.

She saw the same misunderstandings in Westerners dealing with Middle Eastern Clients.

Now she works to bridge these gaps. As a non-Arabic speaker. A German woman, she nonetheless works with Gulf Clients from Royalty to VIP.

And now she helps others to avoid the mistakes that cost contracts.

Her agency Star-Cat teaches people who want to do business in the Gulf region what they need to know. From finding opportunities to cultivating relationships. To making sure Clients are satisfied.

Do you like to read?

I've always loved to read. It's the possibility of finding new ideas. Ideas are the building blocks I play with.

When I read books I want new ideas.

Ideas that change my thinking. Ideas reimagined. Or ideas refuted.

I love to read, but now it's something I don't always find the time to do.

When I realised some of my friends read a lot it gave me an idea. Let's start a regular book club slot on the podcast. We kicked off discussing books that had the most impact on us.

Here's some of the ideas we discussed from books.

On the panel were:

Eduardo dos Santos Silva

Neil Harrison

Saurabh Debnath

Most leadership is remedial.

For me, a Leader has three key roles...

1. To articulate the vision of what the collective is going to achieve.

2. Agreeing the strategic direction that everyone's going to follow.

3. Carrying the group along and ensuring the values of the beliefs of what it means to be part of the group are upheld.

The problem is that much of management is about picking up the pieces.

When communication has failed. When there's conflict. Or when people are struggling.

We put an enormous amount of pressure on leaders to be superhuman.

And then we're surprised when we see so much 'bad leadership'. The problem isn't the person. The problem is we set the bar too high.

What if instead of asking one individual to lift the group, we raised the team?

What if the team managed their own relationships. Kept communication flowing. And worked collectively.

This is what I call a Leader Ready team.

Ready to lead. Ready to be led. A team bonded in purpose.

Today is a different podcast episode.

I wanted to share the philosophy behind The Unified Team Podcast.

If you failed at your job more than 50% of the time would you still have a job?

Imagine a Surgeon who failed half the time. Or a pilot. Or a production line.

Now look at the divorce statistics.

More than half of our most commited relationships, marriages, end in divorce. Ok divorce isn't necessarily failure. But we bond together to have something that lasts.

And at work, we have the same problems where relationships struggle. This creates divisions, power struggles and personality problems.

When failure is this widespread it's not down to an individual, but to the model we operate from.

Divorces started to skyrocket about 60 years ago. As the world became more equal, some men are struggling to adapt to the changes. Those struggles affect women in their relationships and interactions with men.

Last week, I discussed with Clark and Tony how we as men saw the challenges of being a man today.

This week, I discussed with an all-female panel. We discussed how women can support men through a changing world. So we can all get to a world where each thrive.

On the panel were:

Branka

Lisa Cunningham

Sarah