Category: coaching (Page 1 of 2)

No More Ghosting: How to Keep Sponsors Engaged

March 29, 2025 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

The Vanishing Act: When Sponsors Disappear Until It’s Too Late

Ever had a sponsor who suddenly goes radio silent—only to reappear in a panic when things start falling apart? One moment, they promise support. The next, they vanish like a ghost. And just when you think you’ve been abandoned, they materialize, demanding urgent updates and questioning every decision you’ve made.

👀 Sound familiar? It happens more often than we’d like to admit.

I once watched a project team struggle for weeks—resource shortages, conflicting priorities, and mounting pressure. The sponsor? Nowhere to be found. The team sent emails, requested meetings, and even escalated concerns. Silence. Then, right before a major review, the sponsor stormed in, asking, “Why am I only hearing about these issues now?”

The team exchanged frustrated glances. One whispered, “We tried telling you. You weren’t listening.”

This isn’t just a communication failure—it’s a leadership gap. Sponsors shouldn’t be ghosts who haunt teams only when things go wrong. They need to be active champions, removing roadblocks before they become crises.

5 Scenarios Every Team Leader Faces with Sponsors

1️⃣ The Disappearing Sponsor: “We approved the project… why are we still stuck?”

📌 Puzzle: The budget is approved, but the team can’t get past organizational roadblocks. The sponsor is unresponsive, and approvals stall.

👨‍💼 Team Leader: “We’ve been waiting for weeks for a decision on hiring the additional developers. We can’t move forward without them.”

💼 Sponsor: “I assumed everything was moving ahead as planned. Why wasn’t this escalated sooner?”

💡 Solution: Establish structured sponsor involvement from the start. Set up monthly check-ins and define clear expectations so roadblocks get tackled early. Make sure escalations are acknowledged and addressed quickly.

🔹 Action Tip: Implement an escalation protocol where sponsors must respond within a set time frame. If they don’t, an auto-escalation moves the issue up the chain.

2️⃣ The Last-Minute Panic: “Why is leadership only stepping in now?”

📌 Puzzle: The team has flagged risks for months. But leadership only takes action when deadlines are at risk.

👨‍💼 Team Leader: “We raised concerns about the unrealistic timeline in our last three updates. Now we’re days from launch, and suddenly leadership is in firefighting mode.”

💼 Sponsor: “We didn’t realize it was this serious. We assumed you had it under control.”

💡 Solution: Implement risk visibility frameworks. Use a simple traffic light system (Green, Yellow, Red) that keeps risks transparent. This approach forces early interventions. Require leadership to acknowledge risk updates so issues don’t get ignored.

🔹 Action Tip: Use a sponsor risk dashboard where flagged issues require an explicit response from leadership, making accountability visible.

3️⃣ The Ghosting Act: “Why can’t we get a decision on this?”

📌 Puzzle: Critical decisions get delayed because sponsors are “too busy.” The team is stuck waiting.

👨‍💼 Team Leader: “We’ve sent multiple follow-ups on the budget reallocation. Without it, we can’t complete this phase.”

💼 Sponsor: “I’ve been swamped. Can’t you just make do for now?”

💡 Solution: Create decision charters—short, documented frameworks that specify when and how sponsors must provide input, preventing unnecessary delays. Establish time limits for decisions and alternative paths if approvals stall.

🔹 Action Tip: Introduce “default decisions”. If a sponsor doesn’t respond within a set time, the decision defaults to the next best option. This helps avoid stagnation.

4️⃣ The Out-of-Touch Sponsor: “Do they even know what we’re working on?”

📌 Puzzle: The sponsor is disconnected from the team’s daily work and makes decisions based on outdated assumptions.

👨‍💼 Team Leader: “We’ve pivoted based on recent customer feedback, but leadership is still measuring us against outdated goals.”

💼 Sponsor: “This isn’t what we initially agreed upon. Why weren’t we consulted?”

💡 Solution: Schedule quarterly “walk-the-floor” sessions where sponsors join team stand-ups or shadow key discussions to stay informed. Ensure feedback loops are in place so sponsors are aligned with evolving priorities.

🔹 Action Tip: Implement a “Sponsor Buddy” system. Pair a sponsor with a team member for regular informal check-ins. This practice helps build deeper engagement.

5️⃣ The Misaligned Priorities: “Why is leadership pulling us in different directions?”

📌 Puzzle: The sponsor keeps shifting focus, making it hard for the team to stay aligned.

👨‍💼 Team Leader: “Last month, our focus was customer acquisition. Now it’s cost-cutting. What’s the real priority?”

💼 Sponsor: “We’re responding to new market conditions. You need to be more agile.”

💡 Solution: Use priority alignment meetings—a 15-minute weekly check-in to clarify focus and prevent constant direction changes. Ensure leadership decisions are based on strategy, not knee-jerk reactions.

🔹 Action Tip: Introduce a single “North Star” metric that sponsors and teams agree on, keeping everyone aligned.

🚀 From Ghosting to Greatness

Sponsorship isn’t about stepping in at the last minute—it’s about being a consistent force that fuels team success. The best sponsors don’t haunt teams with last-minute panic; they empower them with ongoing support.

💬 Have you ever dealt with a “ghost sponsor”? How did you handle it? Drop your thoughts in the comments!

💬 Which of these challenges do you face most often?

Let’s chat! I offer coaching sessions designed to help team leaders create stronger, high-performing teams.

👉 Follow me for more insights and actionable team leadership tips and team building strategies! If you’re a team leader looking to turn sponsor chaos into collaboration, let’s connect!

10 Questions Every Team Leader Should Ask

March 10, 2025 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

Leadership isn’t about having all the answers —

It’s about asking the right questions.

At first, stepping into a leadership role feels like it’s all about strategy, execution, and results. But soon, reality hits. Leadership is about people. It involves navigating complex dynamics and handling unspoken challenges. You must make decisions in situations no playbook can fully prepare you for.

So, what are the biggest hurdles team leaders face? And more importantly, how can you overcome them? Here are 10 team leadership challenges and the critical questions you should be asking to tackle them.

1. Resistance to Change

You introduce a new process or tool, expecting it to boost efficiency. Instead, you find some employees eager to adopt it, while others hesitate or outright refuse. Instead of improving workflow, things slow down.

Why it matters:

Change resistance can stall progress and affect morale. Research by McKinsey & Co. suggests that 70% of change initiatives fail due to employee pushback and poor communication. Read more here.

💡 Question to ask:

Am I helping my team embrace change—or just expecting them to?

2. Uneven Workloads

One team member is overworked and constantly putting in extra hours. Another has lighter tasks but doesn’t step in to help. The high performer won’t complain—until burnout forces them out.

Why it matters: Overworking top performers can lead to high turnover. A study by Gallup found that burnout leads to a 2.6x higher likelihood of employees actively seeking a new job. Check the report.

💡 Question to ask:

Do I truly know who’s overwhelmed and who has capacity?

3. Lack of Psychological Safety

You ask for input in a meeting. Silence. Later, someone tells you they had an idea but didn’t feel comfortable sharing it. If people aren’t speaking up, how many good ideas are getting lost?

Why it matters: Studies show that teams with high psychological safety outperform others. Google’s Project Aristotle found that psychological safety was the #1 factor in high-performing teams. Explore their findings.

💡 Question to ask:

Do my people feel safe enough to challenge ideas?

4. Communication Breakdowns

You’ve explained the new direction in meetings, emails, and Slack. Yet someone still asks, “Wait, what’s changing?” Information overload doesn’t mean clarity.

Why it matters: Poor communication costs businesses an estimated $37 billion annually in lost productivity. See the report.

💡 Question to ask:

Are my messages being understood—or just heard?

5. Decision-Making Bottlenecks

One team is waiting on approval, but the person making the call is waiting on someone else. Meanwhile, progress is stuck in limbo.

Why it matters: Research by Harvard Business Review found that slow decision-making reduces organizational efficiency by 20-30%. Read more.

💡 Question to ask:

Are slow decisions costing my team speed and momentum?

6. Managing Remote & Hybrid Teams

A key decision is made in a casual hallway chat. A remote team member has no idea it even happened. Now, there’s confusion and misalignment.

Why it matters: Microsoft’s Work Trend Index reports that hybrid work has increased miscommunication and misalignment across teams. See the full report.

💡 Question to ask:

How can I make remote and hybrid teams feel equally included?

7. Misalignment on Goals

Marketing is focused on brand awareness, sales is pushing for revenue, and product is prioritizing user experience. Everyone is working hard—but in different directions.

Why it matters: Companies with high goal alignment see 3.5x better revenue growth, according to a study by LSA Global. Check the data.

💡 Question to ask:

Is my team aligned on what truly matters?

8. Low Team Engagement

You ask for input, but no one responds—cameras off, phones out, energy low. They’re showing up, but are they actually engaged?

Why it matters: A Gallup study found that only 36% of employees are actively engaged at work. This lack of engagement leads to lower performance and retention. Explore the research.

💡 Question to ask:

What’s quietly killing my team’s motivation?

9. Avoiding Tough Conversations

Two teammates aren’t getting along, and it’s starting to affect everyone. You keep hoping they’ll work it out. They won’t.

Why it matters: Avoiding conflict results in 57% of employees actively avoiding colleagues, causing drops in collaboration. See the study.

💡 Question to ask:

Am I avoiding a tough conversation that needs to happen?

10. Bridging the Skills Gap

You need someone to take on more responsibility, and they want to, but they don’t have the right skills yet. You don’t have time to slow down for training.

Why it matters: The World Economic Forum predicts that 50% of employees will need reskilling by 2025. Read more.

💡 Question to ask:

Am I prioritizing execution over development?

Final Thoughts

Great leadership isn’t about knowing everything—it’s about asking the right questions. If you want to grow as a leader, pay attention to the unseen barriers. Be prepared for the tough conversations. Address the gaps that hold teams back.

💬 Which of these challenges do you face most often?

Let’s chat! I offer coaching sessions designed to help team leaders create stronger, high-performing teams.

👉 Follow me for more insights and actionable team leadership tips and team building strategies!

decorative cake with fruits — Photo by Ionela Mat on Pexels.com

Are you struggling to close the communication gaps in your team?

February 23, 2025 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

Effective communication is one of the biggest drivers of team performance.

Yet, misunderstandings and information gaps cost companies thousands of dollars in wasted time and rework. A recent SHRM study found that miscommunication costs businesses $12,506 per employee per year.

As a leader, your ability to create clarity, engagement, and alignment is crucial.

Here are five powerful, research-backed strategies to bridge communication gaps and build a stronger, more productive team.

1. The “Walk-and-Talk” Method – Enhance Engagement

Why it works:
Stanford University research shows that walking meetings boost creative thinking by 60%. They improve engagement by breaking the traditional power dynamic of face-to-face meetings.

✅ Action Tip for Leaders:

Replace weekly one-on-one meetings with outdoor or hallway walks.
Use walking discussions for sensitive topics, reducing confrontation.
Keep the conversation open-ended—let the team member talk more than you.

🔹 Key Questions to Ask:

“What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing right now?”
“If you had full control, what would you change?”
“How can I support you better?”

✅ Example: A tech manager replaced formal performance reviews with “walk-and-talk” feedback sessions. Employees reported feeling more comfortable, which led to higher engagement and honest discussions.

2. Implement the “Teach-Back” Technique – Ensure Clarity

Why it works:
Harvard Business Review found that 70% of employees misunderstand key instructions after meetings. The Teach-Back Method ensures clarity by having team members explain key takeaways in their own words.

✅ Action Tip for Leaders:

At the end of meetings, ask: “Can you summarize our next steps in your own words?”
Assign rotating meeting scribes to document key takeaways and action points.
Instead of asking “Did you get that?”, say “What’s your understanding of this?”

🔹 Key Questions to Ask:

“How would you explain this to a new team member?”
“What are the first steps you will take after this meeting?”
“Are there any unclear areas that we should clarify?”

✅ Example: A project manager introduced teach-back reviews in weekly meetings. Within a month, the team reduced miscommunication errors by 30% and improved execution speed.

3. Use “High-Touch” Check-Ins – Reduce Email Overload

Why it works:
A McKinsey study found that professionals spend 28% of their workweek managing emails. This leads to message overload and missed information. Short verbal check-ins cut down unnecessary digital clutter.

✅ Action Tip for Leaders:

Replace long email updates with quick 5-minute morning huddles.
Use voice notes instead of long text-based instructions.
Limit emails to action items and essential updates only.

🔹 Key Questions to Ask:

“What’s the most important thing on your plate today?”
“What’s blocking your progress, and how can I help?”
“What’s one thing you need more clarity on?”

✅ Example: A finance team replaced email updates with 10-minute stand-ups, cutting down unnecessary emails by 40% while improving efficiency.

4. Set “No-Interruption” Speaking Rules – Ensure Everyone is Heard

Why it works:
MIT’s Human Dynamics Lab found that high-performing teams have equal participation in discussions. If the loudest voices dominate, you risk losing valuable input from quieter team members.

✅ Action Tip for Leaders:

Implement a “round-robin” speaking format where each team member must contribute before decisions are made.
Use a “talking object” (like a pen or ball) to structure speaking turns.
Ensure introverted team members submit written input before meetings.

🔹 Key Questions to Ask:

“I haven’t heard from you yet—what’s your take on this?”
“Let’s pause—who else has a different perspective?”
“What’s one thing we haven’t considered?”

✅ Example: A product team introduced no-interruption rules in brainstorming sessions. Within a month, engagement from quieter employees increased by 45%, leading to more diverse ideas.

5. The “90-Second Rule” for Conflict Resolution

Why it works:
The Journal of Applied Psychology found that when teams address misunderstandings within 90 seconds, they greatly improve their resolution chances. Their chances improve significantly. They are 75% more likely to resolve them without ongoing friction.

✅ Action Tip for Leaders:

Implement a “speak-up now” policy—any miscommunication must be addressed within 90 seconds of noticing it.
Use neutral phrasing to encourage constructive discussions.

🔹 Key Questions to Ask:

“Let’s clarify this now—what’s your understanding?”
“I hear your concern. What’s a good way forward?”
“How can we prevent this from happening again?”

✅ Example: A sales team introduced the 90-Second Rule in meetings. It reduced conflicts by 30% and improved interdepartmental collaboration.

Conclusion

🚀 Great communication isn’t about talking more—it’s about talking smarter.

By using walking meetings, leaders can create a culture of clarity. They also use teach-back methods, which foster collaboration. Structured speaking formats and instant conflict resolution are also employed. Together, these create a culture of clarity, collaboration, and accountability.

📌 Follow me for more research-backed leadership strategies!

BONUS: Leadership Cheat Sheet – Key Questions to Improve Communication

✅ For Daily Check-ins:

“What’s the most important thing on your plate today?”
“Where do you need more support?”
“Is there anything blocking your progress?”

✅ For Meetings & Feedback Sessions:

“Can you summarize this in your own words?”
“What’s one takeaway from this discussion?”
“What could we do differently next time?”

✅ For Conflict Resolution & Decision-Making:

“What’s your perspective on this?”
“What’s the real issue here?”
“What’s one solution we can agree on?”

🚀 Strong communication builds high-performing teams. Let’s make it happen!

Want to improve communication in your team? Let’s chat! I offer coaching sessions designed to help leaders create stronger, high-performing teams.

👉 Follow me for more insights and actionable team leadership tips and team building strategies!

6 Hidden Gaps Holding Your Team Back

February 13, 2025 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

brown rock formation under blue sky — Photo by Ralph David on Pexels.com

Ever felt like your team isn’t on the same page, despite regular meetings and updates? You’re not alone. Poor communication is one of the biggest barriers to team success—but often, the real gaps go unnoticed.

Here are six hidden communication gaps and how you can fix them:

1. “Assumption Gap” – Assuming Everyone Understands

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make?

Assuming clarity. Just because you explained something doesn’t mean it was understood.

Fix It:
✅ Encourage “repeat-backs” – Have team members summarize key takeaways.
✅ Use simple, direct language instead of jargon.
✅ Give written follow-ups after key discussions.

✅ Example: A sales team misinterpreted new pricing guidelines, causing confusion with clients. After implementing written recaps, errors dropped significantly.

2. “Tool Overload Gap” – Too Many Communication Channels

Teams often juggle emails, Slack, Zoom, project boards, and more. This leads to information overload and lost messages.

Fix It:
✅ Define a clear communication hierarchy (e.g., Slack for quick updates, email for formal info).
✅ Reduce tool clutter—stick to essential platforms.
✅ Set response expectations for different channels.

✅ Example: A software team cut unnecessary Slack channels, reducing distractions and improving focus.

3. “Hierarchy Gap” – Leadership is Out of Touch

Employees often hesitate to voice concerns to leadership, leading to blind spots in decision-making.

Fix It:
✅ Implement reverse Q&A sessions where leadership listens instead of talking.
✅ Conduct anonymous feedback surveys to find hidden challenges.
✅ Make leadership more accessible with informal check-ins.

✅ Example: A CTO held “Ask Me Anything” sessions, allowing engineers to voice concerns. This led to critical process improvements.

4. “Silent Team Members Gap” – Not Everyone Speaks Up

In every team, there are louder voices that dominate discussions, while others hesitate to contribute. This creates an imbalance in decision-making.

Fix It:
✅ Use round-robin speaking in meetings to ensure equal participation.
✅ Encourage written input before discussions so everyone’s ideas are heard.
✅ Create a culture where no idea is dismissed too quickly.

✅ Example: A design team required all members to provide feedback before meetings. As a result, quieter team members contributed innovative ideas that were earlier overlooked.

5. “Remote vs. Office Gap” – Disconnected Hybrid Teams

Remote employees often miss out on spontaneous office discussions, leading to information gaps and decision delays.

Fix It:
✅ Default to virtual-first meetings to ensure equal participation.
✅ Document key discussions and share them transparently.
✅ Rotate “meeting facilitators” to ensure everyone’s input is valued.

✅ Example: A company started using Slack threads for post-meeting summaries. This ensured remote employees had the same updates as in-office staff.

6. “Unspoken Expectations Gap” – Lack of Clarity on Priorities

When deadlines and priorities aren’t crystal clear, teams waste time working on the wrong things.

Fix It:
✅ Define top 3 priorities at the start of each week.
✅ Use a visual project board to track status.
✅ Encourage regular “priority check-ins” with team leads.

✅ Example: A marketing team introduced a Monday priorities review. As a result, they improved alignment and reduced last-minute rework.

Conclusion

Small communication gaps can lead to big inefficiencies. But by identifying and addressing these hidden barriers, you’ll build a more connected, productive, and engaged team.

Which gaps resonate with you ?

Want to improve communication in your team? Let’s chat! I offer coaching sessions designed to help leaders create stronger, high-performing teams.

👉 Follow me for more insights and actionable team leadership tips and team building strategies!

Strategies to Foster Systemic Awareness in Teams

December 25, 2024 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

In the fast-evolving tech industry, it’s easy for teams to focus only on building great products or meeting sprint deadlines. But the best teams don’t just hit targets. They understand the bigger picture. They know how their work impacts customers, stakeholders, and the tech ecosystem. This is called systemic awareness, and it’s what sets high-performing tech teams apart.

For tech leaders, systemic awareness is a critical skill to foster in teams. It helps them move beyond isolated tasks. This skill enables them to deliver lasting value. Let’s explore why systemic awareness matters and actionable strategies to build it in your team.

Why Systemic Awareness is Crucial for Tech Teams

Stay Ahead of Trends: Understand changes in the market to build future-ready products.
Add Real Value: Align with customer needs and organizational goals.
Innovate Faster: Spot cross-functional opportunities and solve bigger problems.
Ensure Long-Term Success: Create sustainable solutions that adapt to a changing world.

For team leaders, it’s also a way to nurture leadership, collaboration, and big-picture thinking within technology teams.

1. Map Stakeholders, Not Just Users

Tip: Think beyond end-users. Identify all stakeholders—customers, internal teams, vendors, and regulators.
Example: A leading project management software company ensured its platform catered to developers. It also catered to IT administrators, product managers, and procurement teams. This broadened the product’s value across the organization.
Coaching Insight: Use stakeholder mapping exercises to help your team visualize the broader ecosystem they impact.

2. Link Every Sprint to a Bigger Purpose

Tip: Regularly ask, “How does this feature align with our company’s mission or customer outcomes?”
Example: A prominent SaaS company prioritized analytics tools in its product roadmap. This decision helps customers make data-driven decisions. It aligns product development with the goal of empowering businesses.
Coaching Insight: Encourage the team to connect sprint goals to the company’s mission during retrospectives.

3. Build Feedback Loops

Tip: Regularly gather feedback from users and internal teams, and use it to refine your roadmap.
Example: A global music streaming platform constantly uses data analytics. It employs user insights to improve its recommendation engine. This ensures the product evolves with user expectations.
Coaching Insight: Set up a regular schedule for gathering feedback. Reflect on it to help the team understand how their work creates ripple effects.

4. Expand Team Perspectives

Tip: Encourage cross-team collaboration and external insights.
Example: A major e-commerce platform’s tech team collaborated closely with logistics and marketing teams. They designed delivery-tracking features to enhance customer satisfaction. These efforts aligned with broader business goals.
Coaching Insight: Facilitate cross-functional workshops to expose the team to other departments’ challenges and goals.

5. Practice Scenario Planning

Tip: Anticipate changes in tech, regulations, or user behavior and plan for them.
Example: A cloud service provider developed hybrid cloud tools. This was in response to the rising demand for multi-cloud flexibility. They ensured their offerings stayed relevant in a competitive market.
Coaching Insight: Guide teams through scenario exercises to build agility and foresight.

6. Reflect and Learn Often

Tip: Host retrospectives to review systemic impacts, not just project outcomes.
Example: A cloud infrastructure team improved reliability after major outages by conducting detailed reviews focused on identifying system-wide learning opportunities.
Coaching Insight: Help teams develop a culture of curiosity by framing failures as learning opportunities.

Key Questions for Tech Leaders and Coaches to Drive Systemic Awareness

Who are all the stakeholders affected by our product?
How does our work support the company’s larger mission or strategy?
What external trends or risks disrupt our plans, and how do we prepare for them?
Are we continuously learning from our successes and failures?

Final Thoughts

For technology teams, systemic awareness isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a must. For tech leaders and team coaches, fostering this awareness is critical. It helps in building teams that are effective. These teams are also agile and innovative. They are ready to navigate the complexities of the tech ecosystem.

By implementing these strategies, you’ll create a team that delivers more than just features—they’ll deliver meaningful, sustainable value.

Need Coaching Support? Let’s Work Together!

Systemic awareness can transform your team’s potential, and I can help you make it happen. Whether you’re looking to run workshops or improve team dynamics, I can help. I can also enhance leadership effectiveness by providing tailored coaching solutions to suit your needs.

👉 Contact me today to explore how I can support your team’s growth and success!

5 Key practices of Successful Agile Teams

December 27, 2023 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

Successful agile teams follow a set of essential practices that foster technical excellence, customer-centric development, and efficient delivery processes. Let’s delve into these practices in more detail:

Customer-Centric Approach: Agile teams meticulously analyze customer requirements, leverage user stories, and conduct regular feedback sessions to align development with customer needs. By prioritizing user feedback and embracing customer collaboration, agile teams ensure that the delivered software meets user expectations and delivers business value.
Technical Excellence: High-performing agile teams prioritize continuous learning and innovative technical solutions to ensure the delivery of robust, scalable, and maintainable software. This includes adhering to coding best practices, embracing emerging technologies, and fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and mentorship within the team.
Quality-Driven Development: Quality is ingrained in the development process through automated testing, code reviews, and continuous integration to prevent regressions and ensure reliable software. By integrating quality assurance throughout the development lifecycle, agile teams uphold high standards of software quality and reliability.
Streamlined Delivery Pipelines: Agile teams optimize their delivery pipelines using DevOps practices and tools to automate builds, testing, and deployments, enhancing efficiency and reliability. By streamlining the delivery process, teams can accelerate time-to-market, reduce manual errors, and increase the frequency of software releases.
Systems Thinking: High-performance agile teams maintain a systemic view of their ecosystem, considering dependencies, risks, and impacts to adapt swiftly to changes and improve overall performance. This systemic awareness enables teams to anticipate challenges, proactively address potential issues, and optimize the entire development and delivery workflow.

For more detailed insights, you can find my original presentation here. These practices are fundamental for fostering agility and technical excellence within development teams.

5 Key Practices of Successful Agile Teams.pdf from Asheesh Mehdiratta

Coaching Leadership Teams Journal: Everything You Need To Know – #1

July 4, 2022 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

Leadership Teams are everywhere, but most teams need support with Team coaching, to be able to leverage the true potential of their team members and the team itself and realize the benefits and generate value for the team’s stakeholders.

In this multi-post series, I will share my personal experiences along with notes from the book “Leadership Team Coaching”, by Prof Peter Hawkins and would love to hear your insights and experiences.

KEY Leadership Team Challenges

In this first post, let us understand the KEY Challenges currently being faced by Leadership Teams :

Managing expectations of all Different Stakeholders

Leadership teams today must be able to respond and ‘win the hearts and minds’ of multiple stakeholders – which include key customers, internal staff, partner organizations and the broader spectrum of regulators, board members and shareholders, with communities and the wider shared ecology. Future generations and millennials have even greater expectations and less respect for titles and roles, and leaders will need to earn their respect with creative inspirational and credible actions.

Leadership teams have to RUN and TRANSFORM the Business in parallel

All leadership teams today have to focus on not just running the business, but also look at transforming the business and the wider system and this is never easy! With parallel work across the three horizons, the leadership teams typically have the below focus areas and tend to struggle on maintaining the right balance.

Immediate – Business as Usual
Innovating for tomorrow
Future foresight requiring radical change

Teams need to increase their Capacity for working through Systemic Conflict

Multiple leadership teams are under pressure from the stakeholder group that they represent (CFO – Investors interests, HR – Employees, Sales – Customers etc..), and this leads to systemic conflicts between the various leaders. But for transformational leadership to succeed, we need these leadership teams to collectively engage the commitment and participation of all major stakeholder groups to change in the context of shared purpose, values, and vision. This conflict resolution requires the teams to expand their collective capacity to manage this systemic conflict.

Human beings learning to live with Multiple memberships and belonging

The leaders in leadership teams are increasingly becoming more interconnected with the broader ecology, and increasingly matrix organizations. Every leader is a member of multiple teams, representing the interests in various capacities (E.g. – Executive team, Board member, Industry committee representative, Working groups etc.). This multi-team belonging is difficult for human beings who traditionally as species have learned to be loyal to a tribe/family group, and therefore it is difficult for us to adapt to this new multiple membership’s world.

The World is becoming more Complex and Interconnected

Team leaders today are living in an interconnected world with an ‘Always ON’ mode with demands across the organization, and ‘work anywhere anytime’ post pandemic scenario. This makes it harder to stand back and reflect and see the bigger picture and the team leaders are now turning to team coaching to provide the protected space and outsider perspective.

The Growth of Virtual working

Post the pandemic we are all now forced to work with remote working, and teams working either virtually or hybrid, and all this change requires for us to learn and enhance our communication skills, but also learn new ways of building and establishing trust. We need to be able to build the informal social circles and/or build those ‘moments of trust’, which can replace the earlier physical interactions, and this is still a work in progress for most leadership teams.

The major leadership challenges lie not in the parts but in the Interconnections

As the world has become interconnected, the main challenge lies not in the people, or in the parts but in the interfaces between people, teams, functions, and different stakeholder needs. This leads us to effectively coaching relationships, which leads to enabling the dialogue, resolving conflicts, or helping teams relate better inter-personally. This means that it is not just sufficient to be ‘customer-focused’ but we need to focus on our customer’s customer – enabling their customers in turn to make a difference for their customers. The leadership teams now need to shift to a virtuous cycle of active collaboration, which is grounded in a shared purpose instead of the vicious cycle of blame.

Restoring Trust

Employees increasingly now expect the companies they work for to be purpose led, delivering social and community change, and not just profits. This requires that we ‘restore trust’ which has been lost or is falling across customers and our stakeholders. Leadership teams struggle with this trust deficit and are learning new ways of restoring this trust.

Increasing the Quality of Engagement

Leadership teams are finding it extremely important to engage effectively with employees and stakeholders, considering that trust is critical in this VUCA world. The key elements requires that leadership teams provide a strategic big picture, have engaging managers, employees who can easily voice their ideas and concerns, and organizations whose values align and finally ‘real teamwork’ to enable teams working on shared purpose.

We will explore more on Leadership Team coaching in my next post , but would be interested to hear more about what are your leadership team challenges ? Do these challenges resonate with your teams ? Do these resonate with you as a Team Leader?

Feel free to reach out to me for your team or individual coaching needs and subscribe to my blog to learn more, as I share my coaching journeys.

Speaking at Agile India 2021 on OKRs and data challenges

October 25, 2021 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

OKRs (Objective Key Results) are getting lot of attention recently, but it is never easy to implement and teams attempting face multiple challenges especially with respect to the data. It is a tough journey and takes patience and education and I will be sharing my experiences in Agile India 2021 as a speaker on 20th Nov at 3.55 p.m. IST

The conference schedule is posted here now and my talk details are here. Post conference the slides and video recordings will be posted on the same link.

Let me know if you have similar or different experiences with OKRs or plan to implement OKRs soon. Happy to hear and reach out to me for your coaching needs or subscribe to my blog , and feel free to share your feedback in the comments below..

Do you manage your constraints with self awareness ?

May 3, 2021 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

Life is full of trade offs and constraints. The best in class are experts in managing these constraints while maximizing their outcomes. But we realize only in hindsight that it may be our ‘self awareness’, which may be stopping us from becoming aware or missing these constraints and exploring innovative solutions.

In one of my recent coaching conversations, the individual running a business unit was reviewing his latest unit performance with key KPI’s and scorecard. With most key indicators green, he was worried about the red ones and how to move the needle on them.

PROBLEM and SOLUTION

As part of the coaching conversations, we started exploring and zoomed out to his awareness about all the parts of the broader system, and how much he was aware of the various constraints in the system. The question we discussed was really simple.

“What are the Key Constraints for this system ?”

As he reflected on this, it became apparent that he was clearly missing out few constraints which were hiding in plain sight, but were overlooked. He had missed them in the deeper execution challenges and delivery focused agenda. As a coach, you are always aware of how various subsystems are all interconnected and systems thinking is a key skill to build up this base. If you wish to know more, you can read how you build Communities of Practice ( and think of all the actors in the system)

The next question was simple but thought provoking for the individual .

“Can we change the constraints of the system ?”

This simple “reflection’ and “self awareness” was key for him to observe the system dynamics and take a fresh look at his KPI’s, and readjust them to reflect the new insights.

SUMMARY:

Sometimes we have to zoom out and become an observer of the SYSTEM, without any attachment and this self-awareness is the KEY to the insights.

So if you are struggling with managing your constraints, then try to become more “SELF AWARE”, and with that expanded awareness you will be able to manage your constraints much better.

To know more or understand about how you can build your self awareness, reach out to me for your coaching needs or subscribe to my blog , and feel free to share your feedback in the comments below..

What are the ‘common’ barriers to Coaching ?

June 21, 2020 / Asheesh Mehdiratta

As a Coach, you will always face challenges working with teams or individuals (read as Coachee’s) and Sponsors. You are always trying best to Break down the Walls, brick by brick. So this post is a starter list for some of the most common barriers to coaching with the Sponsors and the Coachee.

For a SPONSOR, some of the common barriers to Coaching are –

Coaching in any form starts with the basic premise that you have – Permission to Coach the coachee, but if coaching is ‘imposed’ on the Coachee by eager Sponsors, then there is no permission really between the coachee and the coach. The relationship then simply becomes an ORDER = “Thy shall be coach’d or else !!“

On the opposite end, there is simply a lack of Sponsorship for coaching, where the Sponsors see Coaching as only a add-on and not really a strategic investment ! In these scenarios, we find that the the coaching is ineffective or if the money simply runs out and thus fizzles out over a period of time.

Sometimes Coaching is seen as a fancy ‘buzzword’ reserved only for few select high potential (hipots 😐 ) as an ‘accelerated career’ move / higher promotion to take up leadership responsibility or on the flip side for the ‘bottom percentile’, who are often ‘told’ to get coaching as a ‘development’ or ”remedial’ activity, thus falling prey to – are you Rewarded or Punished ? and the majority in the middle are thus not offered any coaching.

For a Coachee, some of the common barriers to Coaching are –

Coachee’s suffer the common syndrome of ‘I don’t have time’ for coaching or the coaching followup actions. The coachee’s other priorities (personal / professional) overpower the coaching conversations / and actions for followup.

Lack of peers, and senior executives (Role Models) – who come out openly and speak about their ‘personal’ coaching and the benefits gained. As coaching is often seen as ‘remedial’, since the Coachee’s are reluctant to appear as vulnerable and acknowledge that they are possibly not fulfilling their full potential. The coachee’s do not wish to appear weak in public, especially in the corporate jungle.

Coachee’s are not aware of the possible benefits of coaching for personal growth of individuals, or the benefits of coaching teams and how coaching can directly impact the enterprise results and business outcomes. This lack of awareness is a primary reason for under investment by Coachee’s or enterprises on their coach-ing *team.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of common barriers, and the list is surely much longer, and would be happy to hear your thoughts. Do you have any stories to share about your coaching barriers ?

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Category: coaching (Page 1 of 2)

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