Executive Coaching Can Help Managers Build More Collaborative Teams
- by Magdalena Nowicka Mook
Harvard Business Review — The Covid-19 pandemic imposed unexpected challenges on organizations large and small. The virus has not only reshaped the way professionals do their individual work, but it has also changed the fundamental characteristics of collaborative teamwork and effective leadership.
The net result is that many leaders continue to struggle with learning what the “new normal” really means for them, their team, and their ability to lead.
Leadership used to be largely about motivating employees to achieve established targets for productivity and profitability. The need for such measurable outcomes remains unchanged, but the method for realizing those results is now far more complicated.
When professionals are no longer gathered in a single location for in-person meetings and shared efforts, the reliance on digital platforms increases.
The difficulty is that this reliance on digital tools can have a corollary effect of making individuals feel isolated and disconnected from colleagues. Video meetings are perfectly fine as a way to assemble everyone, but sooner or later, the work must get done—too often by individuals working alone at home in an environment that does not permit walking to a nearby colleague’s office to bounce off an idea, explore a solution, or consider together a means for reaching a goal. In short, the ability to collaborate becomes more difficult.
Meanwhile, the goals must still be met, and the leader must remain focused on outcomes.