The Soft Stuff Is the Hard Stuff: Culture Under Pressure

You’ll often hear us talking about the importance of teams needing to focus on how they work together as well as working out what they need to get done. After all, it’s easy to figure out what you need to do (isn’t it?) but much harder to work out how you, as a group of human beings, are going to come together as a team to do something extraordinary.

It’s in that context we often hear people talking about ‘soft skills’; presumably meaning the skills needed to interact successfully with other people. And the inference is that the ‘soft’ skills are the optional skills; the ‘we’ll get round to them when we’ve got time’ skills.

The easy and optional bit? Not in our book.

The hard stuff

Figuring out how you work together, the ways you’ll connect with each other, how you’ll manage conflict and issues when they arise and your approach to getting the absolute best from everyone on the team; that’s the hard stuff. And that’s where we spend our time, partnering with you to be the best team you can be and working with you and the team on some specific – and difficult – deliverables.

Here’s a quick look at just some of the areas we discuss with our partners:

We start by reinforcing the need to get to know yourselves and each other well. Very, very well. It’s not until you know how you’ll react and how others will react around you that you get that sixth sense athletes and sports people talk about. They know in advance how their fellow team members are going to behave and what they’re going to do on the pitch, track or bike. That’s one of the defining qualities of being on a winning team.

Then, it’s about being safe around each other. Feeling OK to speak-up and say what you want to say without fear of … well, without fear of anything. That’s when the real gems are found. Ask yourself this question next time you’re leading a meeting; did you truly hear from everyone? And if you didn’t, what gems did you miss? Did you exclude anyone and what does that person need in order to be heard next time?

Next, are we all OK? It’s easy to say but much harder for leaders to deliver on. Do you make it a priority to check-in on people around you so you genuinely know how they’re doing.

Why are we here?

Does everyone know why they’re here? We ask; if everyone were truly connected to a purpose that made sense to them and that they felt pride in working towards, how much more would be achieved and how much better would people feel about what they do?

Finally, how strong are the relationships between the people that really matter; your colleagues, peers, contacts, and stakeholders. How much time do you put into building those relationships? Successful leaders invest time upfront, not just when they need help and support.

Once in a lifetime

We recently came across this fantastic piece of inspiration in a university prospectus:

Once in a lifetime, there is a moment that changes everything, in which the right people, at the right time and in the right place come together to create something extraordinary and unexpected.

That’s what drives us; to help individual leaders thrive and to build teams everyone wants to work in. A world where people genuinely feel well and do well.

Interested in what we do? Ready to start working on the ‘hard stuff’?

Ps. Here are pics of some of the FiveAndCo. team hard at work making pasta recently. The pasta was delicious, but it wasn’t about the food; we all got to know each other just a little bit better…