Team Dynamics Conclusion
Written By: Andrea Burk
Over the past six articles, I have explained ways that teams can be led through the human (that is the social-emotional) process to performance and transformation.
Through each phase, decorated Canadian National Team players and coaches recalled defining moments and their coaching expertise for navigating each stage.
Pictures, personas, examples, analogies, lessons and stories expanded on the distinct characteristics of Beginnings, Challenge, Resolution, Performance and Transformation to show:
- The human response to task demands and responsibility
- The human response to each other
- Potential emotional responses
- How to motivate team members
- Common leadership challenges, and
- How to adapt leadership styles for each distinct phase.
All this, of course, is in pursuit of performance and transformation.
As a leader reflecting on this series:
- What else was discussed?
- What seemed challenging?
- What phases come naturally?
- Which are more difficult to coach through?
- Which phases need more practice? Or focus to bring a team through performance and transformation?
When leading a team to performance, keep in mind that phases are not always linear and can be revisited before reaching the Transformation Stage. Have a look at the graphics below for a full-cycle explanation and take the ordinary to extraordinary.
Team Dynamics & Coaching Through the Stages of Group Development Series:
Author’s Note:
This has been a piece that I have been wanting to write for years. Thank you to John Tait, Ghislaine Landry, Gary Dukelow, Damian McGrath and Canada’s National Teams for your input, stories, and motivation. Thank you to Ædelhard for the forum. And, thank you to you the readers and the rugby community for inspiring this series. I truly hope it helps you Take the Ordinary to Extraordinary.
Andrea Burk is an expert in leadership and team development. She developed her expertise in building team cultures that thrive in highly competitive environments while representing Canada in four different rugby codes and earning a Masters of Arts degree in Leadership at Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia.
Burk is a Women’s Rugby World Cup silver medalist (2014) for Canada, writer, speaker, and a rugby announcer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) 2016 Olympic Broadcasting Team.
A member of the National Senior Women’s Rugby Team since 2009, she was a 2015 Player of the Year finalist, named to the Women’s Rugby World Cup Dream Team, and was awarded Rugby Canada’s Gillian Florence award in 2014.
