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Team Dynamics Series: Part 1 of 6, the Intro

Written By: Andrea Burk

What do people, personalities, and team culture have in common?

Personalities are to people what culture is to a team.  Both personalities and cultures can be developed.  These are naturally always developing via external and internal forces, so one might as well work to consciously develop attributes that serve the goals that lay ahead of them.

The life-cycle of a team goes through five distinct phases:  

  1. Coming together
  2. Conflict & challenge
  3. Resolution
  4. Production & performance
  5. Ending & disbanding 

Each phase has distinct characteristics, task activities, and group behaviours. It is also important to note that each phase is not always linear and can be revisited.  

Over the next five weeks, join me in taking an in-depth look at how to move your team through each phase over your time together in pursuit of performance goals.

Key areas to be highlighted in each phase are:

What to expect from players;
How to motivate players;
Key phase and group structure indicators;
Common challenges; and
How to adapt leadership styles to meet the groups needs in pursuit of performance.

 

Additionally, we will hear from international coaches and players on the topic.

Watch this space to add more leadership skills to your coaching playbook, and help your teams reach their performance goals.

 

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.