Episodes

“Leaders need to be sure that they're providing the right behavioral examples of what's needed to support the effectiveness of this team. And this is tricky because you're not always clear about what those things are.” - Peter Axelson In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter, wrap up their Team Development Masterclass by discussing nine universal best practices that apply across the Team Development Methodology, which was explored in the previous 10 episodes.  Episode Highlights: Role Mode...

“Interpersonal issues should be dealt with by the individuals, and team issues should be dealt with by the team collectively… I think most team leaders and team members would absolutely agree with that because, as you say, issues that pop up with individuals on the team, they're going to spill over into the team. And so what we're offering here is that early detection tool to prevent this very thing from happening.” - Winnie da Silva In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the importa...

“‘The conversation is the relationship.’ Is a quote I come back to often from the book Fierce Conversations from Susan Scott. What this means to me… is that the quality of our relationships depend on the quality of our conversations, which of course then directly impacts the quality of our work together as a team.” - Winnie da Silva In this episode, Winnie and Peter explore the concept of high-quality conversations and their importance within teams. They discuss the significant impact of conver...

“The word ‘culture’ gets thrown around a lot and sometimes it seems like people see it as something that teams don't have until they define it. However, every team has a culture, whether they recognize it or not.” - Winnie da Silva In this episode, Winnie and Peter explore the importance of developing an aspirational culture with supporting norms. They emphasize that teams already have a culture, but it may not be explicit or aligned with their goals. Developing a shared vision for the team's c...

“Clients have told me, ‘I wish my people would think more like a CEO’... And I think what my clients mean is that they want their people to see things more strategically, to take more ownership for not just their own responsibilities, but for that of the overall enterprise or the whole company.” - Winnie da Silva In this episode, Winnie and Peter explore the concept of a "shared responsibility mindset" in teams. They discuss how this mindset contributes to team effectiveness. They emphasize tha...

“What we find is that teams that have a process mindset, and what we mean by that is they're explicitly and deliberately focusing on building and refining lean processes, these teams tend to be more effective.” - Peter Axelson In this episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of creating robust work processes for teams to enhance their effectiveness. They emphasize how this topic is interconnected with previous episodes, where they discussed business objectives and joint work. This episo...

“Every once in a while we discover a question that turns out to be particularly powerful in terms of the benefits that come from a team grappling with it. And so the question is this: ‘In order for this team to deliver on our business objectives this year, what is the high value, highly interdependent work that we must do together? ” - Peter Axelson In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the concept of "Joint Work" as a critical building block for developing effective teams. They emp...

“While many teams can figure this out on their own, some of them need help ensuring the objectives of the team are clear and aligned. What's important is that this is addressed very early on in the process.” - Winnie da Silva In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of ensuring clarity and alignment on a team's shared objectives. They emphasize that these objectives are specific to the team and distinct from the business objectives of the company. Episode Highlights: T...

“We don't need to be best friends in order to have a sound working relationship. But you do need to know each other as people. … It doesn't take a great deal of effort to learn those kinds of things about people and the benefits can be pretty big.” - Peter Axelson “You really need a basic amount of trust in and respect for each other. While you definitely want to see other positive attributes in a relationship, these two, trust and respect, they are the absolute must haves. So everything else, ...

“Long term, if you don't also pay attention to the satisfaction and learning dimensions, then over the long term, … the ability of that team to remain effective over time is really going to get compromised.” - Peter Axelson In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter provide an overview of the Team Development Methodology, which will serve as the foundation for the subsequent episodes of this season. They discuss the key elements of this methodology and emphasize the importance of measuring team ...

In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, Winnie da Silva and her special co-host, Peter Axelson, provide a sneak peek into Season 4, offering a glimpse of what's in store for this Team Development Masterclass. They delve into the practical tools, examples, and insights for this season, all aimed at helping leaders and team members build effective teams. Subsequent episodes will take a deeper dive into each foundational building block, offering extensive discussions, real-life...