Will it survive in the face of adversity? And has it got fighting spirit?

Recent qualitative research conducted by one of Mission’s consultants has revealed some invaluable findings that are essential for business if they wish to survive and succeed the economic slow down and possible recession, or to purely prepare for when things are just not going according to plan.

The research highlighted what is needed to inculcate a sense of fighting spirit, the competencies required to generate effective Fighting Spirit and how to sustain it. Fighting Spirit is about the ability to cope with and survive adversity, be that recession, a loss of top talent, a take-over, a natural disaster or other adverse scenarios. 

The two critical competencies for generating an effective Fighting Spirit are Leadership and Team Cohesion.

Leadership: Leaders must be able to generate confidence, commitment and capability. Knowing their people, individual and team strengths and weaknesses is essential. The leader must set a clear mission and tasks, ensuring people know what is being asked of them, and valuing individual contributions. People will be prepared to go that “extra mile” if they are valued. They must not be afraid to re-visit failure, and must celebrate success.

Team Cohesion: This is not just about working together as a team, but needs to be focussed on building a cohesive team, who are all pulling in the same direction, have the same values and believe in what they are doing. This is generally inspired through leadership. Team Cohesion is also dependent on having a sense of belonging and an identity; this is linked and intertwined with ethos and culture. Therefore, employer branding is pivotal.  Like the leader, the team must know one another; know each others strengths and weaknesses. This will be assisted if they have worked together through “tough” tasks/times and have shared experiences.It takes time to generate a cohesive team, and it can not be achieved in isolation of the leader. Instilling and investing in the leadership qualities outlined above are the starting point.

Developing, instilling and maintaining these competencies needs investment.  For further information on the research please download ’Fighting Spirit’ - http://www.missionperformance.com/PDFs/Fighting_Spirit.pdf

© Julia Carden 2008

When you are dealing with some of the smartest minds, within a company that is ahead of its game, it is surprising just how much you can achieve in a day.  The leadership masterclass included; defining leadership, Honey & Mumford’s learning styles, Mclelland’s motivational theory, Adair’s Task, Team & Individual, coupled with Mission’s own leadership models and all brought to life with Clive’s inspirational account of skippering a Global Challenge yacht.  The day ended with a team meal at a fantastic venue; we were served traditional Mexican food and entertained with live Mexican music and dancing.

Dan B

When times are tough business leaders need to think creatively about how they market their businesses and engage with new and existing customers.  The low cost, much talked about but poorly executed skills of networking have never been more important.  Thinking about creative ways to engage large groups of clients in single events must surely be the order of these tough times.  Together we are stronger is definitely the mantra when budgets are tight.

Mission teach networking to some of the largest organisations in the world and is currently working on a nationwide customer service proposition for one of the largest banks in the world.  How do you use networking to achieve your sales objectives?  Do you attend breakfast seminars as a matter of routine but come away empty handed save for a couple of business cards that are politely taken but rarely followed up?  Your network will take time to build, mine has 20 members but each is very well connected with access to 20 more, that makes 400 who are 1 handshake away.  When you look at it like this we are all very networked but like most things in life we rarely get on our proverbial bikes and make the effort. 

Want to know more then look up some of our case studies: http://www.missionperformance.com/Download.html

R

Leaders who manage expectations effectively will always be better leaders. People like to know where they stand, the black and the white, no grey. Tell me what you expect, be honest and manage the expectations. Mission has a tool which can help individuals and teams to make expectations explicit, turning intenions into explicit expectations is facilitated through a simple online inventory. We are using it to develop graduates in banks and to close the expectations gaps in customer service operations.

Do you feel strongly about expectations or are you keeping your thoughts to yourself?

The training and development market place is under threat with attention turning to discretionary spend, non technical training is under the microscope or the knife.

At Mission we believe that team and leadership development is more important than ever. Leaders have often been compared to ‘life rafts’ Lord Moran Anatomy of Courage onto which people cling to get them through  the tough times.

A failure of leadership got the economy into this mess leadership and effective team work will get us out of it.

The first casualty of crisis can sometimes be TRUST. When the going gets tough people can revert back to their overdone types, their default behaviours. These normally include a protection of self and then the problem and then relationships. If left unchecked teams can break if leadership is not evident. Doing the right thing, facing down your Polar Bear moments (there will be lots of them) will be key to emerging in a fit state.

What do you think?

Mission continues to receive and deliver some very diverse and interesting briefs. Over the last two weeks Mission has delivered in 3 continents. From latin America to the UAE.  We have delivered team development, leadership development and customer service development with a diverse range of private and public sector organisations. Clive and Dan will be returning from Mexico as I pen this article, PJ is delivering in Bolton whilst Rich and Julia will be resting after an exceptional networking programme delivered in central London this week.  I have just been accredited to deliver SDI to level 2 and will be using this knowledge to produce  leadership and team development curricula to underpin all of our client programmes. Chris continues his excellent work with BTW and accenture having finished the design for the orgainsation  wide Talent programme that we will be delivering in partnership with the consulting giant.

There is lots going on onwards and upwards

Rob

We arrived late Friday evening in Wales along with several other reprobates eager to find out what is involved in the construction of the eco-domes built during Mission’s CSR projects.

Day 1
What a pleasant surprise to wake up with the sun shining - just as well as lugging copious amounts of sand, cement and barbed wire around may have resulted in some sense of humour failures had we been subjected to the usual Welsh weather.

Building started off slowly in the morning: 4 tonnes of sand had to be moved, foundations dug out and lots of designing to be done. Thankfully we had acquired the services of a small digger to move said sand and dig the foundations.

Foundations dug, it was time for the first layer to begin - hours of teamwork followed with on the job designing continuing alongside! Following lunch we had an incentive to achieve a seat height by close of play - well deserved beers whilst watching the sun set over the hill. Well, we didn’t quite manage sunset but we did have a circle to sit on with beers in front of a roaring fire.

Day 2 - no more designing
It was decided to leave the ‘dome’ as a circle - 4 levels high. Rendering was next on the list - not the cleanest of jobs at the best of times and certainly not with clay. At least we had a plentiful supply from all the soil we had dug up earlier from the foundations. We got to work pummelling the clay and then throwing it onto the sandbags - this proved to be pretty time consuming so enter the cement mixer; into this went all of our ingredients and out came a sort of clay/water mixture which we were able to paint onto the sandbags. Clearly this was a much easier and faster option and our circle was rendered and drying in no time - hurray!

A quick tidy up of the garden and then a very quick dip in the river to clean off the clay - it was freezing - not suprisingly with Welsh mountain water!!! We had a great weekend and although we only built a circle, it was a success in that we saw what went into building an eco-dome and also what 8 or 9 people could manage in one day.

Thanks to everyone for their efforts; we hope to be partaking in some dome/cirlce building with you in the future.

Karen

Mission’s global reach extends as Schlumberger engage mission to deliver to 3 divisions globally. Following on from our excellent first levels leader’s programme and our project team development programme, Mission will deliver to additional divisions within the business. This is in addition to the great work our teams executed in Asia and North Africa in selecting and coaching delegates from the sales university. 

Rob delivered a module on building and leading a teams to support the Civil Service’s Top Management Programme objectives last week. Delivered in the Raha Beach Hotel in Abu Dhabi to a senior group of civil servants across multiple disciplines. The programme was a week long and has additional modules delivered over a 12 month period. The feedback was excellent and fitted extremely well to the UAE culture of learning through stories and fables. Mission will be back in Abu Dhabi very soon.