Stellar Management Teams

Stellar Management Teams

by Vesa Ristikangas, Tapani Rinne
Released February 2018
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781351244091

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Book description

Management teams at all levels, and individual team members in particular, are often disengaged and disconnected from the management function itself. Statements such as, "we lack common goals or they are unclear", "I have no influence", "I am not listened to nor taken into account", and "I do not feel valued – actually, nobody does", are commonplace. The authors argue this is because we have been entrenched in an era of guru leadership but that it must come to an end if our management teams are to rise to the top. An individual is not capable of controlling the complicated system of an organization, with its countless variables, especially in conjunction with the rapid change in both the economy and market forces, which are unpredictable and uncontrollable. No matter how talented the individual, no one person is in a position to manage this complex system alone – not even a guru leader.　

The authors contend that what is needed now are resilient trendsetters who will bring about a new era of top-performing teams that together form a "collective guru", which they refer to as a Stellar Management Team.　

In this book, the reader undertakes a metaphorical journey to the stars, which symbolizes top-level interaction and collaboration. The journey is the development from an ordinary management team into a Stellar Management Team, which elevates its operation up to a new level of performance and success.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. List of figures
  6. List of tables
  7. Wake up!
  8. Acknowledgements
  9. PART I Do you want to fly?
    1. 1 Not thinking is heavy
      1. Provoke thinking with gravity factors
        1. Gravity Factor No. 1: Emphasizing individual responsibility
        2. Gravity Factor No. 2: Multitude of bilateral discussions
        3. Gravity Factor No. 3: Dominance of numeric indicators
        4. Gravity Factor No. 4: Tight schedules and overloaded agendas
        5. Gravity Factor No. 5: Fixed roles
        6. Gravity Factor No. 6: Director-centricity prevents taking responsibility
        7. Gravity Factor No. 7: The loud ones override the quiet
      2. Slow thinking combined with fast decisions
        1. Hasty Intuition takes us fast - even astray
      3. New thinking instead of being in a rut
      4. Stop and think together
    2. 2 Systems thinking - basis of new thinking
      1. New elements from systems thinking
      2. The systems dictatorship
      3. Eight systemic ideas for stellar team designers
        1. Systemic Idea 1: There are invisible forces in the management team
        2. Systemic Idea 2: Paradoxes are compulsory
        3. Systemic Idea 3: Spontaneity creates miracles
        4. Systemic Idea 4: Resistance belongs to systems
        5. Systemic Idea 5: Everything affects everything in a system
        6. Systemic Idea 6: Leadership renews itself constantly
        7. Systemic Idea 7: Control is an illusion
        8. Systemic Idea 8: Change is a constantly changing phenomenon
      4. Systems oriented management team enables Superproductivity
      5. Success factors of the Stellar Team
        1. Towards the star
        2. The two levels: Primary and Secondary Goals
      6. Core of Part I: thinking, systems and guiding star
  10. PART II Secondary Goals are the launch pad
    1. 3 The course is set
      1. A management team needs a mission of its own
        1. The best mission is a defined mission
        2. Make your mission alive
      2. Make your guiding star visible
        1. Goal heat is dangerous
        2. (1) SMART goal narrows too much!
        3. (2) Goal may weaken morality?
        4. (3) Goals may prevent learning
        5. (4) Goals may lead to over-performing
        6. (5) Linearity of goals is rare
        7. (6) Controlling through goals is an illusion
        8. Deepening goal thinking
        9. How to follow your star?
      3. Strategy makes your mind focused
        1. Individual significance of focus
        2. Focus of the strategy
    2. 4 Respect internal and external stakeholders
      1. Customer experience is always right
        1. Customer experience is redeemed at contact points
        2. Keep your eyes open
      2. Internal stakeholders must be taken seriously
      3. Board of directors - influential actor in the background
        1. Board of directors meets the expectations of Stellar Team
    3. 5 Meeting practices in order
      1. Fine-tuning brains in the management team
        1. First: The brain is a machine for creating connections
        2. Second: The brain presents most decisions by intuition
        3. Third: We have the brain of herd animals
        4. Good decisions are induced with questioning
      2. New energy to the meetings
        1. Best practices of theme meetings
        2. Developing standard meetings
        3. Refreshing postures
    4. 6 Success metrics in the cockpit
      1. Metrics connected to strategy
      2. Primary and secondary success metrics
        1. Priorities regarding measurement of Primary Goals
    5. 7 Strengthening the launch pad
      1. Coincidence generates different results than control
        1. A different kind of success
        2. Chance will favour the conscious developer
        3. Coincidences as a new management team focus
      2. Constant or repeated renewal?
      3. Success focused operation
        1. How should this be?
      4. Core of Part II: Secondary Goals as launch pad
  11. PART III Attraction of Primary Goals
    1. 8 Commitment is the core of guiding star
      1. There are two types of commitment within ourselves
        1. Two types of egoism - the right and the wrong one?
      2. A reward system steers
        1. Is collective responsibility a collective mistake?
    2. 9 Trust creates energy
      1. Trust is worth exploring
      2. Trust in competence is easily detected
      3. Trust in agreement means integrity
      4. Communication styles build trust
      5. Four dimensions of behaviour
        1. Open communication style
        2. Straightforward communication style
        3. Reliable communication style
        4. Accepting communication style
      6. Trust as regards attitude is perceivable
        1. Individual tendency to trust
      7. To trust requires the courage to take risks
        1. Can you accelerate trust formation?
        2. 1. Relation factors
        3. 2. Hope and expectations
        4. 3. Methods and techniques
      8. Sharing dreams is trusting
    3. 10 Diversity and conflict competence
      1. It is useful to shy away from diversity
        1. Court of identical members
        2. Court makes war against divergence
        3. Heroes build peace
      2. Look in the mirror
        1. Behavioural styles in practice
        2. Management team is a sum of styles
        3. Influencing the structure of the management team
      3. Conflicts are “business as usual”
        1. Unclear goals blur the vision
        2. Attitude handicap is crippling
        3. Incompetence frustrates
        4. Changes confuse the team
        5. Time pressure plays on the nerves
        6. Lack of leadership creates shaky ground
      4. Overcoming the fear of conflicts
        1. Conflict competence is a team skill
        2. Ideas for overcoming fear of conflicts
        3. Minesweeper
        4. Referee
        5. Meaning amplifier
        6. Development is possible
    4. 11 Feedback puts wings on development
      1. Systems offer opportunities for operations
        1. Systems intelligent way of initiating change in a system called a team
      2. Correct your understanding
        1. Asking for feedback takes courage
        2. Acknowledging feedback requires consideration
    5. 12 Collaboration is a choice
      1. Positive psychology supports the Stellar Team
        1. Positive psychology in the cockpit
        2. Management team is milking and being milked
        3. Appreciative approach inspires
      2. Common reflection and three levels of learning
      3. Core of Part III: the attraction of Primary Goals
  12. PART IV To the stars
    1. 13 Hey, we are airborne!
      1. Right people in right places
      2. What’s inside the hat of a real leader?
      3. Speed to fly from role diversity
        1. Roles are a concept of interaction
        2. Roles and counter roles are dancing together
        3. Role chart of a Stellar Team member
          1. A. Influencer
          2. B. Strategist
          3. C. Developer
          4. D. Coach
          5. E. Synergy builder
      4. Captain of the team
        1. A management team member can never take his hat off
        2. Disagreement poisons the system
      5. Member of a management team between a rock and a hard place
      6. The chair really matters
        1. Change of role must be recognized
    2. 14 Resilience prevents motion sickness
      1. Change management in change
      2. Paths of change in the brain
        1. The northern neighbour of the USA
        2. My brain is unfinished but the situation is stable
      3. I think now like this - and I change my brain
        1. New paths of the change management team
      4. Planned and unexpected change
        1. Need to control is controlling
        2. Change causes dysfunctional behaviour - and always evokes emotions
        3. How does recovery from change take place?
      5. Resilience helps bouncing back
        1. Characteristics that speed up recovery from change
        2. Strong resilience is the sum of equally strong characteristics
        3. Spontaneous management team learns
      6. Change management team in urgency on a burning platform
        1. “Burning platform”
        2. “Sense of urgency”
        3. Amygdala makes decisions on a burning platform
      7. Elements of success: agility, competence and condition
    3. 15 The journey is long when travelling alone
      1. A thinking management team
      2. A sensing management team
      3. A coaching management team
        1. Coaching leadership as philosophy and modus operandi
        2. Influential process of a team
      4. How to create synergy?
        1. How does synergistic collaboration produce more than the sum of its parts?
        2. Effective means of building synergy
        3. Three basic needs of a traveller
      5. Core of Part IV: Roles, resilience and synergy on our journey to the stars
    4. The journey of the Stellar Management Team continues ...
  13. Appendix 1: Coaching guide for management teams
    1. Coaching - individual co-driver on your journey to the stars
    2. Team coaching - boost your engine on the way to the stars
    3. Clarity for definitions
    4. Goals and results of team coaching in management teams
    5. Team coach supports towards the guiding star
  14. Appendix 2: Self care guide for management teams
  15. References and sources
  16. Index

Product information

  • Title: Stellar Management Teams
  • Author(s): Vesa Ristikangas, Tapani Rinne
  • Release date: February 2018
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781351244091