King Arthur: the inspiring team leader

For over 1500 years, the story of King Arthur has been the inspiration of tales, songs, poems, paintings and dreams. He was a king who reunited the torn England of the 5th century AD. A king who introduced an absolutely new type of society. A king who brought 150 knights to sit down at 1 Round Table, to create – together – a home for all: Camelot. And a king who revived virtues like trust, integrity, discipline and wisdom.

Every culture its own kind of team?

During the past two decades quite some research about the secrets of successful team-building has published. Naturally, it requires something slightly different for a team in France to become healthy and successful on the long-run than it does for a team in the Netherlands, or in Germany, or in South Africa, or in Singapore. Just as it makes a difference if it is a team in a business-environment, a hospital, the government, sports, or a NGO. But it does not stop there. It takes something else for a team to become successful and healthy on the long-run today, as it did 10 years ago. The team-members all require something different too, especially as they are more and more often part of different generations. Many teams nowadays consist out of ‘Baby Boomers’ (55-70 years) as well as individuals that are part of Generation Y (20-35).

Can only farmers be happy?

In the Netherlands there are about 900000 employees (circa 12% of the Dutch workforce) that suffer from burn-out related symptoms. On average these people use up 189 days of sick-leave each year. That sums up to about 9 months of absenteeism, due to various forms of stress at work. The lion’s share of these problems are caused by relational problems, such as problems with:

• Yourself
• Your boss
• Your colleagues
• Your customers

Why a team?

Instinctively two very opposite emotions pop up when I think about teams. On the one hand it makes me think of a club of friends, a home, fellowship, companionship, a team that knows how to get challenging jobs done. On the other hand it raises feelings like irritation, powerlessness, bother and frustration. How come a team can be both heaven on earth as well as a true hell?