Leading as a coach

100 leaders of a leading hospital gathered together for two days to think about ways to further develop a positive, inspiring and realistic culture throughout their organization. xpand has moderated those two days. We started off with dividing everyone into small groups of 7, and had an expectations-session.

The question was: ‘how would you lead yourself?’ After 2 hours of intensive and creative thinking, a hotlist with 7 main findings was made. The first and foremost topic was the need for coaching from within the organization: ‘I want to receive appreciation and feedback from my team-leader, and I want to receive it on a regularly basis.’

King Arthur: 8 lessons in a nutshell

During the past 8 chapters, I discussed some of the lessons on teambuilding that the story of King Arthur teaches us. Sure, it is nice to know that there are plenty of other great lessons to discuss. But as is often the case, it is only possible to understand some of them, at least to understand them well enough to be able to put them into practice. Therefore, I will summarize the previous 8 lessons in this chapter. I hope that this will enable you to choose which lessons seem – at the moment – most worthwhile to implement.

A healthy team: Merlin, the wise prophet

Merlin plays a rather important and unique role in nearly all of Arthur’s life. Not the most important role though, since Arthur consciously divided his attention between all his advisors. Merlin was a truly gifted and very loyal and honourable man. A combination of characteristics that one does not find easily. An interesting observation can be made here. Quite often, similar people attract each other. Narcissistic leaders often have narcissistic advisors. Manipulative leaders often have manipulative advisors. Fearful leaders often have fearful advisors. Just like a nation usually has the leadership that they (often unconsciously) desire and therefore deserve, it seems that a leader also has the advisors that he/she deserves.

A healthy team: Camelot, a home for everyone

After Arthur became High King, he chose not to settle in the castle of his recently deceased father Uther Pendragon. One of the most important reasons was that his father had practised a completely different style of leadership. Uther had reigned through power, fear and manipulation. He also realized great victories, in his own way. But he had never been a leader that was trusted and loved by his people. Arthur had enjoyed a Roman Celtic education, and he strongly believed in values like justice, equality, discipline, passion, the willingness to learn and friendship. Ector and Livinia gave him the priceless gift of healthy father and motherhood, of healthy man and womanhood. It was one of the things that enabled Arthur to develop a healthy self-image...

A healthy team: the Round Table of equal partners

A healthy team (unsurprisingly) consists of a healthy team leader and a group of healthy team members. During the next 3 chapters, we will discuss 3 more lessons on teambuilding that the legend of King Arthur presents us. Unlike the previous ones, these 3 lessons focus more on the team, instead of on the team leader.

King Arthur: how to stay healthy and successful

Later on, King Arthur married Guinevere, and they lived happily ever after. Eh, wait a minute. Unfortunately for King Arthur, things turned out slightly different. On the one hand, the legend of King Arthur tells us a lot about how to build successful teams; on the other hand, it also tells us how you can still ruin it all.

King Arthur: Excalibur, the central instrument

The King’s sword was the instrument and symbol of King Arthur during the first 100 days of his reign. It was his loyal companion in reuniting the British kingdoms and defeating the plundering hordes of the Saxons, Picts and Irish.