Week 4 – Meeting the Coach and Team Leader
Week 4
Meeting The Coach and Team Leader
The Team has reached the one-month milestone of the 100-Day Sprint. This is a critical junction where momentum must be converted into sustained leadership support. Your mission this week is to help bridge the gap between the Team’s “on-the-ground” reality and the leadership’s “strategic” oversight.
Podcast
Click here to listen to a Challenge Strategist and Coach discussing the process for the one-month check-in.
Your Task This Week
Joint Progress Review
The Team will set up a review session with you and the Team Leader
The Partnership: The Coach will conduct this meeting jointly with the Team Leader. The Team Leader will report on progress and obstacles, with support from the Coach.
The “Why”: This reinforces the role of the Team Leader and builds their confidence in managing senior stakeholders. Regular briefings make it much easier to ask for high-level intervention later on, if the Team hits a bureaucratic “brick wall.”
High Impact Report
The Team Leader and Coach can use this “Stop-Light” format to guide the discussion: it is an easy and fun way to report progress at review meetings, and to avoid long reports.
Here are some tips that can help in your progress review conversations:
Offer support and avoid offering solutions
When they are reporing on a course of action, ask: “What support do you need?” It’s important to be honest about what you can and cannot do, and don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know but I will find out.” Then do so quickly!
Praise the 75% that is right, rather than point out the 25% that is wrong
It is more impactful to praise an idea’s positive aspects and ask the Team to build on these than to focus on its negative aspects. Instead of being the place where ideas get buried, you can become the person the Team Leader comes to to bounce ideas off.
"How can I help?"
This is among the most powerful combinations of 4 words in the English language. You can use it in formal reviews or informal check-ins with the Team Leader or Coach. You can use this in conjunction with another simple but powerful phrase: “how are things going?”
The Human Factor
Discussing Team Members with the Coach
Being a Challenge Strategist can be the most powerful “tool” for managing team dynamics across different organisations.
- The “Gentle Nudge”: If a Team member is not pulling their weight, it is good to know that. You can make a casual inquiry into their progress. Often, knowing that a senior leader is watching is enough to refocus a participant.
- The “Amplified Cheer”: If a Team member is performing exceptionally, the Strategist could send them a recognition note.
- The Multiplier Effect: You can also send a commendation directly to the Team member’s manager. In a collaborative community project, this is the highest form of praise for a government official or civil society member.
