The role of a team leader

Role of a team leader

100-Day Challenge team leader are the travel guides during the 100-Day Challenge journey. Like all good travel guides, the more they travel on the mountain road, the more helpful they become to other travellers they guide: they know the tricky spots where people can slip. They know what tools to pack on the trip. They know where the best camping grounds are on the path to the top. 

As we saw in the Introduction to 100-Day Challenges, there are two types of travellers on the 100-Day Challenge journey. There are leaders who head the local organisations and agencies, and there are 100-Day team members who are asked by leaders to forge their way to the top of the mountain in 100 days. Ambassadors guide and support both. And in particular, they guide and support the following individuals at the various stages of the journey:

  • The Convener (one of the leaders)
  • The two Mentors (elected by leaders to represent them vis-a-vis the 100-Day Team)
  • The Team Leader (elected by the 100-Day team to help them stay focused and on track during the 100 days)

Ambassadors, the travel guides on the 100-Day journey, provide guidance to different groups and individuals at different times.  Here are a breakdown of who, when and how they guide.

As of the Start

GUIDING THE CONVENER

  • Helping the Convener decide whom to invite to the Leadership Design Workshop.
  • Facilitating the Leadership Design Workshop.
  • Helping the Convener keep other leaders engaged throughout the 100-Day Challenge.

After the Leadership Design Session

GUIDING THE MENTORS

  • Helping Mentors recruit 100-Day team members.
  • Helping them prepare the Challenge note to the team
  • Preparing for the Lift-Off Workshop.
  • Helping Mentors support, encourage, and protect the team (after the Lift-Off Workshop).

At the Lift-off Workshop  

GUIDING THE 100-DAY TEAM

  • Facilitating work-session to set the 100-Day Goal.
  • Facilitating work-session to develop the 100-Day work plan.
  • Facilitating work-session to elect Team Leader(s), and to develop a Team Agreement.

After the Lift-off Workshop

GUIDING THE TEAM LEADERS

  • Helping them prepare for and facilitate weekly team meetings.
  • Helping them track progress against the 100-Day goal.
  • Helping them keep the team engaged and motivated.

Apart from these specific task-oriented activities, Ambassadors play an important and subtle role throughout the 100-Day Challenge. They keep everyone engaged and feeling upbeat and motivated. They do this in various ways:

  • They encourage, acknowledge, and congratulate team members at every occasion possible. 
  • They sense the mood in the room during workshops, and they liven things up with creative exercises and facilitation techniques.
  • They provide a “golden thread” during workshops, creating seamless transitions between sessions, tying different sessions to previous work and to the bigger picture, and adjusting plans if participants are getting confused or frustrated. 

This subtle aspect of the work of the Ambassadors will be highlighted in more detail in each Landmark. The parts of the agenda of each workshop that are primarily intended to create this sense of engagement and cohesion will be colour-coded in grey.  

Who identifies and chooses the Ambassador?

The Convener asks two individuals to fill the role of 100-Day Challenge Ambassadors. These individuals can be individual contributors, middle managers, or senior executives. The important thing though is that they are :

  • passionate about ending gender-based violence and femicide, and 
  • they are passionate about helping others succeed, and they are willing to be in the background and to let others shine and take credit. 

What skills do Ambassadors practise during the 100-Day Challenges?

There are three critical skills that Ambassadors use in 100-Day Challenges:

Facilitation

Coaching

Communication

Some Ambassadors may already be very skilled in these areas. For those who would like to sharpen their skills in one or more of these areas, we will be adding soon a Module on these in the Leaning Programme, with useful frameworks, tools and exercises. There is no substitute though for practising and getting feedback from peers, clients and experienced practitioners. 

What support and time do Ambassador need?

In order to succeed in the role, Ambassadors need to dedicate time to learn about the role and to practise it. If they are part of an organisation, they need the support of their managers so they can dedicate time for this. This includes the following time commitments:

Month 1

  • Pre-work – Introduction – 0.5 days
  • Full-time training in Regional group sessions – 2 full days
  • 10-Day Challenge to solve a real problem  – 2,5 days over two weeks (preparations and virtual workshops)

Total days – 5

Month 2

  • Preparations for Leadership Design Workshop – 1 day
  • Facilitate Leadership Design workshop – 1 day
  • Follow-up after Leadership Design Workshop – 0.5 day
  • Preparations for Lift-off Workshop – 1 day

Total days – 3.5

Month 3

  • Facilitate Lift-off workshop – 1 day
  • Support team and mentors – 0,5 day/week

Total days – 3

Month 4

  • Preparations for Refuel Workshop – 0.5 day
  • Facilitate Refuel Workshop – 1 day
  • Support team and mentors – 0.5 days/week

Total days – 3

Month 5

  • Support team and mentors – 0.5 days/week
  • Preparations for Landing Workshop – 0.5 day

Total days – 2

Month 6

  • Facilitate Landing Workshop – 1 day
  • Preparations for Re-launch workshop – 0.5 day
  • Facilitate Re-launch workshop – 1 day

Total days – 2

The time estimated above will be spent on:

  • Reviewing Landmarks and preparing assignments.
  • Doing other preparatory work for 100-Day Challenge events.
  • Facilitating 100-Day Challenge events.
  • Reflecting on these events with peers and experienced practitioners. 
  • Supporting mentors and team leaders in other ways, as needed, including drafting communications from them to other stakeholders.
  • Sharing data and other information on the World of Impact platform so 100-Day Challenges can be properly documented. 

How do Ambassador know they are doing a good job?

At the end of the 100-days: 

  • The impact indicator the team was working on was significantly improved during the 100 days (performance was much higher than it was before the 100 days).
  • The 100-Day team and the leaders who commissioned it are proud of the achievements they made during the 100-day project.
  • The 100-Day team feels good about their experience during the 100 days: they recommend it to others and are excited about having similar experiences in the future.
  • Leaders have ideas and insights on what needs to be done to sustain this higher performance, and they are ready and excited to act on these ideas. 

Interim indicators during the 100 days:

  • Appropriate leaders participate in the Leadership Design Workshop, and emerge with excitement and clarity about the 100-Day Challenge.
  • Quality of the 100-Day Challenge Note from the leaders to the team.
  • Appropriate individuals are part of the 100-Day team.
  • Quality of the 100-Day goal and commitment of the team to achieve it.
  • Quality of the 100-Day Plan, the commitment of the team to implement it.
  • Quality of the Team Agreement and commitment of the team members to uphold it.
  • Engagement and motivation of the 100-Day team at the Lift-Off and during the 100-days.
  • Progress towards the 100-day goal during the 100 days.

What we mean by “appropriate” and “quality” will become clearer in the Programme Landmarks. Tools to assess these will be provided in the Landmarks as well.  

Back to

Thought starter reflection questions

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:
  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
  • How would you characterise the level of trust among participants in the meeting? To what extent did this shift as the meeting progressed? To what do you attribute this shift, if indeed it happened?

Thought starter...

Reflection Questions 

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:

  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
These are 100-Day Challenge Mentors. 

They did some work before you received the Challenge Note. This included:

  • Writing the Challenge Note, and making sure that the leaders of all the organisations represented on the team are comfortable with it – and committed to supporting the work of the team
  • Helping the leaders of these organisation recruit you and your colleagues to the team
  • Gathering some baseline data and other information that will help you and your teammates set your 100-Day goal and develop your plan.
  • Making sure all the preparations are made for a successful Lift-Off workshop, when you and your teammates will meet and get your 100-Day Challenge started. This includes venue, facilitation support, food, swags, comms, travel arrangements and whatever else is needed.

 

Mentors will participate in all or part of the Lift-Off Workshop, mostly at the start to provide context and answer questions, and at the end to give you and your teammates feedback about the goal and plan you develop.

During the 100 days following the Lift-Off Workshop, here’s what the Mentors will do:  

  • They will check in every two weeks with the team leaders to see how the team is doing and what support they and the team need.
  • They will keep other organisational leaders informed and engaged during the 100 days, and pull them in to help as needed.
  • They will participate in the last part of the Refuelling Workshop, halfway through the 100 days, to see what additional support the team needs, and to begin to plan with the team for sustainability and scale-up.
  • They will work with the team at the Sustainability Workshop to finalise recommendations on sustaining the results and building on the work of the team.