A group of capable people does not automatically become a team
As a company grows, more consequential work depends on people coordinating across roles, functions and areas of expertise. Yet even smart, committed people can interpret priorities differently, remain unclear about authority and handoffs, or spend too much time in meetings that do not produce decisions.
Managers may respond by staying involved in every move—or by giving the group more freedom than it is ready to use. Disagreement gets avoided or repeatedly resurfaces. Decisions lose momentum after the meeting ends. And senior leaders are pulled back in to realign the group, settle questions or make sure commitments are carried through.
Leading Teams helps managers create the conditions in which interdependent work can move forward: shared direction, clear operating agreements, appropriate decision authority, productive team conversations, and consistent follow-through.
How the workshop changes the way managers work
The workshop is designed to change how managers respond when a group needs alignment, direction, participation, or a more effective way to move work forward.
Instead of...
Managers learn to...
assuming people share the same priorities and picture of success
establish a common purpose, desired outcomes and practical working agreements
leaving roles, authority and handoffs largely implicit
clarify responsibility, decision authority and essential team processes
treating a recurring team problem as one person’s failure
examine the whole team system and identify what is limiting performance
leading every group in the same way
adjust their direction, involvement and support to the team and the situation
organizing meetings around topics to cover
design meetings to produce clear outcomes, sound decisions and explicit commitments
Over time, these practices can improve coordination, make meetings more productive, strengthen follow-through and help teams move consequential work forward with less senior-leader intervention.
A practical system for leading interdependent work
Leading Teams builds on the problem-solving foundation established in Leadership and the Middle Path and the one-to-one management practices developed in Leading One-to-One. Managers learn to apply that foundation to the more complex work of leading groups whose results depend on one another.
Establish the conditions for teamwork
Managers learn to clarify why the team exists, what it must accomplish, and how members will work together. They build a practical team charter covering purpose, roles, authority, communication, decision-making and the team’s regular rhythm of work.
Adapt their leadership as the team develops
Managers learn to recognize what a team needs at different points in its development and provide the appropriate degree of direction, involvement and support. As capability grows, they can push more decisions and responsibility into the team.
Diagnose what is limiting team performance
Managers examine goals, roles, processes, relationships and individual capabilities before deciding what needs to change. This helps the team address underlying causes instead of repeatedly treating the most visible symptom.
Lead meetings that produce decisions and commitments
Managers learn to define the purpose and desired outcomes of a meeting, involve the right people, guide productive participation and choose an appropriate decision process. They close with explicit decisions, commitments and follow-up—not merely a completed agenda.
Managers build skill through application and feedback
The workshop alternates between focused instruction and active application. Managers use each new practice to examine consequential situations from teams they currently lead: a recurring meeting that is not producing what it should, a group that lacks alignment, a decision that keeps stalling, or a performance problem that has resisted easy answers.
They compare interpretations, test possible responses, and receive direct feedback. That cycle—learn, apply, reflect, and refine—repeats throughout the day. Afterward, participants in company cohorts reconvene in a small-group Mastery Session to work through an important team challenge, learn from one another’s experience, and refine how they are applying the practices.
The format supports that progression:
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One full day when delivered in person; two half-days when delivered virtually
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Between-session application in the virtual format
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One small-group Mastery Session for company cohorts, held after participants have begun applying the work
Russ facilitating leadership development workshop
The third workshop in the CLS sequence
Leading Teams is the third workshop in the three-part Middle Path learning pathway. Russ Powell Consulting delivers that pathway as the instructional core of the Collaborative Leadership System—its approach to helping a management team develop shared practices and apply them to the company’s real work.
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Leadership and the Middle Path establishes a shared approach to collaborative problem-solving, decision-making, agreements and difficult conversations.
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Leading One-to-One applies that foundation to delegation, coaching, feedback, work-style differences and individual development.
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Leading Teams extends the work to shared direction, team performance, meetings, group decisions and follow-through.
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Within a CLS engagement, the workshops are connected to the company’s priorities and reinforced through workplace application and follow-up Mastery Sessions.
Built for real management work
Leading Teams is part of the Middle Path leadership curriculum, designed by Chris Holmberg of Middle Path Consulting and delivered by Russ Powell under license. The curriculum has been used with management teams in more than 160 technical startups and other organizations—including Fortune 100 companies—across 15 countries.
Russ Powell brings more than three decades of experience helping managers and teams improve how they work together and solve problems. He has facilitated this kind of work with hundreds of managers in dozens of technical startups and global organizations. His sessions are practical and highly participatory, giving
managers opportunities to work with the ideas rather than simply hear about them.
"As a result of working with Russ, our leadership skills have tangibly improved. We’ve achieved a stronger team dynamic and a more effective approach to problem-solving. This transformation has not only boosted our productivity but also brought our team closer together."
– John LaGue, Chief Operating Officer
trainwell
​​More about Russ
Bring Leading Teams to your management team
The workshop can be delivered virtually or in person for managers who have completed Leadership and the Middle Path and Leading One-to-One. It is designed for people whose results depend on coordinating the work of others—including managers with direct reports and project, program and technical leaders working through indirect authority.
Exercises can draw on the group’s real team-performance challenges, recurring meetings, stalled decisions and coordination problems—building individual skill and a more consistent way of leading teams across the company.​
Join a future public workshop​
Individuals who have completed Leadership and the Middle Path and Leading One-to-One may join selected public cohorts. Leading Teams is offered virtually and occasionally in person in San Rafael, California.
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Tuition: $1,600
​60-day early registration: $1,280
30-day early registration: $1,440
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