FRIEND LEADERSHIP
I chose to read this book mostly because of the Rocket Model - since our team goal is to successfully complete it until the end of our studies. The book is written in English, so I thought I will try to write this essay in the same language.
Visual Thinking
Since people are mostly visual learners an important part of this book is visual thinking. Each chapter shows a different visualising technique that can help us with achieving our goals and remembering our values and visions. Some of the helpful tools are mindmaps, vision boards, vision mandalas, random drawings, and pictures. Visuality also energises the team, it helps us to become present. Our team just recently started to visualise every monthly goal. We usually make a collage or a mood board, print it, and put it on the wall next to our desk. It helps us to focus on the goal and to truly achieve it.
The principle of Friend Leadership consists of five steps: earth, water, fire, wind, and void.
Earth
Symbolizes leading yourself. The tool we use for leading and better knowing ourselves is the learning contract. It’s important to write one for each semester and learn how to focus our energy on what we want to achieve. Ideally write the LC on paper and place it somewhere where it will be viewed daily. Another interesting tool that I want to try out is the vision mandala:
Water
Reminds us to form a meaningful team. It’ crucial to have mission, shared values, and vision while forming a team. We should build our team out of honesty, trust, and legibility.
Team dialogue
Can show if the team is low level, mid-range or high-performance. I find this chapter very useful since our shared vision is to become a high-performance team. It is actually quite easy to measure the quality of dialogue on a Training Session if one or two people decide to observe the team for at least 30 minutes. The observers evaluate each sentence or a comment with the help of Losada’s three dimensions:
Was the sentence/comment -
a) own opinion or a claim
b) critical or positive
c) about team or external issues
The summary then shows the level of the team’s dialogue and how can we improve it - positivity, open questions, …
I will try to bring this method to one of our TS.
Fire
A Friend Leader ignites the team. As Friend Leader you love your team, its products, and its customers. Lead your team toward to meaningful purpose and try to use the MICEE Philosophy:
I think we subconsciously use this philosophy as we live by our vision, challenge each other with monthly goals, support each other to take action and experiment. However, leader -who actively observes that this is truly happening - is a key aspect.
Wind
We must know our environment and bring something new to it. Feedback from our customers is crucial for team development. We should remember to use Pre-motorola to set a good target and expectations. After the project is done, we use Post-motorola to reflect on the differences between our expectations and reality.
Void
Is the most important element and it reminds us to be mindful.
„There is only this moment – right now. Live the moment soulfully. What
is your own positive intellectual contribution to this moment? The world is not like this moment. It is the past from which you can learn. The future is unknown to you, but you can plan it. Think about how you seize this moment. You are not performing, just with the moment. “
Overall, this book was easy to read and to understand. However, I do admit that I didn’t probably pay enough attention while reading it. There were some valuable points that I’ve tried to point out in this essay but also a lot of the information I’ve already read in other books about Tiimiakatemia and its principles.
You should read it as it has only about 100 pages, make your own opinion and maybe thanks to you I’ll give it another chance.
