How to take a well-functioning leadership team to the next level? A major pharmaceutical company found the answer in The Five Behaviors® – and discovered that the strength of collaboration begins with the courage to show vulnerability.
Good collaboration rarely happens by itself. It requires active effort from all parties – and to begin with, it requires insight into where the shoe pinches and when collaboration is not working optimally. This analysis was the starting point for a targeted intervention starting in late summer 2023 with 14 members of a leadership team in a major pharmaceutical company. The team was certainly not characterized by conflicts or unsatisfactory results, but there was still a widespread perception that it contained untapped potential.
Important to be able to measure progress
“We are a company that constantly works to optimize collaboration at all levels, because we know that it has a direct impact on well-being and what we are able to produce. Small improvements have big consequences in our world. As a newly started HR partner, my task was clear: Create a trusting and transparent leadership team that can improve their overall performance,” says the HR partner, who participated in all the workshops with the leadership team.
The good news was that many of them were already practicing good collaboration daily, but it was often based on who they were most comfortable with. Now the troops had to come together, so that they could improve on what they were already doing well and put the effort into a system.
“Of course, I had some good conversations with each of the leaders to decipher what they specifically needed, and then the choice fell on The Five Behaviors® with Michael Giroux-Drejer as a safe anchorman on the course. The Five Behaviors® is an excellent tool for focusing on the most important elements of team collaboration. And it is data-driven, which means that you can constantly track the team’s progress. This appealed a lot to our leadership team”, explains the HR partner. It was also his job to ensure that the participants – when everyday life came up – constantly worked with the realizations and agreements that had been agreed.
Trust comes from showing vulnerability
The HR partner emphasizes that the prerequisite for success is that all participants are dedicated to the cause. You must be brave to embark on a journey that from time to time also becomes emotional and personal. These are all crucial building blocks in the efforts to build a new, more trusting culture in the team. And although it may seem paradoxical that the team today has significantly more (and more intense) discussions, it is a health-sign according to The Five Behaviors®.
“Rebel on the inside – soldier on the outside”
It’s a difficult exercise, but we’ve come a long way and have established a strong foundation of trust in the team.
We must dare to have conflicts, because this is where thoughts and ideas are shaped, challenged and rejected, but we must always do so with trust and based on the motto that we want the best for each other. One of the participants in the leadership team agrees with this.
“We quickly created a trusting dynamic in the team with a common understanding that we basically wanted the same thing. That certainly doesn’t mean that we agree on everything today. We are far from always, but we have become much better at keeping our eyes on the ball, seeing the good intentions in what is being said, and playing each other on the field so that everyone is heard.”
The participant says that the waves can still go high, but that today it’s happening from a trusting and dialogue-based approach. And that makes all the difference.
Following the very first workshop, many in the team chose to go on a private trip together to the US. According to the participant, this accelerated the effect of The Five Behaviors® progress, because the team gained a deeper understanding of each other on a personal level.
“When you engage with each other, you also take better care of each other. And the effect is obvious. Our entire organization has benefited greatly from the process, because when employees can see that the leadership team is doing well together, it naturally rubs off on them. We collaborate better across departments based on a mindset that we are pursuing common goals, and areas of responsibility have become clearer, so fewer tasks end up between two chairs.”
The art of eating yourself
A classic mistake in many development processes is that the top manager alone sets things in motion without participating. But if something is to have credibility and impact, it is of course crucial that the top manager himself is involved – and continues to do so throughout the entire project. In this project, the top manager sat in all the workshops and participated as an equal with everyone else in the leadership team.
“It wasn’t something I thought about for long. Of course I had to participate, because when I expect others to spend time and energy on it, it would ring hollow if I didn’t take the lead myself. And I’m glad I did, because it’s been a fantastic process where everyone has moved forward – even those who I was initially a bit reserved about, because it’s not in their nature to bend.”
WANT TO GET STARTED WITH FIVE BEHAVIORS?
Contact Michael Giroux-Drejer on
+45 24 20 02 20 or at drejer@discnordic.dk
to learn more.
Working with the team’s commitment was the biggest challenge in the process, according to the director. Many of the participants had to learn to put aside their own strong beliefs about how things should be done. It’s okay to be honest about your reservations, but when the team meets the world, you are expected to eat yourself and act as a loyal team player.
“Rebel on the inside – soldier on the outside.” It’s a difficult exercise, but we have come a long way and have established a strong foundation of trust in the team. We have also – dare I say – all become much more aware of our own strengths and challenges. According to the man behind The Five Behaviors® the ideal team player is humble, hungry and smart in the sense that you are good at collaborating and listening. These are good virtues to measure yourself and others against. Some things you’ll have a flair for, others you must work harder to improve on”, the director says. He also hopes that the great course can inspire other leadership teams to follow the same path.
The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team®
Developed by Patrick Lencioni, the model describes five key behaviors that characterize a well-functioning team:
- TRUST – The foundation of all collaboration. You must dare to be open about mistakes, uncertainty and the need for help.
- CONFLICT – When there is trust, you dare to take constructive conflict, which is necessary to find the best solutions and take ownership.
- COMMITMENT – Clarity and buy-in is more easily achieved when all perspectives have been heard. It creates shared decisions and direction.
- ACCOUNTABILITY – When the team is committed to common goals, it becomes easier (and natural) to hold each other accountable for actions and results.
- RESULTS – The team’s focus is on collective results rather than individual performance, creating synergy and higher efficiency.
The five behavioral areas are built on top of each other like a pyramid, with trust as the foundation. Without trust, it becomes difficult to have open (healthy) conflicts, make clear decisions, hold each other accountable and achieve joint results. The model therefore focuses on both the relational and task-oriented aspects of teamwork.
Patrick Lencioni himself describes the model as “common sense, but not common practice”.
Here is how it went
Preparation for the course
Prior to the first workshop, all participants in the leadership team completed a team development profile. The profile consists of questions about their own behavior and questions about how they view their team. The first is used to create a personal profile of the participant, while the last is summarized in a status measurement of the five behavioral areas in The Five Behaviors®. The personal profile adds knowledge about the individual behavioral preferences and serves as a valuable supplement to understanding the dynamics in the team.
Start-up workshop – 1 full day
In the first workshop, the participants were introduced to The Five Behaviors® and the score they had achieved together in each of the five behavioral areas. Three areas were low and two were average. In other words, there was room for improvement. The day included work on setting common goals for the team’s results. And then the trust between the participants was strengthened through a series of exercises. The day ended with the establishment of concrete agreements to improve the team’s cooperation.
Ongoing status meetings – half day
With approximately four months apart, the participants met three times to make a status of the team’s development. How have things been going since the last meeting, and were the agreements they made, kept? The latest measurements were presented and discussed. Already at the second status meeting, all five behavioral areas in The Five Behaviors® were in the high category. As with the start-up workshop, the participants always left the status meetings with agreements about what to work on until next meeting.
Important to maintain momentum
It’s a good idea to continue having the status meetings, even after a team has achieved the desired effect. It obliges the team to be committed in maintaining good habits and ensures that the efforts are adjusted into current challenges. And it helps new team members integrate smoothly.
An impressive journey
Prior to all workshops, participants completed a standard questionnaire with four statements for each behavioral area in The Five Behaviors®. They ticked one of five boxes depending on how much they agreed with the statements (a so-called Likert scale). The responses were then converted into an overall measurement for the entire team.
First team measurement
As you can see, in the very first measurement, the team had low rankings in three out of five areas.
Second team measurement
The second measurement is shown up against the previous measurement. Already here the team has made significant progress in all areas.
Third team measurement
The third measurement took place approximately eight months after the first.
The efforts between these workshops are clearly bearing fruit, as the team now ranks high in all areas.
The progress is always measured up against the latest measurement.
Fourth team measurement
In the most recent measurement, the team has gone from good to excellent.
The team ranks in the absolute elite in comparison with other leadership teams. The so-called percentage percentile is between 93-99%.
The facilitator
Michael Giroux-Drejer from DISCnordic was hired as a facilitator for the course. He is happy – but not surprised – by the team’s great results, which he believes refers to great dedication from everyone involved.
Why is The Five Behaviors® a good tool for creating well-functioning teams?
“There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, it has an intuitive framework that ensures that the themes the model describes makes immediate sense for participants to work with. This is also why there’s no need to explain a lot to get started. At the same time, The Five Behaviors® taps into other important themes in any workplace, not least psychological security, which is so incredibly vital to well-being and our performance. But the big scoop is that The Five Behaviors® provides a data-driven framework where you continuously can do a status of your progress. This means you don’t just talk from feelings and opinions – you actually have data measurements to lean on.”
How do you work with it in practice?
“I always start by looking at the level of results. What is it that the team wants to achieve. It is important that they completely agree on why they were put together as a team in the first place. The participants each had their respective teams in their everyday lives, which could easily seem the most important thing because that is what they spent the most time on. But it is a classic mistake in many organizations to think like that. The efforts should be put into the leadership team, because if this team works optimally, it also affects the rest of the employees, as there’s a unanimous leadership team with clear agreements on the responsibilities. When the team agrees on their common results, I move on to trust, and when those two elements are in place, it is my experience that the others in the model often fall into place relatively easily.”
How do you use the status measurements during the process?
“Status measurements are the cornerstone of The Five Behaviors®. They emphasize that it is a process where the changes happen through the interaction that the team has with each other in everyday life. This is where they must prove that they are able to work with the areas they set their minds to. The status measurements show that it is useful – and then they point out the areas where efforts need to be made in the future. Of course, the status measurements must always be combined with the team’s concrete experiences, because it is important to talk about what the basis for the result is. It is my most important task as a facilitator to develop that part when we meet. I will inspire them by asking questions, but they take the dialogue themselves, and if they run out of good ideas to move forward, I can of course also offer inspiration from what has helped others, in similar teams.”
What was the most important ‘wow’ experience for you in the process with this team?
“I already had that experience on day one. The participants started with a trust exercise, where they had to reflect on and then present – which mistake in their professional lives they regretted the most. Here, many of the participants showed great honesty, which made the room very intense and vulnerable. There I believed we were on the right track, because if we could achieve that trust so quickly, there would be high hopes for this team’s future. The fact that there was one person who was that brave and choose to lead on, pulled everyone else in the same direction, so that we from the start, were able to manifest trust as a super strong foundation for the other behavioral patterns.”
Michael Giroux-Drejer is co-founder and partner of DISCnordic.
In addition to The Five Behaviors®, he also teaches and facilitates the tools Everything DiSC, 15FQ+ and AdaptGRT.
He is the author of the books: “Empowerment” and the “DISC Handbook”.
You are welcome to contact Michael Giroux-Drejer at
+45 24 20 02 20 or at drejer@discnordic.dk if you want to work with The Five Behaviors® in your team or simply want to hear more about the process.
Should your team start with The Five Behaviors®?
Here are some good tips…
Get the leaders involved in every step
It is no use if the leader just starts the project and then pulls out of it. The one who takes the initiative must take the lead themselves – be visible, show commitment and dare to be vulnerable when the work with vulnerability-based trust becomes concrete.
Allow plenty of time for the process
This won’t be done in an afternoon. There needs to be time for both workshops and the important everyday life in between, where new habits can grow. Plan realistically and make sure that your team has room to practice along the way.
Point out a coordinator
There needs to be someone who can keep track of the process, help adjust it along the way, and ensure follow-up. Whether it’s HR or an external facilitator is less important, but someone needs to be ready to help – even when everyday life starts to take over.
Make sure to prepare the team
Everyone on the team needs to know what to expect. It’s not about being perfect – it’s about getting better together. The clearer you are about the goal and the process from the start, the easier it will be to stick with it – especially when things get challenging.
Create a safe space for the team
True development requires that you dare to show yourself from multiple sides. Where you need to create a framework where openness, respect and mistakes are a natural part of the journey. Only then can the five behavioral areas take root in the way you work together.
