Psychologist | Coach | Facilitator | Speaker
Helping leadership teams think, decide and work together more effectively
The challenge of leading together
Even the most experienced leadership teams can find themselves revisiting previous decisions, balancing competing priorities, struggling to translate decisions into coordinated action, or finding that progress isn't matching their ambitions.
Bringing together talented leaders is only the beginning. The challenge is developing the team's ability to think, decide and act as an effective collective, in the interests of the organisation as a whole.
This is not about team building. It is about intentionally developing the leadership team's ability to integrate diverse expertise, challenge assumptions, make better judgements and lead the organisation more effectively than any individual leader could alone.
Most organisations invest in developing individual leaders
Organisations invest considerable time and resources in developing individual leaders. They develop technical expertise, leadership capability and professional skills.
Much less attention is given to intentionally developing the capability of the leadership teams to work effectively together.
How would your team answer these questions?
Do we have a genuinely shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing our organisation, or are we working from different assumptions?
How well do we balance competing priorities and make decisions that serve the organisation as a whole, rather than our individual functions?
Do we reach decisions that everyone understands, supports and acts on—even when not everyone would have chosen the same course of action?
When decisions involve ambiguity or shared ownership, do we coordinate our actions effectively, or do things fall between the gaps?
Do we regularly reflect on how well we're working together as a leadership team, or are we mainly focused on the organisation itself?
How effective is your team's collective leadership?
The Collective Leadership Framework describes six capabilities that enable leadership teams to think, decide and act together effectively.
Complete the short Collective Leadership Assessment to explore the conditions that support collective leadership, how effectively your team thinks and acts together, and the impact this has across the organisation.
Complete the assessment to receive:
✓ A profile of your collective leadership
✓ Insight into your team's strengths and development opportunities
✓ Practical suggestions for where to focus next
How I help
Every leadership team is different. Some want to understand how effectively they're working together. Others are looking to strengthen their collective leadership capability over time or need support with a specific organisational challenge.
I work with leadership teams in three main ways:
Understand
Get an independent, evidence-informed assessment of how your leadership team is working together, what's getting in the way, and where to focus.
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Leadership Team Effectiveness Review
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Leadership Team Effectiveness Sprint
Best for: teams that want to understand what's happening and identify - or begin working on - what needs to change.
Support
Additional expertise and support as you navigate the real work of leading an organisation.
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Executive & team coaching
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Strategic facilitation
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Ongoing advisory support
Best for: leaders and teams working through significant decisions, change or organisational complexity.
Not sure where to start?
If you want a quick indication of where your leadership team may benefit from greater focus, start with the Collective Leadership Assessment.
Or, if you'd prefer to talk through what's happening in your team, book an introductory conversation.
WHAT LEADERS SAY
As CEO, I realised that whilst we had the individual talent in the team, we hadn’t yet found a way to get the best out of each other and work as a team. Now, 18 months on, we continue to grow and build on our success, ready for the next chapter in our business plan. Without Marie’s insight and input, I doubt very much if we would have got to where we are
The session broadened our knowledge of communication by increasing our awareness of how knowledge is communicated and received by others. This will enhance the efficiency of our company. A massive thank you to Dr. Stopforth for an engaging and informative afternoon.
We had the pleasure of Marie running a team coaching session with us. The session was focused on communication. We discussed what communication meant to us, explored real-life scenarios where miscommunication occurred, and identified where we could improve.
Get in touch
Have something specific in mind?
If you have a question about working together, want to discuss support for your leadership team, or aren't sure where to start, send me a message.
I'll get back to you personally.