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Pride in our community and our clients
A moment from our Christmas Team Day earlier this month summed up for me everything we are at Leading Edge – and particularly highlighted how a sense of belonging and curiosity to care are so strong in everything we do. This moment got me thinking about how our Team Coaches, fantastic clients and the Client Experience team make Team Green what it is.
We were running a short Insights Discovery exercise with the 20 Team Coaches able to join us on the day. Now, pretty much all Leading Edge Team Coaches know Insights Discovery inside out and regularly deliver client sessions using it. The excitement and humour that came from having the opportunity to understand each other’s preferences and then see them play out will stay with me. A room full of facilitators trying to facilitate a session has to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen (and quite possibly one of the hardest tasks they’ve ever been given!).
And when we finally sat down for our Christmas lunch, the energy and noise were something else, with everyone so keen to belong in that moment and show their curiosity to care for people they might not have met in person before. Apparently there was a Christmas playlist… but I didn’t hear a single song!
Noise like that shows so well how we come together as a community and how strong we are as Team Green.
Belonging in our community
I’m thrilled with how our Team Coach community has been strengthened in so many ways this year, with new people bringing diversity of experience and skills that benefits both our clients and Leading Edge as a whole. I’ve loved seeing Team Coaches who’ve been with us for years use storytelling to welcome people into project teams (often in a virtual environment) and help them feel that sense of belonging from day one.
One new team member told me how she’d felt truly immersed in Leading Edge and how quickly she knew she belonged. That makes me proud because I see with my team the great efforts they go to to reach out and connect, something I try to do too, just to check in and ask about the small things.
Ensuring the best fit for clients
Having a Team Coach community with such a wide spectrum of capability and experience gives our clients greater choice and lets us push boundaries on what they initially think they want or need. I saw this play out when scoping the project team for a leadership programme recently. The client felt sure they knew the best fit for a Team Coach, but after watching a few Leading Edge bio videos, they went with someone else, someone who brought different experience and skills. This is important for different teams within clients as well because a stronger Team Coach community means we can play to team preference as well as organisational culture.
Building a great project team for our clients includes bringing on board the right Client Experience Coordinator, too. In the Client Experience team of four, three are still relatively new to Leading Edge and I’m so proud to see how they have accelerated progress with their own ways of working and are dialling up as a high-performing team.
Complementing each other’s strengths
While the Client Experience team works across both Leading Edge and Performance Edge, we’re two individual businesses, each functioning separately and offering something powerful to our clients. The richness comes when we’re given the opportunity to complement each other, to provide clients with deeper insights, such as with decompression interviews that draw out valuable human data to feed into a Highly Effective Teams journey.
In those moments, we build something even greater – and I’m excited to think about how we can bring this combined strength to even more client journeys next year and beyond.
Amazing clients
And all of what I’ve said is only possible because we’re privileged to work with amazing clients, some we’ve built partnerships with over many years and some who we’re excited to be starting new relationships with. I do think we’re agile at recognising where clients’ current needs are and then designing programmes around change, leadership and teams that reflect their landscape. We also check in with wonderful clients who we’re not currently delivering for, but who we might be able to help in some way. I love that my role enables me to do this.
I’m so proud of our client relationships and know that it’s down to how we remain humble and curious as we explore their context and landscape. Branching out into different areas with new clients this year has been brilliant. It’s a great feeling when you can see how truly aligned your values and approach are – and it’s lovely to feel the hard work paying off. Having said that, we’ll always greatly value our existing partnerships and be thankful for how those clients have supported us over many years.
From Patrick, Michaela, everyone in Team Green and me, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2023!
Victoria
