As a hybrid team of employees and strategic partners, we understand how challenging it can be to foster a team learning and leadership development culture. It takes the whole team’s commitment to show up as humans on our multiple Zoom calls and to check in with one another before diving into the task list. Even though it may sound like common sense, we achieve more in business and impact when we connect and learn together, as it creates more trust. We know we need one another to grow, strengthen, see our blind spots, and achieve our individual and collective goals.

“When we are open to learning, we learn from everything and everyone. All of life has the potential for learning and understanding others, which opens us up to collaboration,” shares Lori Hanau, Founder & Learning Steward at Global Round Table Leadership.

Part of our group norm within the Global Round Table Leadership ensemble is to grow together as equal learning partners continually, and we carry this ethos into our work. As we guide teams through the Shared Leadership Team Learning Journey, we operate as “Learning Stewards” instead of coaches or consultants who come with a playbook to direct. Shilpa Jain, one of our Learning Stewards, describes the unique value our approach offers participants: 

"I appreciate how we support the teams to practice shared leadership from the get-go by inviting their commitments and asking them to try each part on for themselves. Rather than having them depend on us, we encourage them to depend on each other.

Our role as Learning Stewards is pivotal in fostering a culture of trust, business model innovation, and sustainable transformation. We hope to inspire each team member to contribute to their teammates’ and organization’s healthier and happier evolutions.

“Our goal through The Shared Leadership Learning Journey is for the teams to turn toward each other. Instead of coming to us as the “experts with the answers,” we want teams to anchor in together because co-learning creates a more dynamic learning experience,” explains Lori. 

So, how does a Learning Steward support the growth and care of another colleague and, ultimately, the team and organizational transformation? After sharing stories of colleagues, mentors, neighbors, friends, and family members who have served as Learning Stewards for each of us, we crafted a list of qualities and actions they embody to create a co-learning experience: 

-   Deep, empathic listening

-   Holding space for one another for support

-   Respectful silence

-   Gently shining light on blind spots

-   Curiosity

-   Patience, temperance

-   Offering a different perspective

-   Acceptance

-   Appreciation

-   Applied practice in group dynamics

-   Collaboration

-   Integrity and impeccability

-   Strategic, big-vision thinking

-   Wholeheartedness

Is your team ready to shift from employee and boss to equal learning partners? Are you eager to disrupt outdated, hierarchical business models? There are healthier, happier, more productive ways to relate and operate within the workplace. Now is the time to try a new way of working, sharing leadership, power, responsibility, and meaning together.

Book a call with Christine, our Head of Client Success, to learn more about our unique approach to leadership team development and our Shared Leadership Team Learning Journey.