This document summarizes a presentation on leading people and managing teams. It discusses common traits among failed projects, such as lack of people engagement. It focuses on the perspectives of both leaders and team members. The presentation covers what makes a high-performing team, including addressing what team members really want, such as feeling heard, understood, and psychologically safe at work.

1. Leading People &
Managing Things
Dayo Sowunmi II
30th ANZAM Conference
School of Management, QUT Business School

2. Overview
1 Common traits among failed projects
(people engagement)
2 People Leadership
(leader & team perspectives)
Impossible colleagues?
Teams not motivated, inspired & productive?
What makes a high-performing team?
What do team members really want?
3 Wrap-up and Questions
1

3. 2
Leader’s Perspective
1 Failing to appreciate complexity of teamwork
2 Poor emphasis on ‘softer skills’, emotional
intelligence, self-awareness
3 Impact of leadership styles on productivity
4 Physical and mental health
5 Think laterally / outside the box

4. Leadership Styles
3

5. Impossible Colleagues? …Mind The Gap
“When dealing with people, remember you are
not dealing with creatures of logic, but with
creatures bristling with prejudice and
motivated by pride and vanity.” Dale Carnegie
Individual mental models (George Kelly) 4

6. What Team Members Mean (Opposing Poles)
5

7. What Makes A High-Performing Team?
6
Diderot
1713-84
“Only passion,
great passion,
can elevate the
soul to great things.”

8. What Team Members Really Want
7
1 To be heard and understood
2 Feel psychologically safe at work
Illustrated by James Graham (NY Times)

9. Wrap Up
8