Supercharge Your Team with the C4 Dialogue Navigator® | Leadership Coaching and Development

Here, together with clarity (more on that later), developing connection is the bedrock of stable and productive teams. As a leader, you set the tone by being intentional about how you develop that connection. When people feel included, they’re more willing to speak up to voice concerns and share ideas. The goal? Create an environment where no one is left wondering, “Why am I here, and what is expected of me?”. 

Years ago, I was leading a large, regional team at a medical device company, which taught me the vital importance of consistent clarity and connection. With our complex, multi-country operation and a team that often shifted in size responding to business needs, keeping everyone aligned felt like a constant priority. One simple but impactful tactic we did to quickly integrate new members and build team spirit was having them share a five-minute, picture-based personal introduction during our bi-weekly team reviews. It was amazing what we learned about each other, all sorts of hidden talents from opera singers to badminton players, and how much this small exercise fostered a real sense of connection. It gave everyone a voice early on and made subsequent conversations easier for everybody.

Welcome to the storming stage, where disagreements can emerge around roles, processes, and priorities. This is where “Learner Safety” becomes critical to enable people to ask questions, experiment, and make mistakes without fear of judgment.

Curiosity is the key here. It shifts the focus from “Who is right?” to “What is right?” Instead of shutting down tension, leaders who lean into curiosity foster a culture of exploration. Practical tools like using open-ended questions (those starting with ‘what’ or ‘how’ and avoiding ‘why’) encourage people to share perspectives and navigate conflict productively. The message is clear: Conflict isn’t the enemy—avoidance is.

In this stage, it is important to separate person from problem, articulate that productive conflict leads to better outcomes, and it is within the collective control of the team to work through it. 

This is where Courage takes centre stage. Encouraging candid, bold conversations helps teams avoid complacency. Tools like using “I” statements when giving feedback and modelling vulnerability create space for honest input. Effective leaders understand the difference between being nice with being kind, and they invite others to do the same. “Nice teams get nice results”, as the saying goes, so when in the norming stage, skilled leaders know when and how to challenge the team to stretch themselves.

One highly effective approach we adopted for promoting courageous conversations was to structure regular 1:1’s in three sections 1) focus on task 2) two way-feedback of things going well and not and 3) focus on development, so there was always space to celebrate wins and resolve issues as they arose and an opportunity to explore what the team member needed to course correct or level up.

Challenger Safety allows people to question the status quo and push for better ways forward, to avoid the risk of hitting a plateau. Members can question others’ ideas regardless of authority and can suggest changes to plans, ideas and ways of working. Feedback is well-intentioned, well-delivered and fluid.

Clarity is what keeps a high-performing team on top of (and in control of) rapid and complex change. In my regional team, we set up subject matter experts for critical steps in our process and others who were tasked with keeping on top of policy changes. This enabled us to cascade updates and flag issues with great speed and ease. Each SME had a buddy, and both were positioned as the ‘go-to’ for questions about their area of expertise. This enabled new learning to be shared quickly and distributed accountability across the team without it sitting with a single point of failure. It had the added benefit of creating a sense of security that if someone didn’t know the answer to something, there was someone who did.

Remember, team development is rarely a predictable, linear process. Teams can (and often do) find themselves stuck in one of the stages and can move back as well as forward, possibly several times. Agile leaders develop the skills to pivot as necessary, blending each of the C’s and "move around the compass" as required to get things back on track. So, where’s your team at, and which of the C's will serve you best?