Dr. Peter von Wartenberg

Level 02 of 3

Team leadership

My Team

Those who lead themselves can begin to lead others. My Team is the second level: individual, self-led personalities become a team that achieves more together than the sum of its members - a high performance team.

  1. My Self
  2. My Team
  3. My Business

Why this level

From I to a strong we

Self-leadership is the prerequisite, but it is not yet team leadership. The second level is about creating an environment in which people with different strengths, perspectives and personalities truly work together - not merely side by side.

Five topics shape this level. One of them is Peter’s speciality - building high performance teams - and is explored in depth further down.

The five topics — open one

  1. Trust

    No trust, no speed: teams that trust each other decide faster, argue more productively and own results together.

  2. High performance teams

    The core of this level: the conditions under which a group of individuals becomes a team that delivers top performance for the long run - in detail below.

    Go deeper ↓
  3. Culture

    Culture is what a team does when nobody is watching. It is not created in a mission statement, but by what leadership models and permits every day.

  4. Communication

    Say it clearly, hear it clearly: a culture of conversation that surfaces conflicts early instead of managing them.

  5. Talent development

    Good leadership makes others better: recognising strengths, handing over responsibility and letting people deliberately outgrow themselves.

In depth: Peter’s speciality

High performance teams

Why do some teams collapse under pressure while others rise to the occasion? Research shows: high performance only emerges when psychological safety and accountability are both high. Missing either one leaves a team comfortable at best, or anxious - never truly strong. Peter’s approach: build safety first, then hold people consistently accountable.

Psychological safety

Comfort zone

High-performance zone

Apathy zone

Anxiety zone

Accountability
  • Safety without accountability

    Comfort zone

    Safety without accountability leads to the comfort zone.

  • Both high

    High-performance zone

    Only together do they create the high-performance zone.

  • Both low

    Apathy zone

    If both are missing, a team stays cautious and noncommittal at once: little happens, and no one names it.

  • Accountability without safety

    Anxiety zone

    Accountability without safety creates fear.

Peter’s approach: Safety first, accountability after: reverse the order and you build pressure teams cannot carry.

Psychological safety

The shared belief within a team that you can raise mistakes, ask questions and take the odd risk without being exposed for it. The foundation on which trust and performance can grow in the first place.

Accountability

The willingness to stand behind your own decisions and results - for each other, not just for yourself. Without it, even the safest team stays non-committal.

Working together

What working with Peter looks like

Peter works directly with leadership teams and their leaders on these topics - in team and culture development: workshops, day-to-day guidance and sparring for the leader in charge.

There is no standard package: the shape and scope of the work take form in conversation with you and your team.

Where this comes from

Leading teams through change

International postings - among them Brazil and the USA - opened up new perspectives for Peter on leadership, corporate culture and transformation.

Across different business units he was responsible for complex change programmes, supported phases of growth and restructuring, and led international teams through demanding economic and organisational challenges.

Along the way I learned that lasting success never comes from strategies or processes alone. It comes from people.

Dr. Peter von Wartenberg

Next step

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