Guarded, careful tiptoeing, avoiding the pain. If this sounds like your company's leadership team, you're normal. I've lost count of the number of teams that act this way – there are so many.
I’ve also seen teams like this who experienced such a tremendous transformation that they are now seeing great business results and healthy team dynamics with much less effort. They have become abnormally great.
What did they do to experience this transformation? It was a simple shift in their mindsets.
What do people in your organization do when decisions don’t go their way? Do they accept the decision even though they disagree with it? Do they demonstrate through their words and actions that they support the decision and that they’re committed to achieving the objective? When communicating inside or outside the organization, do they give the impression that they are completely on board? Do their actions follow their words?
Hiring is often cited as one of the most challenging parts of growing a business. When it comes to building your business dream team, right people-right seat decisions are rarely black and white.
For example: when a new position is created, it’s quite common to have a "right person" on your existing team. This person shares your core values and really wants the opportunity, but falls short on getting it or having the capacity to deliver what the position requires. The question becomes: should you invest time and resources to develop that person or fill the position with someone outside your team?
Isn’t the answer obvious?
Let me ask the leaders a couple questions. Do you find yourself clearly stating what needs to be done in your team? When a team member has an issue, do you tell them the best way to fix their issue? If you are working through a performance concern with a staff member, do you make sure you make the perfect plan to remedy their situation? Sounds like a pretty good description of a nice manager. Unfortunately this “nice” manager isn’t all that effective.
One night this holiday season, my wife and I were wrapping gifts for our family. When a large pile of brightly colored packages sat beside each of us, we stood back to admire our handiwork. Kate’s packages were beautiful – crisply wrapped, carefully secured with beautiful ribbons that matched the wrapping paper, each package festooned with tidy little bows. My packages were technically covered (mostly) with wrapping paper and tape. But they didn’t really look…finished.
