Leadership
Does your team trust each other? If not, what impact do you think that’s having on the bottom line?
This is a question that we have explored with teams ranging from publicly-traded companies to nonprofits. Regardless of the size of your team or the industry you work in, “trust is the foundation of real teamwork,” writes Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
In the mid-1990s, Lencioni observed a business climate that was maniacally focused on growth with little attention paid to the fundamentals of team alignment and organizational effectiveness. As a result, Lencioni and his colleagues developed a simple online assessment that measures team effectiveness in five key areas.
1. Trust
Think about a time when you worked with a team member who you trusted. What was that experience like? Did you freely share information with her? Did you ask her for help? Admit mistakes? Now, think about a time when you worked with a team member who you didn’t trust. What was that experience like? Did you ask him for more data? Did you talk to others about his reliability? Did you try avoiding him altogether? Now multiply the results of these interactions by all of the possible team member combinations in your organization. You can quickly see how trust impacts speed, and how speed impacts results. We’re living in the age of Airbnb, Kickstarter, Etsy, and Uber – where trust is the fundamental economic driver. Yet, trusting our colleagues as much as we do total strangers is something that we have yet to master.
2. Conflict
Teams that do not trust one another will be reluctant to have open, constructive conflict. You’ve seen this in action in the form of passive-aggressive behavior, circular conversations, veiled discussions, and guarded arguments. You’ve witnessed people nodding their head ‘yes’ in the room but shaking their head ‘no’ in the hall. Teams that trust one another freely engage in debate so that they can assess reality correctly before making a common commitment. Teams that lack trust also lack the ability to effectively uncover the root causes of issues that impact performance. Instead, they spend their time dealing with symptoms and side issues.
3. Commitment
A team that can accurately assess reality will have a better chance of making clear commitments. A note of clarity here. Team commitment is not the same as consensus. When you are encouraged and inspired to share your ideas and know that you’ve been heard, you’re more likely to agree to the final decision even if it differs from your original input. As a result, you walk away motivated and feeling valued rather than resentful. Commitment requires weigh in before buy in.
4. Accountability
If you manage a team of people, you understand that part of your role is to hold them accountable for delivering results. Holding your peer team members accountable, however, is harder. This is especially true when you haven’t built trust, participated in constructive debate about root causes, or felt that your opinions about what to do to move forward haven’t been heard. You’re much more likely to call your peers out when you’ve bought into the agreed upon direction to deliver results.
5. Results
“What gets measured, gets done,” is a familiar maxim. If you are measured and incentivized based on individual effort, human nature follows that you are more likely to put your individual results over collective results. High-performing teams, however, understand that if the team loses, everyone loses. When you’re held accountable for team results, you’re much more likely to make the extra effort to help team members when they need support.
Teamwork isn’t easy. But high performing teams understand that team alignment is a competitive advantage.
Question: Are you achieving results or experiencing regrets toward team goals so far this year?
Driven by the premise that excellence is the result of aligning people, purpose and performance, Center for Executive Excellence facilitates training in leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. To learn more, subscribe to receive CEE News!
Leadership
As the country heads toward reopening, we won’t just be able to toggle back to business as usual. Every employee will be returning to work with varying levels of anxiety. Some may have lost a person close to them. Some may feel fatigued from living through weeks of uncertainty. Others may have survivor’s guilt if some of their co-workers were recently laid off or furloughed.
I discussed this topic last Thursday when I interviewed Retired Navy SEAL Officer Lance Cummings on building a resilient mindset (watch the recording here). Using concepts and techniques gained from his 30-year military career, Cummings shared what kind of mindset is necessary for leaders to help their teams deal with the trauma of COVID-19 and as they return to work.
Below is a sampling of the leadership concepts from our interview that leaders can apply today as we prepare for businesses reopening:
Make space for decompression
When returning from a war zone, operators need a transition period to adjust to the new reality. We transition back carefully, with at least one stop along the way to decompress and discuss how to adjust smoothly and smartly. We solicit help from medical and psychological professionals. This facilitates the transition and emotional trauma, especially if you’re returning with fewer than you deployed with.
Good leaders help prepare for both the deployment and return by showing compassion for those who need a little more help with transition.
Acknowledge and deal with trauma
Acknowledge that there will be trauma within the ranks, and it will be expressed or compartmentalized in different ways. The emotional aspect of losing a loved one, or living in fear of losing someone, is tremendous. It should be verbalized that assistance is available and that there will be no stigma about taking advantage of emotional counseling.
Situational awareness is a perishable skill, but if you can watch others from an objective position, body language and work habits will telegraph masked stress.
Provide clear guidance and lead by example
There may have been downsizing within the company. That can’t be ignored. People have a right to know where they stand in the hierarchy and why. An employee’s perception can be different from their boss’, but this gap can be minimized with open communication. Sometimes we can be too ambiguous, and the message isn’t clear.
Leadership by example cannot be overstated. If the Commanding Officer of the team is attending daily COVID-19 screenings, the troops are less likely to complain about it.
As many of us pivoted from in-person to online meetings during this quarantine, we can leverage the gifts of stripping away the office hierarchies that create distance among people. From watching kids run amuck in the background, to hearing dogs bark, to noticing your colleague is a U2 fan by virtue of the Bono posters hanging on their walls, we can lean into the fact that we know each other even better as human beings. We’ve created new bonds of trust. Let’s carry this trust forward and emerge as a more resilient team.
How are you helping your team pivot while dealing with the trauma of what they’ve just gone through?
Driven by the premise that excellence is the result of aligning people, purpose and performance, Center for Executive Excellence facilitates training in leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. To learn more, subscribe to receive CEE News!
Leadership
During the 3 minutes it will take you to read this post, you’ll probably get an email with COVID-19 in the subject line, a text, a social media update or a missed call. Let 30 minutes pass, and you could be swimming in unanswered inbounds. A steady diet of requests for your attention can leave you overwhelmed and intellectually and emotionally undernourished.
You cannot lead effectively when your plate is full, but your cup is empty.
As a leader, you have a responsibility to create a culture of performance. Research shows that your ability to do so will require you to carve out your most precious resource – time – for yourself to reflect. In his March 2013 Harvard Business Review article, JP Morgan Managing Director Chris Lowney suggested that leaders need to take a mental pit stop. As a former Jesuit seminarian, Lowney recalled that St. Ignatias of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, recommended a practice known as “examen.” Simply put, it’s the concept of examining your day and taking stock.
Before you move onto your next thing to do, make a commitment to yourself to refuel by practicing the 3 G’s for daily reflection. Find a notebook and select a time and place each day to “examen,” as follows:
Practice Gratitude. A 2013 survey of 2,000 Americans by the John Templeton Foundation found that people are less likely to feel gratitude about work than anyplace else. In fact, respondents tended to rank their jobs as dead last when asked to list the things they were grateful for. Yet, studies have shown that people who make a habit of recording what they are grateful for have more positive emotions, feel better physically and mentally, and feel more connected to others as a result. What or who at work are you grateful for?
Give Your Reserve. When your tank is low, the last thing you may think about is, “what can I do to help someone else?” But, research confirms that the warm glow you feel after giving someone else a boost can be mapped to neural hedonic activity (aka stimulate pleasure systems in the brain). So, pay for the coffee of the next person in the drive-thru. Call someone who needs it. Take the neighbor’s garbage cans in. It will give them something to be grateful for, and give yourself a lift as well. What little thing could you give today?
Extend Grace. There’s a saying that not forgiving someone is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. Remember when your colleague cut you off in mid-sentence on Zoom today when you were trying to make that point about the new project? Drop it. Whether she did it to undermine you or because she was caught up in the brainstorm, it’s over. She’s not burning up thinking about it. While you’re at it, give yourself some grace too. If you’re still punishing yourself for a mistake you made with the best of intentions, let it go. Who can you stop keeping score on?
Especially during these unpredictable days, you’re taking in more information than you ever have before. Make time for yourself to turn that information into knowledge, and that knowledge into insight.
Question: What do you do when your plate is full but your cup is empty?
Driven by the premise that excellence is the result of aligning people, purpose and performance, Center for Executive Excellence facilitates training in leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. To learn more, subscribe to receive CEE News!
Leadership
One of the most challenging things about life these days is the ability to choose how we spend our time. Suddenly, the routines that we relied on to navigate our days have been stripped away. We’ve been thrown off the well-rutted trails that helped dictate when to rise, what to wear, how to contribute, and what to do when we need a break. Then the wheels came off the frame. And each day, we choose anew.
Whether we’re on the front lines, or doing our part by staying at home, we’re all trying to navigate the path between anxiety and appreciation as we do what we can to be productive members of the human race. It is against this backdrop that I have been reading Leadership in Turbulent Times, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
The book parallels the lives of four U.S. Presidents – Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. Goodwin explores their early development and circumstances each man endured that shaped his leadership style. She refers to those circumstances as crucibles. Lincoln, for example, fell into a depression at the age of 32 that was so profound, his friends confiscated all knives, razors, and scissors from his room in fear that he may take his own life.
As a brash, young Illinois state legislator, Lincoln had convinced the state to invest in massive infrastructure projects like railroads, canals, bridges and roads. These projects were barely half completed when, in 1840, Illinois entered the third year of a recession and halted the work. Land values plummeted, thousands lost their homes, banks and brokerage houses closed. Blame for the crushing debt that crippled the state was laid at Lincoln’s feet.
The burdens that Lincoln had sought to lift from the poorest and most thinly populated communities had been multiplied. The breach of honor he suffered as a result was almost too much for him to bear. “The doctors in Springfield believed that Lincoln was ‘within an inch of being a perfect lunatic for life,’” writes Goodwin. Lincoln confessed to his close friend, Joshua Speed, that he was more than willing to die, but that he had done nothing to contribute to the growth of the country.
The Declaration of Independence had been penned just 64 years earlier. Self-government was still considered a shaky experiment, at best, and Lincoln felt that the world’s monarchies were lying in wait for the experiment to fail. Lincoln gathered himself and set about to reconstruct his personal and public life. Not only did he endure, but he went on to lead the country brilliantly through the Civil War, one of the most significant trials in the history of our country.
We have the privilege of living during a collective crucible. Some people will lose their bearings; their lives forever stunted. Others will resume their normal behaviors after a period of time. Still others, through reflection and adaptive capacity, will transcend their ordeal, armed with a greater resolve a purpose. How you will be changed as a result of this crucible depends largely on how you choose to spend your time today.
What leadership book have you turned to for inspiration this month?
Driven by the premise that excellence is the result of aligning people, purpose and performance, Center for Executive Excellence facilitates training in leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. To learn more, subscribe to receive CEE News!
Leadership
Over the past 15 years, I have been honored to explore and debate the intersection of power and leadership with my friend and Center of Executive Excellence Co-Founder, Dr. Tony Baron.
Before our paths crossed, Tony had established himself as one of America’s most sought after consultants on the subject of violence – in the workplace, in schools, and in the public square. He counselled survivors of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, and the September 11, 2001, attack on The World Trade Center. In 2009, Tony accepted the role as President of The Servant Leadership Institute in San Diego, California, to help spread the concept of transformational servant leadership in corporate America and religious institutions. He led sold out conferences featuring speakers such as Ken Blanchard, John Maxwell, and Southwest Airlines President Emerita Colleen Barrett.
Tony’s work resulted in the publication of three books on the subject: The Art of Servant Leadership (2010), a compelling case study of leadership tested by adversity, The Cross and the Towel (2011), a call to action for Christian leaders to set aside ego, political correctness and selfish ambition in their ministry, and Servant Leadership In Action (2018), a collection of essays co-edited by Ken Blanchard.
I interviewed Tony last week on the topic of Self-Leadership in the Age of Isolation (watch the recording here). He shared the need for leaders to create both inner and outer peace in order to manifest a non-anxious presence through an In, Out and Up model.
Peace defined
“Peace is not the absence of conflict,” Tony said. It’s a pervasive sense of well-being that leaders must intentionally cultivate so that when conflict comes, they don’t get knocked off balance. Instead, they have the presence to steer the ship through the storm. Tony’s mentor, the late Dallas Willard, taught him that peace isn’t something that you drift into. You can’t fake it. Peace is achieved by having a vision, being intentional about dedicating yourself to that vision, and employing the tools necessary to help keep you on the path.
In, Out and Up
To illustrate, Tony used the model of a triangle. Inside of the triangle is peace, or the pervasive sense of well-being. One corner of the triangle focuses on what you’re allowing in your life. Are you spending quality time with those who are important to you? Or, are you spending more time than necessary on screens? Which is more likely to bring you peace and which is more likely to cause anxiety? “You’ll know when you’ve struck the right balance in your inner life,” Tony said, “when you experience gratitude.” The bottomless scroll through social media apps or watching 24/7 breaking news is not going to result in gratitude. But, spending quality time with people with whom you have meaningful relationships will.
Leaders who are at peace don’t focus solely in their inner lives, according to Tony. They also naturally address the opposite corner of the triangle – the out. That outward focus manifests itself in generosity. Leaders who devote time, talent, and/or treasure to others can offset narcissistic tendencies like a sense of entitlement.
To complete the triangle, Tony suggested that leaders also need a space for an up in their lives. Whether your up is the acknowledgment of a higher power or God, knowing that there is something or someone that can do things that you don’t have the power to do on your own helps complete the peace triangle. We find grace in the up. “Grace is the unmerited favor,” said Tony, “that reminds us that there is something bigger than ourselves.”
If we think of peace as the absence of conflict, we focus on the pleasure principles of life that bring us short-term results. But, leaders who endure are those who work on manifesting gratitude, generosity and grace. Thank you, Tony, for sharing your wisdom on self-leadership.
Question: World peace begins with inner peace. – Dalai Lama. What are you doing to manifest inner peace in your life today?
Driven by the premise that excellence is the result of aligning people, purpose and performance, Center for Executive Excellence facilitates training in leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. To learn more, subscribe to receive CEE News!
Leadership
You’re probably getting flooded with free advice right now. You suddenly have access to everything from ways to indulge yourself without breaking the budget, to virtual art and culture exhibits to unlimited, free training and development during the coronavirus. The options for what to do during this unprecedented time in history can be overwhelming. If you’re facing a deluge of distractions right now, chances are that your team members are too. Now, more than ever, it’s critical that you lean in and takes some basic steps as a leader to keep you team focused and productive.
We’re conducting a series of leadership webinars to help you steer your ship in the middle of this storm. You can access the webinar recorded version of our April 9th webinar here, and follow the notes below for “3 Things You Should Be Doing Right Now to Lead Your Team Through This Crisis.”
#1 – Build a Cohesive Leadership Team
Whether you’re a student of Stephen M.R. Covey’s The Speed of Trust or Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, you know that trust is like the oil that keeps an engine running.
- Both Covey and Lencioni agree that high trust increases speed and delivers results.
Can your leadership team do the following?
- Admit weaknesses and mistakes
- Ask for help
- Accept constructive feedback
- Assume positive intent
- Focus on the goal, not personal politics
If not, take advantage of online tools like the free trial of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team offered by Lencioni’s The Table Group. Use these tools to help you get vulnerable with each other, so that you can work together collectively and help your organization emerge stronger.
#2 – Have a Temporary Rallying Cry
For the next 2 months, create clarity that breaks through the distraction and focuses on 3-5 key objectives that your team should be focusing on to get you through this time. Your rallying cry could be “Prevent Layoffs,” “Save Jobs,” or “Make this a Time of Cohesiveness and Innovation”.
Next, build a simple scorecard to track those key objectives and use a basic red/yellow/green stoplight schema to track your progress. You can use tools like PowerPoint or Excel or even an inexpensive online cloud-based scorecard like one offered by Spider Strategies to track your progress.
#3 – Use Online Meeting Tools to Overcommunicate
If you’re like us, Zoom has become your go-to virtual tool to stay connected. Zoom hosted a webinar recently to address some of the issues they’ve had about Zoombombing, so be aware of the security measures you’ll need have in place as you decentralize your communications. Prevent Zoombombing: Change these 4 Zoom settings now for secure video chat.
It’s important to avoid “meeting stew” as you shift from in-person to virtual meetings. Just like you have meetings in the office that are tactical, administrative, strategic or team-building in nature, you’ll want to parse your Zoom meetings into clearer context. Here is an excellent article in Harvard Business Review titled, How to Keep Your Team Motivated, Remotely.
Here are some other ways to avoid Zoom meeting stew:
- 10-minute morning check-ins
- 10-minute end-of-day check-outs
- Strategy Execution meeting to form your temporary rallying cry and 3-5 key objectives
- Weekly tactical meetings
- Open CEO Zoom for anyone to drop in for a half-day [like an open door policy]
- Virtual Happy Hours and Team builders [laughter is a great stress reducer!]
Question: What are you doing now to build trust, focus, and communicate as a leader?
Driven by the premise that excellence is the result of aligning people, purpose and performance, Center for Executive Excellence facilitates training in leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. To learn more, subscribe to receive CEE News!
