An Easy Step Toward a Better Relationship with Your Team. (#231)
The Confident Leader
BOOST YOUR LEADERSHIP IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
This week our coaching staff conducted a workshop for a team who wanted to invest the time to improve their working relationship with one another. They got much more of a return on their investment than they expected.
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
– Henry Ford (American industrialist and business magnate)
This Week’s Edition
As a leader, it can be challenging to determine how best to invest in your team. This week we provide an easy first step to invest in the relationship with your team as you start the new year.
Clarify Your Thinking
Our client’s top leader asked us to facilitate a workshop for her team as she is keenly aware of the fact that her people are the organization’s greatest asset. She recognizes that for each person to fulfill their individual potential, they must work well together.
When leaders permit external priorities to divert their focus from their team’s professional needs, they jeopardize the value of a crucial asset—one that can be the deciding factor between stagnation and meaningful growth.
Old Thinking: My team is resilient, so they will be okay for the time being. Plus, I have too many other priorities. Once those priorities are resolved, I’ll eventually turn my attention to my team.
New Thinking: I am at a crossroads between pressing external priorities and my responsibility to nurture my team. However, empowering my team is not just a duty but a strategic advantage in tackling those external challenges effectively. By prioritizing their development and well-being, I can enhance our collective capacity to meet these demands head-on. Investing in my team isn’t just essential; it’s essential for our success.
Thoughts Lead to Actions
For leaders, the concept of investing in building a more solid relationship can present a practical challenge as they ask themselves, “How do I go about doing that?”
One of our master coaches facilitated an easy exercise that any leader can employ. It had a meaningful impact on the workshop participants.
The exercise is based on the concept of a relationship bank, a metaphor for an emotional bank account in which the deposits and withdrawals in a relationship can enhance or diminish it.
The simple exercise is to ask the following two questions:
- Do you know what type of deposit each person on your team most appreciates?
- What type of deposit do you most appreciate?
The answers from the participants were enlightening to the other members of the team:
- I appreciate it when others say “Good morning” and acknowledge me.
- I appreciate hearing a simple “thank you.”
- I like to offer my ideas when appropriate, even if they aren’t adopted.
For leaders, this information about their team is pure gold. They’re telling you exactly what fuels them, defining the types of deposits in their emotional bank account they most appreciate. Fulfilled employees lead to better culture and overall performance.
The workshop participants were astounded to learn such important new things about their colleagues, whom they had been working with for years. They were equally shocked at how simple each “deposit” was to provide.
Perhaps you will find the same with your team when you do the exercise. What a great way to start the year – filling the bank accounts of each of your team members!
Boost Your Performance
Watch this week’s video for additional ROI on the emotional bank account concept.
What’s Your Opinion?
Let us know what you experienced when you did this exercise with your team. Share it with me at robin.pou@robinpou.com
If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!
Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist
We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders.
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What is “The Confident Leader”?
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.
