TEAMWORK

Jan

2018

Getting Your Team to Work Hard . . . Together Part II

Commitment. This is an interesting word when it comes to leadership in our ever changing world. I can be quite committed to trying to understand how my new device works, but it seems there is an upgrade or new model just about the time I have figured it out.

A device is different than a team though. Some of the easiest teams to lead are those who are inexperienced. For example, if you have a young child and have coached their team as long as the kids know you care about them they will do whatever you say, even if you have no clue what you are doing. As an aside I would suggest this is only true until the children reach about 12 or 13 years old which is when they ignore you if they sense you don’t know what you are doing. This is commitment at the purest level and that commitment comes from a foundation of trust in you as the leader.

Last time I showed how part of John Maxwell’s suggested formula for success was to have a team committed to working hard together. Let me expand on that concept of commitment a little more from another expert.

Author Jeff Janssen in his book How to Build and Sustain a Championship Culture refers to commitment as a continuum. His book is written for sport coaches, but the principles apply in multiple settings. Go here to see his continuum. In brief it goes through phases like this:

Resistant – Reluctant – Existant – Compliant – Committed – Compelled and occasionally you have the Obsessed individual

This is a wide spectrum and as a leader you have probably experienced individuals on each part of the spectrum in any team you have led. Take a second to look at this and decide where you fall in relation to what you are leading because I would suggest the majority of those you lead will only be as committed as you are and those who are more committed than you may be leading your team instead of you soon.

Obviously as a leader one does not want resistant, reluctant, or necessarily existent individuals on their team, but committed and compelled members help the team rise to a higher level. The challenge of the obsessed member is they are committed to the cause at such a high level they tend to lose perspective and possibly effectiveness when working with the team.

Let me highlight some of the characteristics of the committed and compelled members that Janssen describes.

Committed – Willingly go the extra mile. Self-motivated. Take Initiative. Realize that challenges are a necessary part of becoming successful.

Compelled – No matter the obstacle these people will get it done. They will not rest until the job is done. They have high expectations of themselves and others. They want to accomplish something special. They are like magnets drawn to their goals and they draw others.

In our world that is constantly changing are you modeling commitment to the vision you are pursuing or is the vision a moving target? The methods to achieve the vision may change as well as some of the goals, but there should be a commitment to the plan to help develop commitment. Additionally, your commitment will bring clarity and increased levels of commitment from your team if they know you care about them.

So what about you? How are you at leading your team to be a hard-working and committed team? Where are you on the commitment continuum to the overall vision of the team? Where are your team members? When you look at the description of committed and compelled, do they describe you? Your team members? If not what needs to change? Only through commitment to growth do we become the leaders we have the potential to be.

Jan

2018

Getting Your Team to Work Hard . . . Together

“If you are a leader, the true measure of your success is not getting people to work. It’s not getting people to work hard. It is getting people to work hard together. That takes commitment.”

John Maxwell Good Leaders Ask Great Questions

If you have ever coached or led a team then you know the challenge of bringing them together to work with the right focus and effort to accomplish a common goal. I have spent a lot of time working with individuals and teams helping them learn how to work toward a common goal. Sometimes I have done quite well at helping them work together, but at other times I haven’t.

Let’s look at John’s thought above and break it down a little. There is a simple formula for success in this statement.

First, people have to Work – Action, for the most part is all this is. If we are the one in charge this can be easy for a leader because as long as a person isn’t resistant or reluctant we can get some type of effort out of them. For example, an individual can go to the gym and walk on the treadmill for twenty minutes and not break a sweat. . . . they worked, but did not accomplish much.

Work hard – this requires the leader to use a stick or a carrot at times. A leader may start setting goals for the team and its members to inspire them to work harder and either reward or punish people based on the output of their work. I’m not suggesting this is the best method, but it is a method for getting people to work hard.

Work hard together – This requires leadership skill. Managers concern themselves with systems, processes, and order while a leader is concerned with people remembering the big picture and working together toward that goal. Leadership requires the ability to know where you are going, and how to inspire those you want to go with you to give their best. Leadership requires the ability to connect with others and help them become the best they can become. Leadership requires the ability to navigate through challenges while keeping everyone on course. Leadership requires at least as much work as you expect out of those you are leading.

Commitment – I once heard a successful professional athlete speak and he said at the elite level one of the biggest challenges is keeping your edge. When there is always fresh new talent coming up that means if you are not committed to improving yourself you will lose your job. The leader can be committed, but getting the team to be committed will require more work.

As you can see the formula looks like this success = commitment to working hard together. I will dive a little deeper into the commitment part next time. In the meantime, are you modeling this formula for those you lead? In what ways? What can you do to help your team work hard together? What is one action step you can take today? Let me know and keep leading well at work and home.

Mar

2017

4 Team Success Principles

I work with teams on a regular basis and many of them are athletes. One day the athletes were performing a drill on an agility ladder which looks like this:

While on the ladder they had to hold a twenty-five pound weight plate (similar to below) over their head and pass it along to the next person when they reached the end of the ladder. Picture a relay race with complicated footwork and a large “baton.” The athletes were competing for a little while with some talented groups not succeeding while less talented teams did. As I watched this I paused the action and brought to their attention four principles that can help bring success:

Do your job to the best of your ability. Every person has different strengths when they are a part of a team. Just like a body has many parts that each fulfill a purpose on a team each individual fulfills their responsibility to help the team function as a single unit. As long as each individual does their best they increase the possibility for the team to have success.
Have a plan. Imagine a football team taking the field without a plan. No one will know what to do and they will not only look like a bunch of crazy people running around, but most likely they will get hurt. The coach provides that plan so they can have a path to success.
Execute the plan. Having a plan or idea is great, but if implementation never occurs it remains an unproven idea. Maybe fear prevents the team from moving forward. Fear of failure, fear of not having the “perfect” plan, fear of success or a number of other fears. Face the fear, put faith in the plan and then learn and adjust along the way.
Communication with team members. No matter what kind or how big a team is, this area can be the greatest challenge. If the plan is not clearly communicated then execution will falter. During implementation if people fail to effectively communicate then execution will be less ideal. During the relay races if both verbal and non-verbal communication was ineffective the handoff of the “baton” was delayed and slowed the entire team.

During the relays, the teams who communicated a clear plan and executed with each individual giving their best performed at a higher level than those who were ineffective in some or all of these areas.

You may not be running a relay race, but how are you doing on the team you are a part of? Are you giving your best to what you have been entrusted with? If you are the team leader, do you have a clear plan? Are you executing the plan? Are you communicating plans and informing the team well when adjustments need to be made to the plans? Take a moment to pause and reflect on where you need to grow in this area and share your plan to grow below.