A prayer: “Oh Lord, today I have not overindulged, been rude, or lazy, or told a lie, or treated anyone badly, or been a hypocrite. But Lord, I’m going to get out of bed and start my day in a few minutes and I may be checking back with you shortly.”
We all need checkups! So here are the elements that make your team win (or not). See how you’re doing.
As go the key leaders, so goes the rest of the business
Is there trust on your leadership team? Are you able to talk about any relevant issue without fear of hurting feelings or causing resentment? The degree to which your core (3-5 people) team is able to work things out and leave meetings unified is the degree to which the whole organization will work (or not).
Work on building trust with your core team!
Are your core leaders acting like amazing role models?
If your leaders have 10-level attitudes, they’ll be surrounded by 9’s and 8’s.
If they have 8-level attitudes, they’ll be surrounded by 7’s and 6’s.
If leaders hover around 7, people around them will be 5’s and 4’s.
And if the leader shows up as a 6, others will be 3’s and 2’s.
You see, the gap widens as the attitude of the leader sinks. So, don’t expect anyone on your team to have a better attitude than you do. Teams don’t outperform their leaders, and when they do, the outperformer becomes the next leader!
Author Charles Colson tells a story of his time as a platoon commander in the U.S. military. He was allowed to issue only order: “Follow me!”
Speed of the leader, speed of the team.
Are you rewarding the behaviors you want to see?
This is a simple and key rule of human behavior: what gets rewarded gets done. Rewards can be:
- A sincere thank you
- Money
- Education opportunities
- Letting people know that you see their good work
- A well timed (and specific, not general) note
- A shout out in public
- Gifts
- Better work tools, nicer work environment etc.
Every organization or department is run by 3-5 people. Whether it’s a country, a huge or small company, this rule seems to apply. Focus on how your core team is doing and let the effects trickle down!
Getting ahead is about getting started!
If you’d like Trevor to speak at your upcoming event, drop him a note at [email protected] for a no obligation discussion about what you’re looking to accomplish
Trevor Throness is a speaker, consultant, and author of “The Power of People Skills.” He is also co-founder and senior instructor at professionalleadershipinstitute.com https://professionalleadershipinstitute.com/
Find more about “The Power of People Skills” here: https://www.amazon.com/Power-People-Skills-Dramatically-Performance/dp/1632651068
