How To Fix a Team That Is LOST
publication date: Jul 19, 2010
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author/source: Neil Gillespie - Shamrock Growth Associates
Work for enough companies owned
by independent businesspeople and you will see a very familiar pattern emerge.
The owner doesn't understand why people don't do things right. Or why they don't think about how to be more productive, mindful of costs, mindful of cash flow, or industrious in coming up with ideas to grow the business.
They want to change their team desperately. They speak to their team in meetings about their desire to do these things. They rarely speak to each individual about these matters in the way it needs to be talked about, though. They will complain privately to confidants in the organization and outside the organization. But they are clueless about how to really change their team. Sometimes these complaints get back to the employees, but if that doesn't happen, employees can usually tell what the owner is thinking from their body language, tone of voice and choice of words. They can hear disappointment or disdain in an owner's gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice and choice of words.
No matter how the owner tries by pointing out things that need to improve, they don't seem to be able to make it happen. Strategy, you see, is usually the opposite of what you think it should be. Strategy works when you realize the truth in a situation.
The strange truth is that you really can't change a TEAM
That's right. In order to change a team you have to get each individual to step up and take responsibility for changing themselves in these ways:
1. Make growth the number one priority in the company
2. Adopt the attitude and mindset that it takes to grow
3. Recognize what you need to learn in order to grow, accept feedback from your mentors about what you need to learn to do!
4. As a leader, learn how to challenge others to do these things
A leader assesses the potential of each individual as well as the collective ability of these individuals as a team. You need to assess the things they need to learn and master as individuals. You need to help them learn to do these things, and give them the inspiration to get over the bar you set for them.
The Biblical account of Nehemiah will attest to that. Nehemiah needed to get the protective wall rebuilt around Jerusalem to protect them from imminent attack. He assessed each household's ability to rebuild a section of the wall and challenged them to do that INDIVIDUALLY. In so doing, the entire wall was rebuilt faster than anyone would have thought.
What Do YOU believe?
If you're an owner, I'm talking to YOU. The rest of you, pretend you are an owner for the rest of this article.
Ask yourself what you really believe as a leader? Do you believe that if an organization has a positive attitude, a solid work ethic, embraces excellent process disciplines to generate productivity and has a scientific way of growing despite any economic situation that it can succeed no matter what?
In order to really get an answer to this question, split it into two more:
1. Do I believe this?
2. If I do, do I really know what it takes to generate productivity and growth for my business?
When you are confident that you can answer a profound "yes" to these two questions, you are ready to lead your people.
The Power of The Corner Man
Think back to a time when you accomplished something extraordinary with the help of a mentor. It could have been your father or mother. It could have been a teacher, a coach, even a friend or colleague. It might have even been God or what you read in the word of God.
Nevertheless, think of how much it helped when you knew that when you got in difficulty, you could go back to your mentor and get support, get a question answered, get guidance, get information, and know that there was always someone in your corner that KNEW what to do, but was willing to let you stretch and strive in order to grow personally. Someone that knew mistakes would be made, but the end result to sincere efforts to discover the right thing to do and do it would result in success. Think about how much emotional fuel that gave you to keep going and achieve your goals.
That is the person that each leader of a business needs to become. You need to see the potential in each individual. You need to challenge them to learn the things they need to learn to be successful in their individual functional disciplines, to be effective with other people, and to be effective in growing the business.
A very wise distributor leader and a good friend of mine put it extremely well. "Leaders should first be servants," he said. Leaders serve others by helping them to succeed.
The highest form of service is to share the knowledge and wisdom you have gained with others, to challenge them to seek whatever they need to know in order to grow, and to help them learn those things. Leaders inspire people to see the bar they set for them and to get over it.
Just like a tree needs solid nutrients from the soil, it also needs water that courses through it's cells and pumps the tree full of life. When you are FOR your people and back that up with the right wisdom, technique and inspiration, your people will have this inflating inspiration coursing through their spiritual veins. Inspiration, after all, literally means "the taking in of water."
You need to become the ultimate corner man in your organization, and develop this philosophy in each of your management leaders.
I will be sharing many techniques about how to achieve productivity and growth on growthwizards.com. But of all the things I will share, the most important is surely this:
You change a TEAM by getting INDIVIDUALS to commit to changes they personally need to make, starting with YOURSELF.
Be the leader you were meant to be. Your team needs you. Especially right now.
The owner doesn't understand why people don't do things right. Or why they don't think about how to be more productive, mindful of costs, mindful of cash flow, or industrious in coming up with ideas to grow the business.
They want to change their team desperately. They speak to their team in meetings about their desire to do these things. They rarely speak to each individual about these matters in the way it needs to be talked about, though. They will complain privately to confidants in the organization and outside the organization. But they are clueless about how to really change their team. Sometimes these complaints get back to the employees, but if that doesn't happen, employees can usually tell what the owner is thinking from their body language, tone of voice and choice of words. They can hear disappointment or disdain in an owner's gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice and choice of words.
No matter how the owner tries by pointing out things that need to improve, they don't seem to be able to make it happen. Strategy, you see, is usually the opposite of what you think it should be. Strategy works when you realize the truth in a situation.
The strange truth is that you really can't change a TEAM
That's right. In order to change a team you have to get each individual to step up and take responsibility for changing themselves in these ways:
1. Make growth the number one priority in the company
2. Adopt the attitude and mindset that it takes to grow
3. Recognize what you need to learn in order to grow, accept feedback from your mentors about what you need to learn to do!
4. As a leader, learn how to challenge others to do these things
A leader assesses the potential of each individual as well as the collective ability of these individuals as a team. You need to assess the things they need to learn and master as individuals. You need to help them learn to do these things, and give them the inspiration to get over the bar you set for them.
The Biblical account of Nehemiah will attest to that. Nehemiah needed to get the protective wall rebuilt around Jerusalem to protect them from imminent attack. He assessed each household's ability to rebuild a section of the wall and challenged them to do that INDIVIDUALLY. In so doing, the entire wall was rebuilt faster than anyone would have thought.
What Do YOU believe?
If you're an owner, I'm talking to YOU. The rest of you, pretend you are an owner for the rest of this article.
Ask yourself what you really believe as a leader? Do you believe that if an organization has a positive attitude, a solid work ethic, embraces excellent process disciplines to generate productivity and has a scientific way of growing despite any economic situation that it can succeed no matter what?
In order to really get an answer to this question, split it into two more:
1. Do I believe this?
2. If I do, do I really know what it takes to generate productivity and growth for my business?
When you are confident that you can answer a profound "yes" to these two questions, you are ready to lead your people.
The Power of The Corner Man
Think back to a time when you accomplished something extraordinary with the help of a mentor. It could have been your father or mother. It could have been a teacher, a coach, even a friend or colleague. It might have even been God or what you read in the word of God.
Nevertheless, think of how much it helped when you knew that when you got in difficulty, you could go back to your mentor and get support, get a question answered, get guidance, get information, and know that there was always someone in your corner that KNEW what to do, but was willing to let you stretch and strive in order to grow personally. Someone that knew mistakes would be made, but the end result to sincere efforts to discover the right thing to do and do it would result in success. Think about how much emotional fuel that gave you to keep going and achieve your goals.
That is the person that each leader of a business needs to become. You need to see the potential in each individual. You need to challenge them to learn the things they need to learn to be successful in their individual functional disciplines, to be effective with other people, and to be effective in growing the business.
A very wise distributor leader and a good friend of mine put it extremely well. "Leaders should first be servants," he said. Leaders serve others by helping them to succeed.
The highest form of service is to share the knowledge and wisdom you have gained with others, to challenge them to seek whatever they need to know in order to grow, and to help them learn those things. Leaders inspire people to see the bar they set for them and to get over it.
Just like a tree needs solid nutrients from the soil, it also needs water that courses through it's cells and pumps the tree full of life. When you are FOR your people and back that up with the right wisdom, technique and inspiration, your people will have this inflating inspiration coursing through their spiritual veins. Inspiration, after all, literally means "the taking in of water."
You need to become the ultimate corner man in your organization, and develop this philosophy in each of your management leaders.
I will be sharing many techniques about how to achieve productivity and growth on growthwizards.com. But of all the things I will share, the most important is surely this:
You change a TEAM by getting INDIVIDUALS to commit to changes they personally need to make, starting with YOURSELF.
Be the leader you were meant to be. Your team needs you. Especially right now.
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