I continue to be fascinated by what makes individuals, teams, and leaders perform at their PEAK. This is an unending task that I’ve signed up for and I’m not sure all the avenues down which I’m sure to travel. Here’s one street I’m riding more than I could have ever imagined.
Let’s call it Connection Boulevard.
We, as leaders, are constantly communicating with our teams. Mostly we are talking and expecting that the team, because of our position and our POWER is riveted to every word. We take the team through our well thought out agenda and then go to the next meeting and do more of the same. We make perfect sense. We lay the plan out from A-Z and leave nothing to chance. We are soooo proud of our ability to think strategically and make extremely complex business conditions as easy as reciting your A,B,C’s.
Want to better connect your team to your ideas? Want to get the best out of your team? Want to get more creativity from your company?
Here’s something to think about.
Try giving them A,F,M, and S. Ask the team what they heard. Ask them to write it down on paper. Break them into smaller teams and ask them to speak and listen to their team members. Hear from a few. Let the idea become more and more fluent. Gain lots of perspectives. Prime people to continue thinking in one direction. Do NOT let people shoot “half baked” ideas while they’re still in the oven. Embrace approaches that do NOT make sense to you. Ask plenty of good , open ended questions.
AND… Make sure that some of the team has a “puzzled” look. Create an environment where all are expected to think and contribute. Create plenty of TENSION. Whaaaaaaaaat?
You see, the industrial age is long over. Command and control does NOT work with todays youth and does NOT produce a team that will weather this age and pace of change.
Today’s CONNECTORS speak and listen to their teams early and often. They do NOT wait for clarity to come. They create the CLARITY with their teams. They have plenty of “half baked” ideas and tee ’em up and ask the team to help. These leaders do NOT look like they have all the answers.
They have some and they are always looking for better ones.
These leaders get their teams committed best. These leaders are constantly challenging the status quo. These leaders are purposely creating TENSION. These leaders create other leaders that THINK. These teams eventually find their way through the tension and think their way to better and better ideas. Very cool.
This is NOT normal and the results are NOT predictable. Do it anyway. Take some more risks. The road to high performance is not linear. Let me repeat, the road to high performance is NOT linear!
The road to high performance is taken in fits and starts. Quick death, quick death, quick death, and then a burst of life.
If everybody plays, everybody thinks, everybody brings their best, who knows maybe the team will lead us beyond “Z.”
Very cool.
What risk did you take today?
What experiment are you trying right now?
What new experiment are you asking the team to tee up?
Are you creating a team that know that you LOVE them, you LOVE this work, and you are never going to SETTLE, much less sell?
Are you creating TENSION that leads to performance or creating tense performers?
Are you looking in the mirror first?
BTW, this is a HUGE struggle for me personally. I struggle with this and see NO end in sight. Do NOT beat yourself up if this is a struggle for you. Come to think of it, almost everything I write about is a struggle for me. In fact, the more I learn about high performance individuals, high performance teams, and high performance leaders the more I am made aware of how far I have to go.
The cool thing is that I’m somehow getting better as are my fellow builders and our crazy clients.
BUILT TO LEAD 