Today I asked a team to write about why one of their team members was no longer with them. We all knew he had been fired. We all had an idea why. Today we all gained a little more clarity. Here was the exercise.
1. Write why, you believe, this person is NOT here.
2. Write what you have learned through this experience.
3. Write what you are going to do to productively ACT with what you just learned.
Next, we went around the table and shared our learnings with our team. The melody line was quickly found. This person needed a more structured training program and this person needed to be more proactive in ensuring he got what he needed. Both points were hard to argue. We all agreed and, most likely, thought the exercise was a waste of the obvious…
TIME.
I then anded I thought the team had mostly missed the main learning I was after.
The team had failed this associate and each other.
They had all failed to give their teammate the clear, concise, and direct feedback that would characterize a “tough loving,” performance/aggressive kinda team. They had seen his performance gaps and verbalized them on occasion, but never in writing, and without consistent discipline. Remember, humans have poor hearing and really poor hearing when you tell them something they do NOT want to hear. Therefore, whenever giving feedback for one of your team members development, you must put it in black and white. You must put it in writing and it has to be CLEAR, CONCISE, DIRECT and always with respect.
Period.
You see, the greatest teams mostly run the high performers up, and push the low ones out the back of the bus. Study Nucor, study sports, study the founders of America, and study any sustainable group of high performers and you will see this is the melody line. The team, not the leader, decides who they want with the ball in their hand at crunch time and who they always pass “around” even if the coach hasn’t seen it yet.
When anyone leaves a high performance system, here’s what happens. This is without exception with the exceptional ones.
The entire team sees this as a failure. The entire team learns. AND, the entire team productively ACTS on what they just learned. This team is always making new mistakes but rarely is found repeating one. This is the way forward.
What are your disciplines when someone leaves your system?
Tell me more…
BUILT TO LEAD 