YOU ARE GOING TO SPEND TIME WITH THE TEAM ANYWAY…

This week, I was thinking back to the teams I have worked with in one form or another these past few months. In almost every team, there has been some underlying feeling of frustration:

• I wish our team wasn’t disjointed.
• I wish our team wasn’t pulling apart from each other.
• I wish we worked together instead of inadvertently fighting each other.
• I wish I didn’t feel out of place on the team.
• I wish I had clarity on where we are going as a team.
• I wish I had confidence and the tools to be an effective leader.
• I wish we had a framework to talk to each other about what was going on in the team.
• I wish I had more pride in our team.
• I wish we had a clear path forward.

Many of these frustrations were present but were difficult to articulate beforehand because it wasn’t clear what was missing.

The Litmus Test

Here’s the real litmus test: Patrick Lencioni says that JOY is the leading indicator of the health of your team and organization. Does your team experience JOY when working together? Do they actually, truly, look forward to doing meaningful work together? I don’t mean doing my individual work while technically being on a “team.” I don’t mean sort of liking each other. I mean legitimately having JOY working together towards collective team goals that move the needle and make a difference.

If JOY is not present, why not do the work to create joy, now? You are going to spend time with the team anyway. You might as well spend some energy in making it joyful. Life is too short.

If you want to enjoy your work, build a JOYful team culture.

If you want to improve retention significantly, build a JOYful team culture.

If you want to accomplish big objectives faster, build a JOYful, cohesive team culture.

If you want to build a healthy organization where retention skyrockets and functions actually collaborate together, build a JOYful, cohesive, clear, leadership team.

Is it hard, messy work? Yes.

Is it worth it? Oh, yea.

The How

How do you do it? Simple: (1) show up as team players, (2) appreciate and leverage each other’s geniuses and frustrations, (3) build team behaviors into your meetings (trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, focus), (4) get clarity on what’s important now.

I am happy to send you resources for each step and will happily do so upon request but…

…sometimes you just need an outside, unbiased person to provide insight into what needs to happen.

Why not schedule a 30 minute call to talk about your team, whether we each decide there is a next step or not. I will be honest and tell you what I think. This is what I do! After all…

You have to spend time with the team anyway…