(Part 5) Is Your Team Cleared for Takeoff? “Top 5” on Your Pre-Flight Checklist…
Want your team to take off? Then make sure you understand and execute on the checklist…Below you’ll find a description of the fifth and final checkpoint identified in the course of my experience with a particularly high-performing team. In case you missed the previous ones, click on the link at the bottom of the post to see the others.
5. Face-to-Face Time Together
Although the communication tools of today are incredible, nothing to date has been invented that replaces the “bond” established through face-to-face contact. The “stewing” and thought-saturation that occurs as a team works together on a topic for hours at a time is worth gold. It is an important “force of alignment” and driver of creativity that is dangerous to short-cut. To go even further, the occasional “spice” of a completely divergent hallway conversation, coffee break or after-hours dinner can be “the secret sauce” that really helps the team gel. After all, it’s no different than any other relationship….the more time spent together in various circumstances the stronger and more resilient it will be.
As you consider how to take tangible steps to motivate and inspire your team, remember that the propellant that drives the engine is not perfection but sincerity. You’re not after stimulants that come across as fake “mood boosters”, rather focus on genuine versions of these “thrusters” that are certain to strike a cord in the heart of your team and make it “take-off.” The well-known 19th century English politician and author, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, eloquently summed it up when he wrote: “Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity and truth accomplishes no victories without it.”
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(Part 4) Is Your Team Cleared for Takeoff? “Top 5” on Your Pre-Flight Checklist…
Want your team to take off? Then make sure you understand and execute on the checklist…Below you’ll find a description of the fourth of five checkpoints identified in the course of my experience with a particularly high-performing team. In case you missed the previous ones, click on the link at the bottom of the post to see the others.
4. Sincere Appreciation for Sacrifice
Working until late in the evening, preparing material into the wee hours of the morning, long difficult team meetings…..yes, this team was no exception to the “grunt work” associated with most worthy causes.
However, what was remarkable was that leaders and members took time to recognize each other for worthy contributions. No trophies, certificates or cash prizes are needed, just sincere and relevant gratitude that recognizes the specific contributions and impact made by team members.
It’s not just the task that is important – but how it moved the “bigger picture forward” (impact) that gives context and real value to the appreciation. This can take many forms…it can be as basic as a sincere “thank you”, one-on-one time with the team leader, or as far-reaching as a team member having the privilege of presenting their content to a senior manager.
It doesn’t take much to get a big “thrust” out of this lever.
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(Part 3) Is Your Team Cleared for Takeoff? “Top 5” on Your Pre-Flight Checklist…
Want your team to take off? Then make sure you understand and execute on the checklist…Below you’ll find a description of the third of five checkpoints identified in the course of my experience with a particularly high-performing team. In case you missed the previous ones, click on the link at the bottom of the post to see the others.
3. Positive Leadership
Lee Iacocca once said: “the speed of the boss is
the speed of the team.” I can’t say enough about the impact of the leaders that directed this team. In the course of working with them, my admiration for them as people rose dramatically.
They weren’t project management geeks or highly skilled facilitators (that was my job); they didn’t use these levers as a ploy to whip up artificial enthusiasm…….rather they naturally embodied them. The leaders set the example in the constructive tone of their discussion and actions.
This included: making a point to appreciate and accommodate diverse viewpoints, even if it meant following the occasional rabbit trail; insisting on face-to-face team meetings to enhance interaction of the team, despite significant travel expense; hearing the excitement rise in their own voices as they discovered benchmarks, imagined how the company could advance and reminded the team of the expectations and commitment of senior management to support the teams deliverables.
In short, they set the tone by internalizing and “radiating” these “thrusters” to the team.
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