Tag Archive for: teams

Boundless Leadership: 3 Ways to Boost Morale and Break Down Barriers to Engagement

Engagement and interpersonal relationships form the core focus of my work with teams. I'm obsessed with dissolving barriers to workplace results and relationships. Morale is often a casualty of things gone wrong.

A workshop participant asked, 'is there anything I should or should not do when it comes to encouraging positive workplace morale?'

Let's look at an example to tease out the solution. Consider one of your workplace first day stories. Do you remember what it was like arriving in to a new workplace? What happened in your first interactions? Were they inspiring? Energising? Or cold and depressing?

In my experience, how you start is how you go on. And in this we discover the secrets of morale.

My first day at Outward Bound Australia was hugely enjoyable. It started the night before where I was met by some staff and had drinks at a pub. This was my first night in a new country, and I was already making friends. My new colleague drove me from Canberra out to Tharwa and was gracious enough to let me know about some of the day to day rituals, starting with the morning meeting. Here I met my tribe. I knew they were a tribe because of the uniform: shirts and jackets with the Outward Bound logo, people wearing outdoor fleece jackets, jeans, and hiking boots.

I was introduced and welcomed publicly to the community, given a tour, shown my accommodation, and given my gear: all emblazoned by the OB logo. I was so excited to get a pack of my own with that logo! I felt proud to wear it from the start.

Everywhere there was a sense of hustle. Energy, enthusiasm, and an open curiosity about who I was and where I came from. In short, I felt embraced. I felt SAFE.

Chances are your first day was not at all like this. I find many organisations do a pretty poor job of welcoming people in a genuine and authentic way. And morale is in check from the beginning.

If we tease out what does not work, we find the secret to boundless morale.

1. Belonging
We are hard wired as tribal animals to seek belonging and safety in a tribe. It's an early development stage that stays with us and is a primal requirement for security.

Here's what not to do: not being ready for the first day (computer, work space, induction plan), treating the new person as an inconvenience to be squeezed in between meetings, not asking how they are feeling, where they came from what they are looking forward to and what experience they can contribute. Not making a big deal, or any deal at all about the new team member. Not explaining who's who at the zoo, what's important to each stakeholder, and what core projects they are working on.

2. Meaning
A sure sign of poor morale is when individuals have a uni-focal perspective on "what's in it for me". This usually results from the belonging needs not being addressed and people default into survival mode. By focusing on meaning and purpose greater than the individual contribution, and feeling the link between individual contribution and higher purpose, some of the tension from self protection eases. It's protective energy versus expansive energy.

3. Gaming
Work is meant to be enjoyable! How is the 'game' of your work? What rules are you playing by? Are they clear and agreed? Or are there some outdated rules that are clunky? What systems create friction rather than flow? Frustration instead of fun? How do you know if you're winning the game of work? Is progress visible and meaningful? What prize do you get when you 'win' at work? How often do you celebrate wins and winning? Cleaning up the game of work is a very pragmatic way to boost morale. Just make things easier, simpler, and more fun.

Many leaders let morale take care of itself. This is a huge mistake. When we cultivate morale deliberately, we clean up blocks to boundless success.

What do you need to improve, let go of, or incorporate to manage morale better?

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Zoë is on a mission to encourage big thinkers with big hearts to make a big difference. She is passionate about showing leaders how to challenge limitations so they can live and lead with boundless energy, confidence, and conviction.

With over 30 years experience developing leaders, she has published "Composure: How Centered Leaders Make the Biggest Impact" and "Moments: Leadership When It Matters Most." http://www.zoerouth.com/book/

Photo by Paul Bence on Unsplash

A new approach to leadership – Synergy Creates Energy

Living by comparison is fatal vision, for always there will be those who appear better off and worse off than ourselves at any given moment in time. In truth, there is no such distinction as superior and subordinate. We all have unique talents that will blossom and flourish when nurtured.

In past decades, there was a more "look out for number one" and "don't bring in people who might want your job" style of leadership. You generally would hire those people who would do as they were told and who wouldn't challenge your ideas or authority. This type of thinking led to bulging bureaucracies and mediocre middle management that accomplished little. This mind-set also created a scarcity mentality that there wasn't enough to go around: so don't share ideas, don't brainstorm with others who might steal your concepts, and above all, don't help your co-workers or employees succeed. We have seen that this approach clearly will not work in the global marketplace of the knowledge age.

Today the challenge is to establish networks, strategic alliances, synergistic relationships, and ad hoc teams to solve problems and help everyone accomplish their goals. You now look for those people who are not satisfied with the status quo, who are striving for excellence and have talents and abilities that you don't.

This requires that you "check your ego at the door" and that you don't get intimidated by others who may have different talents or strengths than you do. This is what synergy is all about. As we value the differences and look at truly working together, one plus one really can equal three or even more.

This week, focus on "working with others" rather than "competing against others."


-- Denis Waitley

 

This article was reproduced with permission from the Denis Waitley Weekly Ezine. To subscribe to Denis Waitley's Weekly Ezine, go to www.deniswaitley.com or send an email with Join in the subject tosubscribe@deniswaitley.com Copyright 2005 Denis Waitley International. All rights reserved worldwide. 

Team Meetings – How to Transform Your Team Meetings

By Duncan Brodie

You might have heard the term "death by meetings". While it is true that meetings can be a huge drain on resources, they do have the potential to contribute to great results. So how can you transform your team meetings?

Get the team setting the agenda

As the leader of the team, there will always be things that you have in mind for the meetings. Trouble is in my experience, when all of the agenda and meeting content comes from the leader, there tends to be huge levels of passiveness and disengagement. If you want to have better meetings, get the bulk of the agenda coming from the team.

Keep them short

I have during my career in accountancy spent huge amounts of time in meetings. What I discovered is that the shorter the meetings are, the more effective they are. This is partly because people are more focussed. It is also due to the fact that most of us have a very short attention span. One thing that is particularly helpful in keeping meetings short and focussed is to do them by conference call or webinar rather than in person.

Give people a chance to speak

If you are leading the meeting, you should be speaking less and listening more. You also should aim to take care to ensure that all of the meeting attendees get a chance to speak. There will always be a few who, if you allow them, will dominate meetings and not always with great contributions.

Facilitate well

As a leader of a meeting, you are as much a facilitator as a person who is chairing. Facilitating essentially is about ensuring that the ideas are collected, built on and an agreed point is reached. Think of yourself as the conductor rather than the musician and you will go a long way towards effectively facilitating meetings.

Only record key actions

There are a few meetings that will require formal minuting. Most don't and simply require a record of the key actions and who is taking them forward.

Make sure you follow up on actions

It's vital that you have an effective process for following up on actions agreed at previous meetings. Why? The simple answer is that if you don't, people will see them as unimportant and not follow through. Without follow through, nothing happens.

The Bottom Line

Meetings can be a catalyst to great results or just a drain on resources. So what do you need to start to do differently to get better results from meetings?

Now I invite you to sign up for my free Weekly Leadership and Management Success Tips at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/?pid=26

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements (G&A) works with accountants, health professionals, teams and organisations to develop their management and leadership capability. With 25 years business experience in a range of sectors, he understands first hand the real challenges of managing and leading in the demanding business world.