Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there and welcome
back to another episode of the
Leveraging Operations inLeadership.
This is a podcast for leaderswho want to build powerhouse
teams and lead with clarity,confidence and strategy.
In today's episode, we're goingto be talking about something
that all leaders of teams saythey want, but sometimes we
(00:23):
struggle with how to build it.
That is, a cohesive andcollaborative team.
Because here's the truth nomatter how brilliant your
strategy is or how great yourleadership skills are, without a
united team, execution willfall short.
(00:45):
So today, I'm going to sharewith you signs that your team
lacks cohesion, which, if you'rein this situation, you are
probably already feeling itThree powerful benefits of
building one, and then I wannashare with you three things that
you can do today to move in theright direction.
(01:09):
So let's go ahead and getstarted.
I want to start with the threesigns I'm going to share with
you, three signs that your teamlacks cohesion and collaboration
.
Again, if this is you, you areprobably really feeling it,
because it all comes back to you, meaning that you become stuck
(01:32):
in the middle.
Now you are the one that haveto pick up the pieces when this
happened.
The reality is, when your teamlacks cohesion and collaboration
team lacks cohesion andcollaboration.
It's tough.
That's the reality.
It is tough.
It's additional work for youand you're already busy and have
(01:54):
a lot going on.
We definitely want to make surewe can take care of this, if we
can.
So sign number one your team isgoing to be in silos and there's
going to be miscommunication.
So you're going to have yourteam members.
They're doing their own thing.
They're unaware of how theirwork impacts others.
They're going to be siloed.
(02:16):
So if you have a team of fiveto 10 people, two or three will
be on one side.
Two to three will be on theother side.
They'll be doing their ownthing.
They're not cohesive, they'renot working together and they
don't fully understand how theirwork impacts the other group.
They're one team but becausethey're doing things
(02:39):
individually or in silos,they're not considering the full
picture.
Information gets lost,priorities get misaligned and
tasks fall through the cracks.
That is sign number one silosand miscommunication.
Sign number two is conflict andblame.
(03:01):
Yeah, they're going to startplaying the blame game.
You're going to have peoplethat are going to point the
finger at other people becausetasks are falling through the
cracks.
They're going to point thefinger.
Oh, I thought Sally was doingit.
Oh, mark was supposed to dothis.
Shared understanding and trustthey're going to result to again
(03:24):
the finger pointing, andsometimes what happens is you
end up with this passiveresistance.
That's not my job, I'm notsupposed to do that.
He's supposed to do that typeof thing.
This is going to wear you out,if it's not already wearing you
out, and it slows everythingdown and then morale gets low.
(03:47):
So that is sign number twoconflict and blame.
The third flag is they becomemore dependent on you.
Instead of talking to eachother and resolving things on
their own and brainstormingtogether, now they're funneling
(04:10):
everything back to you becausethey don't really trust each
other, they don't really have aconnection or relationship, and
they come back to you.
So they're going to be askingyou for reassurance of things.
And now, because you got all ofthese other things on your
plate, you now become thebottleneck because you have to
(04:33):
resolve things and they arewaiting on you Again.
That slows things down and itcauses you additional stress and
work.
That's not something that wewant.
Stress and work, that's notsomething that we want.
If any of this sounds familiar,know that it's not a reflection
of your leadership ability.
It's a sign that your teamneeds structure, clarity and
(04:57):
connection.
And also, if you are navigatingthese challenges, understand
that.
Number one you are not alone.
Okay, you're definitely notalone, but if you would like
support in this area, this isone of the reasons why I created
(05:18):
the leadership shift coachingexperience and it's also one of
the things that we tackle duringthis time right, so, if you're
navigating these challenges andyou want to lead more with more
confidence and delegate moreeffectively and build a truly
connected team that's gettingthe work done and not having you
(05:42):
caught in the middle all thetime, you definitely wanna check
out the Leadership Shift atsignalpartnerscom.
Slash the shift, check it out.
I'll also share the link in theshow notes, but this is one of
the things that we tackle duringthe six weeks.
If this is something that'sspecific to you.
(06:02):
There's other things that wetalk about.
However, because it is anindividual coaching experience,
it's based on your needs as aleader.
I'm here to support you in theway that you need to be
supported.
It's a program that basicallymeets you where you are.
So those are the three signs.
(06:22):
Again, number one silos.
They're going to be in silos,which is going to cause
miscommunication.
Number two, conflict and theblame game.
And number three, they are nowgoing to be more dependent on
you.
So leader dependency andultimately burnout for you, okay
, and we don't want that.
(06:43):
But let's talk about the flipside.
So it doesn't have to be thatway.
That may be the way it is rightnow, but it does not have to be
that way.
There are things that you coulddo to make it better, but I
want to share with you thebrightest side of things.
The flip side of all of that iswhen your team is more
(07:06):
collaborative and more cohesive,you're going to experience
better results and you're goingto have less micromanaging
because a cohesive team theymove in alignment, they are
synchronized, they trust eachother, they take ownership, so
you're not constantly in themiddle and in the weeds, you're
(07:28):
not the bottleneck.
The second thing is that you'llexperience is increased
innovation and problem solving.
They're like off doing thingson their own because they feel
safe and connected.
They are in an environmentwhere they're open to contribute
more ideas and they challengeeach other in healthy ways.
(07:53):
Right, it's not this fight, butit's kind of like.
You know, they challenge eachother, they respect each other
and it's healthy and you wantthat within your team, and that
leads to smarter decisions andfaster progress.
They are getting things donebetter.
Now you are getting the best ofyour team because, collectively
(08:15):
, they're bringing all of theirskills and talents and ideas to
the table and you get the bestof the best ideas and everybody
brings something, you know, aunique value to the team.
That's why they're on the teamand we want to hear from them.
So you're going to getincreased innovation and problem
solving.
(08:35):
Also, because your team feelsvalued and connected, you
usually end up with a higherretention rate and more
engagement.
There.
There's a higher retention rateand more engagement.
There there's a higherengagement rate.
A strong team culture makesyour company a place people want
to be.
They want to show up fully andthey know that they can be
(08:58):
authentic themselves.
One of the things that Iexperienced is, even if they
weren't totally loyal to theorganization, I found that I had
team members that were loyal tothe team and they wanted to be
a part of the team.
(09:18):
So it's definitely a lot ofbenefits and we can go on, but
these are the three that come tothat are top of mind that I
experience.
And let me tell you something.
It is absolutely amazing whenyou go from one side to the
other, but how do you get there?
So let's talk about some of theways that you could build a
(09:40):
cohesive team, and I'm going totalk about three ways.
This is the point where you wantto go ahead and get your
notebook out If you haven'talready pen and pencil and let's
dig into it.
The first way is to build it is.
You have to set clearexpectations.
Everybody needs to understandwhat's going on.
(10:04):
They need to know what thegoals are, what the values are,
the team norms.
All of this needs to be upfront.
Here's what our goal is.
So say, for instance, you are acall center.
Here's what our goal we want toreduce wait time to XYZ.
(10:24):
And then goal we want to reducewait time to X, y, z, and then
so everybody knows what it isthat we're going after,
regardless of what your jobtitle is, we know what our goal
is in this department.
And then the other thing thatyou want to do is be really
clear on what your values areand what those team norms are.
Everybody understands what wevalue as a team, and you can do
(10:48):
this as a group exercise, whichis really awesome to do Come up
with what those values are, butyou want to put the norms with
it, right, because you could sayyou know we value collaboration
, but you want them to fullyunderstand what it looks like to
(11:08):
walk that out.
So If we say we valuecollaboration, your norm could
be that means we loop in teammembers early when a decision
impacts them, because you wantto be specific about how it
looks to walk this out.
(11:29):
Everybody may be working with adifferent definition, so you
want to be extremely clear aboutwhat it looks like.
That's step number one set yourgoals and your values and your
norms and make sure everybodyunderstands it.
We're all working from the samedefinition.
(11:50):
We know what it looks like andwhen you do this, you're going
to reduce friction.
There's no if and buts aresupposed because we're all on
the same page.
Friction there's no if and butsare supposed because we're all
on the same page.
Eventually, you'll increasetrust and then you avoid the
silent resentment that oftenbuilds when expectations are not
clear, right?
So this kind of clarity iteliminates the confusion and
(12:10):
it's going to help your teamshow up in a way that you need
them to.
It's not just about what we do,but it's how we do it together.
That is step number one.
The second thing you want to dois create opportunities to
collaborate.
You have to create this spacefor them to do it.
(12:31):
Don't depend on them doing itInitially.
You are going to have tofacilitate this.
Many teams they work side byside.
They could be sitting next toeach other, but they're not
working together.
They're off doing their ownthing.
You have to be intentionalabout how you build
collaboration into your flow.
(12:51):
This may mean specificallyhaving cross-functional projects
.
This person you know, becauseyou may have two people that
have a title and they're doingthe same thing.
Two people may be doingsomething else, one person may
be doing something else and youcreate these cross-functional
projects that include all ofthem.
(13:12):
Another opportunity is to havebrainstorming sessions or team
problem solving huddles, andwhen you do this, even if
whatever the problem is may notdirectly touch somebody in your
department, you have them inthere, because one of the things
(13:33):
that we've learned is it's niceto have people and we used to
call them out of the box membersthat we would invite to our
meetings, because these are thepeople that are outside of the
process, because sometimes whatyou find is is that when you are
in it, you are down in thenitty gritty.
(13:53):
You don't see some things thatother people from the outside
would be.
They have a differentperspective and they have a lot
of questions, and the better webecome at answering those
questions, the better we becomeat providing a solution that
actually works.
So invite everybody, give theman opportunity to participate.
(14:13):
Not only will they participate,but they'll also learn
something and have more respectfor what the other person does
and how they do it.
A lot of times they don't knowwhat's going on.
We're in the same department,but you have a different role,
so I may not know exactly whatit is that you do, but when we
start shining light on all ofthe different positions and
(14:36):
roles within the department, nowit's like oh okay, I didn't
know you do that.
They may even come up withideas of how they can do their
job differently in order to helpanother role.
So you have to create thatspace.
When you create the space forpeople to collaborate and I'm
talking about reallycollaborating with some of the
(14:57):
examples that I gave when you dothat, you strengthen their
ability to co-create and thenthey're going to communicate and
then they begin to trust eachother more.
The third thing that you do tobuild this collaboration and
cohesiveness is by fosteringtrust, and you do that through
consistency Sounds simple,extremely powerful.
(15:21):
You have to be the kind ofleader that your team can count
on when you go down this road.
You have to be consistent.
If I am saying that I'm goingto bring everybody to the table
to have these problem solvinghuddles or these brainstorming
sessions or whatever it is, Ihave to consistently do that and
(15:44):
you're going to do it untilthey pick it up or until you
delegate it to somebody else.
But you have to be consistent.
Say what you mean, do what yousay, follow through and don't
forget to acknowledge the wins.
Follow up when you say you'regonna follow up and create the
space for your team to speak up.
This is what helps them to bemore engaged Over time.
(16:07):
That consistency builds trustand trust builds cohesion.
Just remember this.
Cohesion is not a nice to have.
This is a performancemultiplier.
If your team isn't working witheach other, then they're
working against each other andthey're working against the
(16:27):
potential of the department.
If you're ready to build a teamthat's aligned, connected and
capable of growing with youcheck out the Leadership Shift
Coaching.
It's my one-on-one experiencedesigned to help leaders like
you build clarity, capacity andconfidence.
If you enjoyed this episode,don't forget to subscribe so you
never miss a leadership lesson.
(16:49):
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(17:12):
So until next time, keepleading forward.