February 4, 2025 • 18 mins
We’re continuing with the #LeaderSHIFT series on the podcast this week. These episodes are very direct & to the point, where we'll talk about the different challenges leaders tend to face & how to shift into becoming an influential leader who leads a healthy culture & engaged team!
In this episode, I’m sharing how you can shift from waiting for your team to tell you when they need help to being willing to help proactively instead!
MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
37 Engaging Questions to Ask Your Team
Need one-on-one help with navigating being a new leader? Schedule your complimentary clarity call with me here! www.baproinc.com/ep164
Apply to join the New Leader, BIG IMPACT Coaching Program to level up your leadership & build an engaging team... even if the culture is toxic & without management's support! https://baproinc.com/newleaderbigimpact
Questions about this episode? Topic suggestions for future episodes? Send them to culture@businessadvocatespro.com Let's chat about this episode on "X": @BAPROINC or IG: @CultureBuildingPRO
The Culture Building like a PRO Podcast: Simple ways to transform your company culture... Today!
| Company Culture | Culture Building | Organizational Culture | Employee Engagement | Effective Leadership | Servant Leadership |
baproinc.com
In this episode, I’m sharing how you can shift from waiting for your team to tell you when they need help to being willing to help proactively instead!
MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
37 Engaging Questions to Ask Your Team
Need one-on-one help with navigating being a new leader? Schedule your complimentary clarity call with me here! www.baproinc.com/ep164
Apply to join the New Leader, BIG IMPACT Coaching Program to level up your leadership & build an engaging team... even if the culture is toxic & without management's support! https://baproinc.com/newleaderbigimpact
Questions about this episode? Topic suggestions for future episodes? Send them to culture@businessadvocatespro.com Let's chat about this episode on "X": @BAPROINC or IG: @CultureBuildingPRO
The Culture Building like a PRO Podcast: Simple ways to transform your company culture... Today!
| Company Culture | Culture Building | Organizational Culture | Employee Engagement | Effective Leadership | Servant Leadership |
baproinc.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Culture Building Like a Pro podcast, helping
small business owners and managers lead a company culture where
employees are engaged to do their best work because they
want to and not because they have to. Now, let's
jump start your culture transformation with company culture strategists, leadership
coach and trainer Deanna Applin.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Cappy Tuesday, and thanks for listening to the Culture Building
Like a Pro Podcast. I'm your host, Dianna, and I'm
excited to be back with you this week as always,
and hopefully you are excited to dive into another episode
in our hash tag Leadershift series. The series was created
to talk about the common challenges that we face as leaders,
(00:50):
more specifically the ones that just don't get talked about
enough and how to overcome them. And more importantly, we're
going to dive into how you can shift into the
level of leadership that creates an impact and influences excellence
among your team. I've worked in the world of project
(01:11):
management for some years and I remember there was one
project in particular that I worked on, and this was
I would say in the early stages of me understanding
the ins and outs of project management, and I was
in a meeting and I was asked by someone on
(01:34):
the team about the status of a particular phase of
a project and how it was going. We had one
of our resources on site and they asked, you know,
how everything was going, And I responded by saying, well,
I haven't heard anything, so I guess that's a good thing.
(01:56):
That is not a good answer, not only for a
project manager to give, but for anyone to give who
is responsible for a certain task. But what's interesting about that.
It makes me laugh today because it was such a
hands off or response. But it makes me laugh only
(02:17):
because how many times do we tend to have that
same logic and response in so many other areas of
our work, and specifically of leadership. How often do you
wait for your team to, in a sense, raise their
hand or wave a flag to you to let you
(02:39):
know when they're struggling with something. How often do you
tend to think that because you haven't heard anything, then
nothing is wrong. I know it's something that we just
for whatever reason, we just adopt that mindset for so
many different areas. But the truth is, waiting for your
(03:01):
team to tell you when they need help, it shifts
the burden to them to manage you. Yes, I know
that sounds a little backwards, but let's break this down
a little bit further. When you wait for your team
to tell you when they need help with something, you
are allowing the burden to fall on them when that
(03:24):
should be something that you do as their leader, And
in turn, you're putting them in position to manage you,
and that's just not their job. When a leader waits
instead of proactively supporting their team, it leads to burnout,
It leads to frustration and disengagement. So in today's Leadershift episode,
(03:47):
we are talking about making the shift to being willing
to help proactively instead of waiting for your team to
tell you when they need help. But first's talk about
why being willing as a leader matters at all. Being
willing to support your team without being asked by your
(04:09):
team to support them allows them to build trust in
your ability as a leader, and it reduces their overwhelm
and sets the tone for a culture of collaboration. This
shows your team that you're not just there to supervise,
but you're there to serve and empower them, which is
ultimately what is necessary for not only your team to succeed,
(04:32):
before each person to feel supported in their role. When
you step into being a willing leader, you'll start to
notice that your team feels a bit more valued, which
in turn will increase your morale. The productivity will become
better because problems are addressed to beforehand and not reactively,
(04:54):
which will ultimately lead to a snowball, and you'll start
to see more trust and teamwork within your team. So
here are five ways, five simple ways that you can
incorporate today to shift into being willing to help your
team proactively instead of waiting for them to tell you
(05:15):
that they need help. Number one, practice intentional check ins
and notice I said intentional. Waiting for your team to
come to you when they have a problem or when
they need feedback or assistance can cause them to feel
isolated on the team. So when you schedule regular check
(05:36):
in meetings that are intentional, meaning that you're actually following
up with them about key things that were discussed, You're
staying on top of the things that matter to them
and the goals that were set. It gives you an
opportunity to be proactive and encover the type of support
they need from you. I encourage you to schedule one
(05:58):
on one meetings with each person on your team. I
recommend doing this at least every two weeks, but depending
on the nature of your work and your team, dynamic
monthly can work as well, but I highly recommend every
two weeks. Use these conversations to ask open ended questions,
find out what's going well, even specifically ask what do
(06:22):
they find challenging right now? But the key to these
types of questions is to listen actively and follow up
on these discussions each time that you meet, so that
they can feel and sense that you are invested in
what matters to them. If you need help with knowing
(06:43):
what open ended questions to ask, I have a list
of thirty seven engaging questions to ask your team, and
you can plug and play these questions. They are categorized
by different topics and you can ask maybe one question
each meeting or in whichever cadence feels right for you
(07:04):
and your employee. I will leave the link to that
free download in the show notes so that you can
grab that and start incorporating them in your one on
one check in meetings today. And if you're wondering what
is the value of even doing these meetings, I will
never forget working with a leader and she asked me,
(07:27):
what's one thing you could use my help with this week?
And it opened the door for not only more conversation,
but for me to think about what was really happening
in my day to day life more thoughtfully, and it
allowed us to be more proactive with how she could
support me. And I took that question and I ran
(07:50):
with it, and I always recommended to those that I
coach and I implemented myself because it is definitely a
door open when you want to make these types of
check and meetings more actionable and intentional. So I encourage
you to start by asking that question on your next
(08:11):
check and meeting with someone on your team. The next
thing observe and anticipate needs. Sometimes your team just doesn't
know exactly what they need help with, or that they
need help at all, and they may also hesitate to
ask you for the things that they need help with
(08:32):
out of fear and perhaps they think that that may
lead to judgment or being seen as incompetent in their job. So,
as a leader, is your role to pay attention to
these signs and be more observant to identify if someone
may be struggling in their role, and you can do
that by watching for patterns. Is someone starting to develop
(08:55):
a habit of missing deadlines? Are you noticing someone on
your team becoming a little bit more withdrawn or disengage
in the work and on the team. Are you noticing
that when you have certain team meetings there's someone who
is showing somebody language and maybe even some remarks that
(09:18):
clearly show that they're frustrated. Instead of waiting for them
to come to you about an issue, when you notice
these things, approach them. This is a part of our
responsibility as leaders, and you don't have to approach them confrontationally. Again,
we're talking about being intentional, so you can approach them
(09:40):
with care. You can bring up the thing that you've
observed and ask if there's anything that you can do
to support them. So, for example, if you notice that
someone is consistently struggling with a process, maybe an order
entry process, you can offer to walk them through it
or create a resource that they can refer to as needed.
(10:04):
Maybe they just need a checklist if they're constantly missing
one step. But again, this falls on you to be
observant and to solve problems and be of service to
your team rather than waiting for them to tell you
that they need help, because that may not be something
that they identify as a struggle. Number three ask better questions.
(10:30):
If your team isn't asking you for help, it could
be because you're not asking the right types of questions.
So you can shift from the very broad, high level
generic questions like how's it going, and you can ask
more specific, targeted, and even open ended questions that will
help you uncover where you can add value. So those
(10:55):
types of questions would be like, what's one thing slowing
you down right now? Are there any roadblocks keeping you
from completing this project or task? Are there any resources
or tools that would make this process easier for you? Overall,
the goal for you to ask better questions is to
(11:16):
reframe your mindset. So if you approach your interactions and
how you lead your team, and even the questions that
you ask your team from the mindset of how can
I make their day to day easier, it will yield
you much better feedback and even outcomes to help them
(11:38):
along their way. Number four Get into the trenches with
your team. Leadership is not about watching from the sidelines.
Sure you're the coach, but sometimes you got to get
in there with them. And help them during practice and
roll up your sleeves and work alongside of them to
(12:00):
understand what the challenge is. So doing things like identifying
the times of the workday or work week, work quarter
where it's high pressure, when there's a busy season where
the project deadlines are all rolling in at once, find
out how you can pitch in, how can you work
(12:21):
alongside of them. So, for example, if your team is
completely overwhelmed with administrative tasks, perhaps you can offer to
take some of the simpler tasks off of their plate
to free up their focus so that they can be
more dedicated to the high priority work. Small things like
(12:41):
this not only helps everyone get the job done, but
it shows your team that you're in it with them,
and that goes so much further than constantly being told
that you're not meeting the goal. I had a coaching
client who was a leader and he was in a
situation like this, and because one of his goals was
(13:02):
to build that support and to be of service to
his team and build that level of collaboration and teamwork,
we walked through how he can be in the trenches
with his team. And one of the things that we
decided on for him was to shadow a different team
(13:22):
member one day a month, and it wasn't to instill
a sense of anxiety or that this person was doing
something wrong and they needed to be watched, but it
was simply for him to gain more insight into the
challenges of the people on his team. And this showed
his team that he cared for their experience and also
(13:46):
it allowed him to understand their day to day job
roles and challenges a bit better. So I highly encourage
if that's something that you feel could help you and
your team, definitely implement that. And the fifth thing that
you can do to be willing to help your team
proactively and not wait for them to tell you when
(14:09):
they need help, is to foster a help first culture.
Your willingness to simply help your team sets the tone
for them so when they see you modeling being proactive
in how you support them and being of service to them,
they are more likely to do the same for others.
(14:30):
You can also do this by dedicating time for collaboration
and problem solving together as a group during certain team
meetings or scheduling specific team meetings to have these collaboration sessions.
So here's an example. If you wanted to get the
ball rolling with implementing a help first culture. You can
(14:54):
start a helpboard and this can be done on something
like Slack. If if you have a remote team, or
even if your team works in the office together, you
can use an app like Slack, or if you use
Microsoft Teams, you can create a board in that way
and team members can post certain challenges or different requests
(15:17):
that they have and things that they need assistance with
in this platform, and this allows others to see them
and maybe they can answer or solve the problem right
away or point them to a resource, or someone can
volunteer to pitch in and help. Either way, this is
how you help develop that help first culture where it's
(15:39):
not taboo to ask for help, but also it is
the norm to offer it and for everyone to work
together because as a team, that's what everyone is there for.
If you've listened to this episode and you realize that
perhaps you want to be a bit more proactive in
(16:00):
how you lead your team and you're not exactly sure
how to do that, what that entails, and how you
can make these changes in your daily leadership practices, and
if you want help, I offer a coaching program called
New leader big impact that goes through in detail things
(16:20):
like this and helps you implement the different habits and
changes that will help you create this type of impact
and ultimately help you lead intentionally and proactively. If you're
interested in applying to be a part of the program,
you can do so by going to beaproinc dot com
(16:41):
slash EP one sixty four and that link will be
left in the show notes and I would be more
than happy to work with you. Remember that leadership is
about showing up not just when it's convenient for you,
but when it matters most to your team. Your leadership
approach from waiting to hear a problem or for your
(17:06):
team to come to you for help, to being willing
to be proactive and observant and serving your team. You
are taking an active role in building a culture where
your people feel seen, supported and they are set up
for success. Being proactive doesn't mean doing everything for your team.
(17:27):
It means creating an environment where they know that you
are there to help them thrive. Take the tips in
this episode and find one area where you've been waiting
for your team to come to you with issues and
take the first step to support them proactively. Instead, have
(17:49):
a great week
Welcome to the Culture Building Like a Pro podcast, helping
small business owners and managers lead a company culture where
employees are engaged to do their best work because they
want to and not because they have to. Now, let's
jump start your culture transformation with company culture strategists, leadership
coach and trainer Deanna Applin.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Cappy Tuesday, and thanks for listening to the Culture Building
Like a Pro Podcast. I'm your host, Dianna, and I'm
excited to be back with you this week as always,
and hopefully you are excited to dive into another episode
in our hash tag Leadershift series. The series was created
to talk about the common challenges that we face as leaders,
(00:50):
more specifically the ones that just don't get talked about
enough and how to overcome them. And more importantly, we're
going to dive into how you can shift into the
level of leadership that creates an impact and influences excellence
among your team. I've worked in the world of project
(01:11):
management for some years and I remember there was one
project in particular that I worked on, and this was
I would say in the early stages of me understanding
the ins and outs of project management, and I was
in a meeting and I was asked by someone on
(01:34):
the team about the status of a particular phase of
a project and how it was going. We had one
of our resources on site and they asked, you know,
how everything was going, And I responded by saying, well,
I haven't heard anything, so I guess that's a good thing.
(01:56):
That is not a good answer, not only for a
project manager to give, but for anyone to give who
is responsible for a certain task. But what's interesting about that.
It makes me laugh today because it was such a
hands off or response. But it makes me laugh only
(02:17):
because how many times do we tend to have that
same logic and response in so many other areas of
our work, and specifically of leadership. How often do you
wait for your team to, in a sense, raise their
hand or wave a flag to you to let you
(02:39):
know when they're struggling with something. How often do you
tend to think that because you haven't heard anything, then
nothing is wrong. I know it's something that we just
for whatever reason, we just adopt that mindset for so
many different areas. But the truth is, waiting for your
(03:01):
team to tell you when they need help, it shifts
the burden to them to manage you. Yes, I know
that sounds a little backwards, but let's break this down
a little bit further. When you wait for your team
to tell you when they need help with something, you
are allowing the burden to fall on them when that
(03:24):
should be something that you do as their leader, And
in turn, you're putting them in position to manage you,
and that's just not their job. When a leader waits
instead of proactively supporting their team, it leads to burnout,
It leads to frustration and disengagement. So in today's Leadershift episode,
(03:47):
we are talking about making the shift to being willing
to help proactively instead of waiting for your team to
tell you when they need help. But first's talk about
why being willing as a leader matters at all. Being
willing to support your team without being asked by your
(04:09):
team to support them allows them to build trust in
your ability as a leader, and it reduces their overwhelm
and sets the tone for a culture of collaboration. This
shows your team that you're not just there to supervise,
but you're there to serve and empower them, which is
ultimately what is necessary for not only your team to succeed,
(04:32):
before each person to feel supported in their role. When
you step into being a willing leader, you'll start to
notice that your team feels a bit more valued, which
in turn will increase your morale. The productivity will become
better because problems are addressed to beforehand and not reactively,
(04:54):
which will ultimately lead to a snowball, and you'll start
to see more trust and teamwork within your team. So
here are five ways, five simple ways that you can
incorporate today to shift into being willing to help your
team proactively instead of waiting for them to tell you
(05:15):
that they need help. Number one, practice intentional check ins
and notice I said intentional. Waiting for your team to
come to you when they have a problem or when
they need feedback or assistance can cause them to feel
isolated on the team. So when you schedule regular check
(05:36):
in meetings that are intentional, meaning that you're actually following
up with them about key things that were discussed, You're
staying on top of the things that matter to them
and the goals that were set. It gives you an
opportunity to be proactive and encover the type of support
they need from you. I encourage you to schedule one
(05:58):
on one meetings with each person on your team. I
recommend doing this at least every two weeks, but depending
on the nature of your work and your team, dynamic
monthly can work as well, but I highly recommend every
two weeks. Use these conversations to ask open ended questions,
find out what's going well, even specifically ask what do
(06:22):
they find challenging right now? But the key to these
types of questions is to listen actively and follow up
on these discussions each time that you meet, so that
they can feel and sense that you are invested in
what matters to them. If you need help with knowing
(06:43):
what open ended questions to ask, I have a list
of thirty seven engaging questions to ask your team, and
you can plug and play these questions. They are categorized
by different topics and you can ask maybe one question
each meeting or in whichever cadence feels right for you
(07:04):
and your employee. I will leave the link to that
free download in the show notes so that you can
grab that and start incorporating them in your one on
one check in meetings today. And if you're wondering what
is the value of even doing these meetings, I will
never forget working with a leader and she asked me,
(07:27):
what's one thing you could use my help with this week?
And it opened the door for not only more conversation,
but for me to think about what was really happening
in my day to day life more thoughtfully, and it
allowed us to be more proactive with how she could
support me. And I took that question and I ran
(07:50):
with it, and I always recommended to those that I
coach and I implemented myself because it is definitely a
door open when you want to make these types of
check and meetings more actionable and intentional. So I encourage
you to start by asking that question on your next
(08:11):
check and meeting with someone on your team. The next
thing observe and anticipate needs. Sometimes your team just doesn't
know exactly what they need help with, or that they
need help at all, and they may also hesitate to
ask you for the things that they need help with
(08:32):
out of fear and perhaps they think that that may
lead to judgment or being seen as incompetent in their job. So,
as a leader, is your role to pay attention to
these signs and be more observant to identify if someone
may be struggling in their role, and you can do
that by watching for patterns. Is someone starting to develop
(08:55):
a habit of missing deadlines? Are you noticing someone on
your team becoming a little bit more withdrawn or disengage
in the work and on the team. Are you noticing
that when you have certain team meetings there's someone who
is showing somebody language and maybe even some remarks that
(09:18):
clearly show that they're frustrated. Instead of waiting for them
to come to you about an issue, when you notice
these things, approach them. This is a part of our
responsibility as leaders, and you don't have to approach them confrontationally. Again,
we're talking about being intentional, so you can approach them
(09:40):
with care. You can bring up the thing that you've
observed and ask if there's anything that you can do
to support them. So, for example, if you notice that
someone is consistently struggling with a process, maybe an order
entry process, you can offer to walk them through it
or create a resource that they can refer to as needed.
(10:04):
Maybe they just need a checklist if they're constantly missing
one step. But again, this falls on you to be
observant and to solve problems and be of service to
your team rather than waiting for them to tell you
that they need help, because that may not be something
that they identify as a struggle. Number three ask better questions.
(10:30):
If your team isn't asking you for help, it could
be because you're not asking the right types of questions.
So you can shift from the very broad, high level
generic questions like how's it going, and you can ask
more specific, targeted, and even open ended questions that will
help you uncover where you can add value. So those
(10:55):
types of questions would be like, what's one thing slowing
you down right now? Are there any roadblocks keeping you
from completing this project or task? Are there any resources
or tools that would make this process easier for you? Overall,
the goal for you to ask better questions is to
(11:16):
reframe your mindset. So if you approach your interactions and
how you lead your team, and even the questions that
you ask your team from the mindset of how can
I make their day to day easier, it will yield
you much better feedback and even outcomes to help them
(11:38):
along their way. Number four Get into the trenches with
your team. Leadership is not about watching from the sidelines.
Sure you're the coach, but sometimes you got to get
in there with them. And help them during practice and
roll up your sleeves and work alongside of them to
(12:00):
understand what the challenge is. So doing things like identifying
the times of the workday or work week, work quarter
where it's high pressure, when there's a busy season where
the project deadlines are all rolling in at once, find
out how you can pitch in, how can you work
(12:21):
alongside of them. So, for example, if your team is
completely overwhelmed with administrative tasks, perhaps you can offer to
take some of the simpler tasks off of their plate
to free up their focus so that they can be
more dedicated to the high priority work. Small things like
(12:41):
this not only helps everyone get the job done, but
it shows your team that you're in it with them,
and that goes so much further than constantly being told
that you're not meeting the goal. I had a coaching
client who was a leader and he was in a
situation like this, and because one of his goals was
(13:02):
to build that support and to be of service to
his team and build that level of collaboration and teamwork,
we walked through how he can be in the trenches
with his team. And one of the things that we
decided on for him was to shadow a different team
(13:22):
member one day a month, and it wasn't to instill
a sense of anxiety or that this person was doing
something wrong and they needed to be watched, but it
was simply for him to gain more insight into the
challenges of the people on his team. And this showed
his team that he cared for their experience and also
(13:46):
it allowed him to understand their day to day job
roles and challenges a bit better. So I highly encourage
if that's something that you feel could help you and
your team, definitely implement that. And the fifth thing that
you can do to be willing to help your team
proactively and not wait for them to tell you when
(14:09):
they need help, is to foster a help first culture.
Your willingness to simply help your team sets the tone
for them so when they see you modeling being proactive
in how you support them and being of service to them,
they are more likely to do the same for others.
(14:30):
You can also do this by dedicating time for collaboration
and problem solving together as a group during certain team
meetings or scheduling specific team meetings to have these collaboration sessions.
So here's an example. If you wanted to get the
ball rolling with implementing a help first culture. You can
(14:54):
start a helpboard and this can be done on something
like Slack. If if you have a remote team, or
even if your team works in the office together, you
can use an app like Slack, or if you use
Microsoft Teams, you can create a board in that way
and team members can post certain challenges or different requests
(15:17):
that they have and things that they need assistance with
in this platform, and this allows others to see them
and maybe they can answer or solve the problem right
away or point them to a resource, or someone can
volunteer to pitch in and help. Either way, this is
how you help develop that help first culture where it's
(15:39):
not taboo to ask for help, but also it is
the norm to offer it and for everyone to work
together because as a team, that's what everyone is there for.
If you've listened to this episode and you realize that
perhaps you want to be a bit more proactive in
(16:00):
how you lead your team and you're not exactly sure
how to do that, what that entails, and how you
can make these changes in your daily leadership practices, and
if you want help, I offer a coaching program called
New leader big impact that goes through in detail things
(16:20):
like this and helps you implement the different habits and
changes that will help you create this type of impact
and ultimately help you lead intentionally and proactively. If you're
interested in applying to be a part of the program,
you can do so by going to beaproinc dot com
(16:41):
slash EP one sixty four and that link will be
left in the show notes and I would be more
than happy to work with you. Remember that leadership is
about showing up not just when it's convenient for you,
but when it matters most to your team. Your leadership
approach from waiting to hear a problem or for your
(17:06):
team to come to you for help, to being willing
to be proactive and observant and serving your team. You
are taking an active role in building a culture where
your people feel seen, supported and they are set up
for success. Being proactive doesn't mean doing everything for your team.
(17:27):
It means creating an environment where they know that you
are there to help them thrive. Take the tips in
this episode and find one area where you've been waiting
for your team to come to you with issues and
take the first step to support them proactively. Instead, have
(17:49):
a great week
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.