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team management

HOW TO CO-CREATE A STRONG TEAM WITH THE STAFF YOU ALREADY HAVE

May 13, 2020 by Judy Cirullo

To create a strong team in today’s work environment takes just one thing…

Vulnerability.

LESSONS FROM THE ECONOMIC SLOW-DOWN

Leaders and owners who I’m currently coaching in the Physical Therapy industry can all testify to the hard truth of what’s happening at their clinics.

Little to no patients coming in the door to tend to.

Which leaves them to work through how they are going to stay afloat until they can resume treatments at full capacity.

Some have taken to virtual visits, using telehealth to replace a portion of their cash flow. Others considered reducing hours or possibly letting go of staff members in extreme cases.  

WORKING THROUGH A COMMON STAFF MEMBER DILEMNA 

Recently I held a coaching session with a practice owner who had a high-value employee with a low-level interest in remaining on the team.

The problem is that this staff member wants a title and a raise. At least before the pandemic, those were her demands. She feels she can get what she wants because she performs a key duty at the clinic which nobody else can.

Since the lockdown conditions slowed foot traffic into the clinic, it gave my client more time to work through how to handle the situation. 

OPPORTUNITY EXISTS IF YOU KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Because he felt unable to meet the demands of his staff member, he found a way to automate a portion of her work. Just in case she was to leave, he wanted to make sure the work she was responsible for could still get done properly.

But, the next step I advised him to take is the critical one to help both him and his staff member to get what they want.

I invited him to have an open dialogue, a vulnerable conversation that invited in the concept of co-creation.  

HOW TO INITIATE A VULNERABLE CO-CREATION DISCUSSION

Using my client’s situation as a model, here is how I would advise you to handle a similar staffing situation. 

First, set up a block of dedicated one-on-one time with your team member. But, do it in a way that would be appealing and feel welcoming to them. 

Invite them to a co-creation session. A safe place to discuss what you both want to see how you can shift what exists to satisfy everyone.

In that meeting, be sure to open the conversation with how you’ve had more time to think through what’s important to your business.

Let them know that keeping valuable staff members like them on your team is a high-level priority for you. However, your highest priority is for them to feel like they are getting what they need working with you too.

That small act is a massive hat tip to being vulnerable.

You are letting your staff member know your business needs them. Plus you’re alerting them that you are willing to entertain their input about what they want.    

SCHEDULING THE MEETING IS ONLY PART OF THE SOLUTION    

Getting back to my client’s scenario for a second, he reduced his staff member’s job to a part-time role. Once he did so, he realized the portion of her duties he had automated was only a sliver of the value she provided to his clinic.

Naturally, tensions were higher for both of them because through his actions, he demonstrated she was replaceable.

If you’re dealing with a similar situation where “back-pedaling” feels necessary, consider these next steps.

DIVE DEEPER INTO THE CONVERSATION  

You’re both present. 

Your team member feels somewhat rejected or abandoned because you’ve reassigned some of their key tasks.

What are you going to do to spark a desire to want to work with you in a new capacity? Especially since you already took away a big portion of the duties they feel proficient doing.

In a word, you’re going to ask…

These are a few of the questions to continue the conversation.

Tell me what you feel would be the best use of your energy?

What do you think your knowledge base lends itself to doing for the team?

What would it take for you to function at your highest level in my business?

ADMIT YOU DON’T KNOW IT ALL

With those answers, now is the time to share your vulnerability again.

Acknowledge the replies you get. Ask for clarification if you need it. Then, give them this key piece of information…

Say that you’d like to entertain what they want as part of the position that you’re creating together. And, that you just don’t know what it would look like yet. 

It’s critical that you don’t make the mistake of saying you think you can give them exactly what they want and then not deliver on that promise. That puts them right back into feeling undervalued, unappreciated, and unheard. 

Admit that in the past you didn’t pay attention to some of the things they wanted. And, that you lost track of some of the details. 

Make it clear that you used some of the recent downtime to shift your mindset to what matters most. Happy staff, happy leader.

KEY METRICS CAN WAIT  

Consider this conversation your discovery session.

You and your key team member are having a meeting of the minds to decide if what you can offer is a fit for the other.

Yes, you will need to set up an employee scorecard so they know how you will measure their performance. Along with a description of behavioral expectations and core competencies.

But for now, it can wait.

If you bring these points up during this meeting, it becomes off-putting and feels like a manager to a subordinate conversation.

Besides, it’s jumping three steps ahead of where you need to be in the present moment.

LEADING THE WAY IN THE CO-CREATION PROCESS

There will be pieces that are important for you to add to the position you are co-creating to retain great team members.

One way to make sure they are recognized by your staff member is to let them know “this”  is where you’re going with this business. Then, ask them if they are interested in coming along with you? 

Next, tell them what you plan to do to create expectations for all of the staff members. Ask for a commitment on their part for that process too.

Finally, tell your staff member that you’re considering transitioning them into the position they defined as their “ideal” role. Get their buy-in by asking if they are interested in considering it once it’s defined. 

CO-CREATING A STRONG TEAM TAKES MORE THAN ONE

To create a strong team, you need help.

When you choose to involve each member of your team in defining their role for your business, you all win. 

Remember to remain vulnerable in your conversations and you’ll have a strong team surrounding you. Each staying true to their strengths while you stay true to your business mission. 
I’m here to coach you through additional roadblocks if you’re struggling with team dynamics. Click here to schedule a free strategy session with me.

Filed Under: Team Development Tagged With: staff development, staff management, team building, team culture, team development, team management

TAKE THESE ESSENTIAL STEPS TO LEAD YOUR TEAM THROUGH TIMES OF CRISIS

April 22, 2020 by Judy Cirullo

These last four weeks have been critical for business owners who need extra help to lead teams through times of crisis.

I’ve spent many additional hours with my own clients since this pandemic disintegrated the order they once knew just one short month ago.

While each of my clients has a unique set of circumstances, taking the necessary time to listen to the leaders and their teams allowed me to create a forward thinking plan with every single one of them. 

Packed full of easy action steps, they now have a process they can adopt immediately to guide them through the chaos. 

A LAY OF THE LAND

Today’s reality is not like anything we’ve had to face in modern times. 

Within a matter of days businesses and livelihoods were confronted with unbelievable challenges. 

As business owners and healthcare leaders stood in shock, they had to shift immediately into survival mode just to maintain some form of stability. 

Although many of you have likely qualified for a SBA loan and or some other form of financial support, the other intangible impact that you are left to manage is the ambiguity, fear, and uncertainty of what is next for your business. 

COMMON THEMES WITH MY CLIENTS

Perhaps more importantly, your concern for your employees runs deep. 

Some of the questions and comments that my business owner clients shared during our sessions include:

  • “ I want to protect them, I want them to be safe, I want to help take care of them and their needs.”
  •  “ I want to keep them as employees and want them to want to come back to the business and continue to work with me.” 
  • “I don’t know how to help them with their fear. I’m anxious and fearful myself.”

It’s an incredible testimony to me to see so many business owners with an employee first, business second mentality during times like these. 

All the more truth to the statement being broadcast everywhere, “We’re all in this together. We’ll get through this together.” 

HEALTHCARE PRACTICE OWNER CONCERNS

Once the financial solvency issues were addressed with C.A.R.E.S. or other funding options, deeper concerns for practice owners surfaced. Things like:

  • how to keep employees busy and engaged when they’re at home
  • what to do with the patients who are also in need of care
  • how to help those that are paralyzed from taking action because they have so much fear and worry about the virus 

I’m sure the majority of healthcare and physical therapy practice owners have made a major pivot to provide TeleHealth, TeleRehab, TeleMed and e-Visits to accommodate your patients’ needs.  

It’s been a steep learning curve. 

Not just for you, your staff, and your patients either. Even payors and national administrators are struggling to manage their way through processing and payments for virtual visits.

A SHIFT TO BELIEFS IS CRITICAL

Yes, the effects of this virus ecominically, organizationally and most importantly, emotionally are devestating.

Now is the time to acknowledge some simple things you all can do to accept “what is,” and “what you can control” so you can reshape the challenges you’re facing into outstanding opportunities. 

Working from the angle of acceptance of what is instead of resistance gets you into a solution mindset.

When you do so, it allows you to proceed with tremendous optimism, garner staff involvement, and create innovative tactics for the action plan you create.

As I worked through these very issues with my clients and crafted customized action steps with them to manage the impact of this crisis, they shifted into a hopeful mindset. 

Every one of them believes they will come out of this stronger and more resilient. They’ve gained confidence in their leadership approach and have a team that looks at trust, collaboration, accountability, and results very differently than they did just a month ago!

ESSENTIAL STEPS TO MANAGE THIS CRISIS 

These are the five essential steps I’ve coached every leader to take with their team to navigate the COVID chaos.

GROUP MEETINGS 

If you haven’t already held a virtual all-staff meeting. It’s crucial. 

During these initial one or two meetings, address the elephant in the room. That elephant? the impact of “ambiguity and not knowing.” 

As a leader, you must set the stage for your openness, transparency, and vulnerability. Equally as important, is to have each staff member do the same. 

When I facilitate these meetings with the owners, I suggest that they ask each person to share “ two words” that describe how they are feeling or what they are thinking about right now. 

Acknowledge that these thoughts and feelings are real. They are also distracting and take your focus away from working towards a solution. 

These thoughts and feelings create fatigue. Your team might feel like they can’t get anything done. And, they are likely correct on all counts. That is okay. Acknowledge and validate everything they share. 

FINANCIAL AND PHYSICAL SAFETY CONCERNS 

Ensure that you explain very clearly what protections you have in place regarding your team’s financial support and physical safety.

Financial Support And Stability 

Be transparent. Explain exactly how you are ensuring financial success and what it means to them individually and to the business. 

Physical Safety

Explain what the state and federal guidelines are because they might be different. 

You’d be surprised how some members of your team don’t pay attention to the finer details.  Be sure to clearly explain how it impacts them and what they should expect.

Allow them to ask all the questions they need to in order to feel comfortable. Be prepared to say, “I don’t know, but I will be keeping you all informed every day.” 

SHIFT INTO OFFENSE AND MOVE FORWARD

Many of you have already begun tackling the most obvious things you do during downtime. 

Things like connecting with patient drop-offs, catching up on various forms of communication, following up leads, doing follow up calls with patients, etc. are all on your radar.

But I sense, as do most practice owners, that things are changing and will look different as we navigate over the next 3-6 months and beyond. 

The ground is shifting. So, how do you plan when you don’t know? 

You craft the direction given what you know right now. You can’t afford to wait to find out. 

FOLLOW-UP GROUP MEETING 

Have an additional group meeting during the same week you had the first meeting (or two).

Have everyone contribute to a discussion of what trends your practice is facing. Just a few months ago, the issues were ongoing reduction in number of referrals, declining reimbursements, and the need to continue to focus on direct to consumer marketing. 

While these are all still relevant issues, ask what other trends your team sees that can stimulate you to think outside the box for a solution. Use the following graphic to help you complete this exercise with your staff. 

lead teams through crisis 2

One of my favorite two things to say to my clients are, “the obvious is not obvious” and “common sense is not common.” 

This is a time that you, as the owner, cannot do it all, nor should you. 

Now is the time to show your staff how much you value them as committed members of your team. Getting them engaged in this exercise is crucial, but not as crucial as the step you took as a leader to follow up with them again in the same week. 

FOCUS AND DISCIPLINE SESSIONS

Make the most of your down time and have additional group meetings over the coming weeks. Hold anywhere from 4 – 8 more in order to discuss the following.

  • Prioritization of the opportunities and ideas previously suggested
  • Assessment of the ideas to decide if they align with your vision, core values and business direction 

During this energy-grabbing, distraction-inducing crisis, it is important to take these “ideas” or “projects” and ensure that each step is small and achievable between meetings when you all communicate and share. 

Identify individual staff members who would like to take the lead on a project.

Your job as a practice owner is to coach and mentor through this time. 

Ask them honestly, what they want to accomplish on this project between meetings. Be sure to ask them if that goal is realistic. Suggest they should cut it in half. You want them to be successful in accomplishing the “small steps.”

FINAL THOUGHTS ON LEADING TEAMS THROUGH CRISIS

Remember, your job as an owner and leader is to help guide, mentor, and coach your team. Provide resources to support their growth, development, and successes during this time of uncertainty.  

Every single leader in healthcare is driven to get things done. Your identity is tied to what you do…And it has been disrupted.

So you feel lost. What direction do you take now?

As a leader, you must help set sail and navigate these turbulent waters with courage, confidence, and conviction.  

You’ll be amazed what you see and hear when you get to the other side of this journey. I guarantee “Why didn’t we do this sooner?” will be one of your recurring observations.

Thinking outside the box and planning ahead is powerful. 

If you’re struggling to do so as a healthcare leader or practice owner, and you could use some help facilitating these types of meetings, schedule a free strategy session with me. 

Filed Under: Executive leadership coaching Tagged With: crisis management, staff management, team development, team lead, team leadership, team management

THE TRUTH ABOUT PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES

April 20, 2020 by Judy Cirullo

When you’re aching to hire that key team member to carry some of the workload, sometimes you forget the truth about professional references.

It’s totally understandable. 

You’re in a pinch. They’re ready, willing, and able. And on paper, they seem like the perfect fit to jump right in.  

WATCH AS THIS SCENARIO PLAYS OUT

Your “perfect hire” suddenly starts to emerge from their cocoon now that the honeymoon period is over. 

Maybe a month, maybe two, and you start to see patterns of behavior they exhibit that are less than ideal.

Things like not taking accountability for speaking up when they are unclear of how to do a portion of their job.

Or, using a previously bad work environment as an excuse to be triggered when you inadvertently say or do something that reminds them of the place they used to work.

All highly inefficient and volatile behaviors that you had a much better chance of preventing if you had considered what you can actually learn about someone from their professional references.

WHAT CAN BE SAID BY A PROFESSIONAL REFERENCE

Legally speaking, most businesses and corporations will do nothing more these days than verify dates of employment.

If you want to get actual insight into a person’s performance, initiating the call to someone in Human Resources won’t get you very far.

In fact, even if you are able to speak to a person’s direct supervisor, most times they are limited to saying they did or didn’t do their job as assigned.

Not much help, is it? 

Maybe you’ll hit the jackpot and actually get someone who is free to speak about performance on the other end of the line. Even if you do, don’t you think your potential new hire is going to share with you only the people who rave about how good they are? 

With bias like that, how confident are you that you’re going to hire the right person for the role?

WHAT’S NOT BEING SAID BY THAT REFERENCE

Unless you know the person giving the reference personally, they cannot tell you how well the personality or behavior of your potential new hire will fit into your team culture.

And sometimes, even if you do know the person giving you the referral, they may not have deep enough insight into the new hire to speak for or against them in the role you’re looking to fill.

Even if you explain to the reference what it’s like to work in your business, it won’t make much difference.

Besides, this may be a reference that your prospective employee is still working for that has an ulterior motive. Maybe that business owner or manager wants to let go of this employee but doesn’t want to be challenged for wrongful termination or have to pay an unemployment claim if they proceed. 

Sadly for some it’s much easier to recommend them for another position somewhere else and offload a “problematic” employee than to risk potential unemployment claims.

TRY THIS INSTEAD

When you consider hiring that new person, instead of asking for professional references, ask for a work history.

Get one that’s 5-10 years minimum, depending on the role you’re looking to fill. 

If there are any chronological gaps, have your applicant explain them.

Then, if your applicant makes it through your initial screening and seems like a good fit, ask them to connect you with their supervisory contacts at their last three positions. 

This connection step is a solid process adapted from Bradford D. Smart’s Topgrading System that successful clinical practice owners swear by once they adopt it.

Have your applicant call each of these supervisors to alert them that you will be calling to verify their work history, performance, and to ask questions about their suitability for the position with your company. 

Here’s the key. 

Make sure the applicant gives their former supervisors permission to speak freely about their skills and behaviors. Plus, make sure they verify a couple of available times and dates for you to call their supervisors.  

ONE MORE NEW HIRE STRATEGY  

If the position you’re looking to fill is not already vacant, have your potential new hire shadow the employee you want them to replace. Otherwise, have them shadow the team member who is fulfilling the role for you currently. 

Do this before offering the job to the potential hire. Not after, when you’re having your exiting employee training them. Because, once the job is already theirs, they are less likely to have much time to do anything but learn the new policies and procedures before their trainer exits the company.

You’ll want them to be introduced to the job in real time. And, have them interact with each of the other team members a bit. 

Observe them as they interact with your team. Notice the non-verbal responses each of your employees exhibits towards them as well as how well they hold up in conversations together. Get a sense on how engaged they are.

Once the shadowing session is over, ask for candid feedback from each member of your team. Pay close attention to what they may tell you about how this person may fit into your company culture.  

KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES

If you want to get a true picture of how a new hire will work with you inside your company and team culture, get to know the truth about professional references.

Discern the information you need by creating a bridge between your potential new hire and their previous supervisors.

Observe them in your team culture during a shadowing session.

Get feedback from your team about their take on the potential new employee.

And, if you’re in need of an assist with how to set up your business for success with screening and hiring new team members, set up a free strategy session with me. 

I’ll help you get clear on a highly effective process for finding the right new hire without the stress of figuring out a system that works to get you “A” players.

Filed Under: Team building Tagged With: hiring, onboarding, retention, staff management, team leadership, team management

HOW YOUR NEED TO BE LIKED STIFLES YOU AS A LEADER

April 14, 2020 by Judy Cirullo

Your need to be liked as a leader is the number one issue that keeps your business, practice, or workplace from realizing the success you seek.  

A close second is the desire to avoid conflict at all costs.

THE ROOT OF YOUR NEED FOR APPROVAL

A very long time ago, before you were capable of critical thinking, you adopted a personality.

Your experience of the world around you formed your core values. And, the people who raised you instilled a set of beliefs in you which were instilled in them when they were young too.

Some of these beliefs were less than inspiring. 

Narratives like, “You’re not athletic,” “You’re horrible at math,” “You never follow through with anything,” “You’re not book smart,” “You’re always going to struggle in life if you choose to do…”

You get the idea.

Underlying all of those narratives you absorbed from the well-meaning people in your life is the undercurrent of, “You’re not good enough,” or “You’re not worthy.”

And, once you’re old enough to start analyzing the thoughts you think, those tunes playing on repeat inside your head have the power to stifle you as a leader, both personally and professionally.  

Because ultimately, all you want is to be liked, respected, and appreciated for who you are without judgment. At least, that’s how you came into this world.

COUPLED WITH YOUR PEACEKEEPER TENDENCIES 

Fast forward to young adulthood. 

Now you’re at a time in your life when emotions run high as your body chemistry changes. While you want nothing more than to believe you can be, do, or have anything you want, you’re still struggling with your internal dialogue.

Believing you’re not good enough or worthy of what you want causes overwhelming fear when you’re a leader.

Why?

Simply put, leaders are goal setters. High-achievers. Yet those goals they pursue tend to be external. 

So, even if a leader believes they are unworthy and are riddled with confidence issues, they will often reach plenty of external milestones that would lead you to believe they have their act together.

They portray that image so skillfully because they’ve become the peacekeeper. Often going to great lengths to “will” the need for approval and external validation into overpowering their subconscious programming of “not good enough.”

SHOWS UP LIKE THIS WITH YOUR TEAM

Here’s the problem with trying to “out-think” your subconscious or reptilian brain that’s in charge of your survival.

Close to 95% of your day to day activities you perform on autopilot. Which means you have habits and routines that you do without thinking about what you need to do or how you need to do them.

For example, when you wake up in the morning, you don’t think about the steps you take to get ready for work that day. You automatically do them. 

Now, think about all the people you lead or manage on your team. Just like you, they’re working 95% of the time on autopilot.

And, when things don’t go the way someone on your team wants them to, they will also result in their subconscious programming to “survive” or get what they want.

Maybe you’ve attempted multiple times to get a task completed by someone you’ve delegated it to. Yet, that person continues to downgrade the importance of the task because they feel it is beneath them or not in their job description.

Soon, that team member exhibits subtle signs of gaslighting when you push them about the task, or why it’s not been completed. 

They may act moody, make demands, or even state that they’re looking for positions elsewhere in order for you to remove the task from their plate that they don’t want to do.

AND LEADS TO THIS FOR YOU TO SORT OUT

What triggers do you think show up for you next as a leader in that situation?

You get angry. Reactionary. Your first instinct is to tell that team member to do as you ask or you’ll find someone else who will.

Even if this is a key employee who you’d be much better off retaining and developing than letting go because they have an amazing skill set that complements your team.

But, deep down, you realize your fear of feeling unprepared is what you’re really battling with. And, in order to retain and develop that team member who has you all in a fit, you have to deal with your own self-critic first. 

TRY THIS TO GET RESULTS FROM YOUR TEAM INSTEAD  

That’s why it’s absolutely imperative to be the most effective leader that you can be, you need to recognize and acknowledge your triggers.

Knowing that almost every activity you engage in daily is unconsciously chosen, and the job of the part of your unconscious or subconscious brain is to keep you alive is a big help.

Instead of acting on autopilot and demanding someone bend to your will, the better play is to acknowledge what is being triggered by that person’s behavior.

Invite the gaslighting team member to have a chat. Open up a dialogue to build trust by saying you’d like their input about how you’re doing as a leader. What’s going great. What’s going less than great.

Practice this and you’ll find out what they’re really trying to tell you by their avoidance of the task, or their “holding you hostage” behavior when they act out.   

PUT YOUR NEED TO BE LIKED IN CHECK

While it may be a hard-wired behavior that you developed a very long time ago to survive, your need to be liked is an incredible hindrance to leading effectively.

Putting that need in check is how you go from irrational reactionary behavior and gaslighting team members to a more successful work environment.

Doing so is a process. One that starts when you choose to take a deeper dive into the thoughts, beliefs, and experiences keeping you stuck in the unworthy mindset. 
Set up a free strategy session with me and I’ll help you ident

Filed Under: Executive leadership coaching Tagged With: effective leadership, emotional intelligence, leadership, leadership mindset, successful leadership, team management

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO GROWING STRONG TEAMS

April 8, 2020 by Judy Cirullo

HOW TO DEVELOP EMERGING LEADERS SO YOU CAN FOCUS ON GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

WHO IS THIS GUIDE FOR?  

You are a healthcare leader or a clinical practice owner who is overworked, overwhelmed, and caught up in the doing of your business.

And, your job, by and large, should be focused on creating the vision of your business, and leading your team to execute on your mission.

Whether you’re a physician, clinician, or a physical therapist, you’re extremely good at doing what you do. That’s part of the problem.

In your mind, it’s often easier to just do things to get them done because you’re extremely efficient at doing them. They’re activities that are ingrained into your daily routine, so they are hard to delegate to someone else.

But in order to stop the overwhelm, you absolutely must learn to lead more and do less. Keep reading to learn more about how to do just that.  

WHY THIS GUIDE EXISTS  

Growing a strong team inside your business matters.

A strong team is your most valuable business asset. Because, without them, your clients won’t get the services you provide delivered properly.

In healthcare, for example, the patient is generally the focus of what you do. 

This is why you chose healthcare as a profession in the first place. You want to help people get better and be the best they can be. 

Healthcare providers, leaders, owners and teams spend a significant amount of time, energy and resources to develop, nurture and maintain strong relationships with your patients. You cherish the fact that they continue to support your business and become loyal, faithful fans. 

Because you take the time to develop trust, openness, honesty, accountability, commitment and even have difficult conversations, your patients see outstanding outcomes and results. 

However, the gap in your skills shows up because you struggle to shift those skills to developing and growing your team. 

Since your team members are your most important asset, what’s the hangup? 

Instead of making the shift, you find managing, leading, developing, and retaining your people a challenge. 

Now, you can use this guide to take you through the steps to tackle this simply and painlessly. You can use it to uncover hidden talents and grow high-performing teams. 

Instead of never acting on all the information you’ve gathered about what to do and why, this guide delivers the “how” so you can implement and see lasting results.

WHY MY EXPERIENCE CAN HELP YOU

Growing Strong Teams 2

I’m Judy Cirullo, a Physical Therapist and a former practice owner who decided to pursue executive leadership coaching in addition to my clinical career. 

Why did I pursue coaching?

Because I owned four successful practices over a 40-year span, I personally experienced the challenges of retaining, developing, and mentoring staff. I knew I needed help getting myself out of the doing and into the leading of my own business. 

So, while I was an active practice owner and practitioner, I decided to invest in my coaching certification so I could learn the skills to become a better leader and relieve the feelings of burnout plaguing me.  

After making the choice to invest in my personal development, I created a framework to develop staff into successful leaders and to produce productive team members to help my business thrive. 

The result?

Ultimately, I became an absentee owner while continuing to develop and grow all of my team members. 

Healthcare leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners seek me out today to help them do the same. I help them adopt my framework that transitions them from being stuck in the overwhelm of doing into developing other team members to do for them. 

My framework allows them to lead, grow, and scale their business instead. 

FOLLOW ALONG SO YOU CAN

  • Uncover the clues that show your team is not as strong as you might think
  • Learn the five behaviors critical to strong teams 
  • Know how to Identify and develop emerging leaders 
  • Develop the most effective competency for leaders and their teams

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Take it all in or brush up on the points that matter to you most. Click on an icon image below to read up on a specific topic, or just read through the guide from start to finish.

YOUR TEAM ISN’T AS STRONG AS YOU THINK IT IS

Truth be told, healthcare executives, managers, and front-line employees are swamped.

With all of the strategic initiatives to execute and daily fires to fight, there’s rarely enough time to do everything required.  

One of the most important initiatives to execute is learning to be a leader for your team. 

Knowing how to keep everyone engaged, working cohesively, and demonstrating strong behaviors critical to a high-performing team is not a luxury. It’s a requirement for your business to thrive. And, it takes expert leadership to make that happen.

Most teams generally don’t struggle with all three of these factors, but a shortcoming in just one of them can create a struggle with the rest of them. 

In fact, when I first meet with leaders or owners about their teams, the initial response I usually get when I ask about these factors is, 

“We all get along great. We don’t have any issues.”  

That is a red flag moment to me. 

If as the leader you feel that everything is going great, my concern is that you haven’t asked your team if they feel the same way.  

When you take the time to ask the questions I’ll talk about in the next section,  you might find some roadblocks holding your team back from the next level of high performance and efficiency. 

Check out this list of top 10 challenges most healthcare leaders and their teams report.

  1. Lack of trust
  2. Unproductive meetings
  3. Lack of accountability among team members including the owner or leader
  4. Being  “me” focused
  5. Few opportunities for growth and development 
  6. Lack of honesty or openness 
  7. Fearful of or avoiding conflict
  8. Afraid to admit mistakes
  9. Low engagement or buy-in
  10. Poor or ineffective communication 

Now, take those challenges and complete this table.

Growing Strong Teams 4

First, complete this from your perspective as the leader of your team.

Afterwards, and without sharing your results with your team, have each person complete their own copy of the table.

Having these results on hand will prepare you for the next part of this discussion. 

FIVE BEHAVIORS CRITICAL TO STRONG TEAMS

Growing and building strong cohesive teams takes time and effort, but it doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. 

Patrick Lencioni outlined an excellent process to do so in his best selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. It’s an excellent read. 

However, implementing the tools Lencioni shares until they are embedded into the daily life of your employees and the business as a habit is when the magic happens.  

I’ve witnessed many teams read this book and try to move so quickly through the “pyramid of behaviors” that they don’t develop the components and actions of the behavior from the bottom up. 

I see those same teams try to work on accountability without developing trust and addressing conflict first. As a result they

Growing Strong Teams 5

In other words, to become a cohesive and strong team. the leader and each member of the team must understand that each behavior builds on the previous one and cannot be skipped to move up the pyramid. 

Each level relies on the level below, they are connected and cannot work in isolation. 

The five critical behaviors in Lencioni’s pyramid are trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results. I’ll expand on each one more below. 

Growing Strong Teams 6

TRUST 

Trust is the first of the behaviors that must be developed as the foundation to developing a high-functioning team. 

Without deep trust among all team members, including the leaders, the other four behaviors will not be possible to attain and further, maintain.

Trust is a feeling that has to be earned. It can’t be dictated. 

Trust is environmental and as a leader, you set the tone and determine the environment for your team.

Since everything else in growth and development teams relies on trust, exploring the difference between trust and distrust is an excellent place to start this discussion.

Research now shows us that there are neural networks in our brain for both trust and distrust. Different chemical reactions occur when we are in each state. 

Depending on the conversations you hold, you’ll activate one neural

Growing Strong Teams 7

There’s quite a striking difference between trust and distrust, and it’s one you must gap to build strong teams.

Distrust occurs in the primitive brain, known as the amygdala. When you feel threatened, unsafe, challenged, unsupported, ambiguous about your position, etc., your amygdala is triggered, which produces cortisol.  

On the other hand when you feel connected with others and safe to discuss things that might be new or different, you become more engaged, accountable, productive, and efficient. Trust occurs in the PFC (prefrontal cortex). When you feel trust, you produce oxytocin. 

Growing Strong Teams 8

When team members and their leader are genuinely open and honest with each other they begin to build trust. They begin to engage, share and collaborate without fear and more easily.   

Growing Strong Teams 9

Assess Team Trust

Answer the following three questions from Patrick Lincioni’s Team Assessment to assess the behavior of trust in your team. Review each statement and rate your team according to the following scale. 

3= USUALLY     2= SOMETIMES   1= RARELY 

  1. Team members quickly and genuinely apologize to one another when they say or do something inappropriate or possibly harmful to the team.
  1. Team members openly admit their mistakes and their weaknesses.
  1. Team members are aware of or know about other team members’ personal lives and are comfortable or interested with each other.

Afterwards, share and discuss what the responses mean and how they impact your team individually and collectively. 

It’s common to see the majority of teams scoring question 2 the lowest, with question 3 not far behind. This begs the question, “How willing are we to be open, transparent and vulnerable?” 

Vulnerability based trust is required for the survival of any team. More importantly, the leader must demonstrate it first.

ENGAGE IN CONFLICT

Nobody likes conflict.

It takes time, energy, can be risky, and distracts you from your daily routine. 

But because people don’t like conflict, it shifts them away from the foundation of trust. Because, trust is required in order to deal with conflict easily and successfully. 

Avoiding conflict is a huge blind spot in effectively leading your team, which makes your team ineffective at leading each other. 

Left unresolved conflict avoidance erodes your team and your business. Blind spots like this keep you in an unresolved conflict mode which causes stagnation.

Blind spots in business occur in conversations. 

Growing Strong Teams 10

A conversational blind spot happens when you are so stuck in your perspective that you fail to listen to contributions from others. 

You then try to persuade others that you are right which causes conflict to develop. When you refuse to see beyond our own point of view, you are creating conflict. 

Productive Conflict 

High-functioning teams have debates. They challenge each other. Everyone contributes. They throw all their ideas out there to be heard. People feel safe in this type of discussion. Groups like this shift and work together when they have discussions like this.

Characteristics of productive conflict include:

  • Focusing on ideas and concepts
  • Devoid of personal attacks
  • No fear of speaking and sharing openly working from a place of trust
  • Engaging in passionate, deep debate which can feel uncomfortable at times
  • Setting a goal to discover the best or most creative solution possible

Teams who engage in these types of conflict can make decisions without getting bogged down in argument. They also won’t have one person dominate a meeting.

Awkward silences may occur during the debate. However, this type of team has no need to agree on something just to end a discussion. 

It may not feel completely harmonious when your team participates in this type of conflict. Most of the time though, the direction toward the solution becomes clear because of the debate.

When there is trust, team members engage in unfiltered, constructive debate of ideas. 

Growing Strong Teams 11

Assess Team Conflict

Answer the following three questions from Patrick Lincioni’s Team Assessment to assess the behavior of conflict in your team. Review each statement and rate your team according to the following scale. 

3= USUALLY     2= SOMETIMES   1= RARELY 

  1. Team members are passionate and unguarded in their discussion of issues when they are together. 
  1. Team meetings are compelling, not boring, engaging and not overly transactional.
  1. During team meetings, the most important and the most difficult issues are put on the table to be resolved.

Afterwards, share and discuss what the responses mean and how they impact your team individually and collectively. 

The majority of teams most commonly have the lowest score for question 2, with question 3 following closely behind. 

What is missing from your meetings?  As a leader you are still missing trust. Be sure to invite input so your meetings don’t become one-sided. 

Try reframing the concept of conflict from fear and risk-filled into an opportunity to challenge the status quo, to develop deeper relationships among team members, and to be a bridge to the next level.

COMMITMENT

When I coach leaders and their teams, this is the statement I hear most often,

“I wish my team had more buy into where we are going.” 

What I figure out that they’re really looking for from their team is engagement, motivation, and commitment to the mission of the business over their own goals or personal agendas.  

Commitment is not necessarily about consensus.

But, clarity and buy-in are the keys to commitment. 

In other words, people need to understand where they are heading, along with why and how their work contributes to the vision, mission, and direction of the business. 

Team members need to be able to weigh in, in order to buy in. 

Two of the biggest reasons teams lack buy-in are the desire for a consensus and the need for certainty.

Which may also be what you, as the leader of your team, believe is important too. It’s not surprising that those who you lead mirror this sentiment then, is it?

That’s why it’s important for you to drill down to what each of these terms means in context. 

Consensus: High-functioning teams recognize and ensure that everyone’s ideas are genuinely heard and considered. As a result, commitment develops within the team to support the direction or decision made by the group even when agreement is not unanimous. 

Certainty: High-functioning teams understand that making a decision is better than no decision. Whether it’s right or wrong, not deciding creates ambiguity. Team members see indecision as waffling which further erodes any chance at commitment. 

When you lack commitment to making clear decisions, your team will erode and impact your business.  This ambiguity leads to lack of confidence and fear of failure, both signs of distrust.

There are two simple tools you can use to create team commitment. They’re often overlooked or dismissed primarily because they do take time and practice to become effective. 

Growing Strong Teams 12

Cascading Conversations

As a leader how often do you assume that your team understands what you mean? What is most important? How they fit into the business? What they contribute? 

If you’ve ever thought you explained this to them well enough, but you’ve had to do so more than once, you’re failing to bridge their comprehension gap.

You need to reconsider your style of communicating information to your team.  

Think about what you’re communicating, how detailed the information is, how often you’re communicating, and if it makes sense to others.  

Cascading communication is about reviewing the key decisions made with your leaders and managers to decide what information needs to be shared with the rest of your team.

Prioritizing the order and timeline of disseminating the information is key. 

Everyone involved in delivering the messages to the rest of the team must agree that their conversations will be consistent across the board and delivered on time. 

To be effective, cascading communication must be completed after each meeting. Otherwise, the rest of the team receives inconsistent messages which affects commitment.

Clarity of Expectations 

If your team members are not clear on all of your expectations of them, you will never get buy-in.

Be sure to include clear expectations regarding behavior, policy, procedures, productivity, and other assigned tasks or required contributions. 

Lack of clarity may show up after being on the job for some time, but expectations need to be defined upon hiring and onboarding each team member. 

Assess Commitment

Answer the following three questions from Patrick Lincioni’s Team Assessment to assess the behavior of commitment in your team. Review each statement and rate your team according to the following scale. 

3= USUALLY     2= SOMETIMES   1= RARELY 

  1. Team members know what other team members are working on and how they contribute to the collective purpose and the good of the team.
  1. Team members leave meetings confident that their peers are completely committed to holding the line on the decisions agreed upon during the meeting, even if there was (and still is) disagreement.
  1. Team members end discussions with clear specific resolutions and calls to action. 

Afterwards, share and discuss what the responses mean and how they impact your team individually and collectively. 

Teams tend to have the lowest score for question 1, followed closely by 2.  

Based on those results, it would be prudent to have all team members in different areas shadow each other or share with others what they do in their position.  

Noteworthy: When I started having my team do this in my practice it improved both commitment and connection with each other ten-fold.

When team members are able to actively debate, challenge and share with each other, they are more likely to be committed and supportive of the decisions they make as a team.

Growing Strong Teams 13

HOLDING EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE

Everyone struggles with holding each other accountable from time to time.

It’s an especially relevant challenge I hear about from leaders because accountability is one of the behaviors that elevates their stress level. 

Leaders often feel like they are accountable for everyone and their team members are not accountable for their own actions and behaviors. 

A frequent trend is for one of the team leaders to be frustrated because some of the team members are not following the same guidelines and policies that others are. They tell me that they are uncomfortable bringing this up to those individuals because it might cause conflict.  

Once again, tust, fear of conflict, and commitment are all impacted by not holding each other accountable. Lack of accountability causes the team to struggle and stresses out the person in charge.

When everyone is committed to a clear plan of action, they are better able to hold one another accountable. This is also known as peer to peer accountability. 

Peer to peer accountability works when team members are willing to challenge each other on behavior or performance that isn’t up to agreed upon standards or that hurts the team.

Team members don’t wait for the team leader to hold others accountable. As a result, the team learns how to hold the leader accountable as well. 

High-functioning teams are clearly committed, trust each other, and are confident in holding each other accountable for the standards, behaviors and rules they’ve established for their team. 

Rules of Engagement  

Rules of engagement are determined collectively by the team and facilitated by the leader. It’s a process that allows the team to establish ground rules for meetings or for the business as a whole.  

Once established, the team members agree to hold each other accountable for the behaviors and rules they defined. 

This is how strong teams shift accountability from always being the leader’s responsibility. But, in order for it to work, it requires everyone’s involvement. 

One of the most common rules of engagement teams establish in meetings, for example, is showing respect for each person when they are speaking. It is the leader’s job to ask clarifying questions on what “respect” behaviors look like in action. Those answers then become part of the definition in the rules.

Assess Accountability

Answer the following three questions from Patrick Lincioni’s Team Assessment to assess the behavior of accountability in your team. Review each statement and rate your team according to the following scale. 

3= USUALLY     2= SOMETIMES   1= RARELY 

  1. Team members call out one another’s unhelpful or unproductive behaviors.
  1. Team members are deeply concerned about the prospect of letting down their peers.
  1. Team members challenge one another about their plans and approaches.

Afterwards, share and discuss what the responses mean and how they impact your team individually and collectively. 

The majority of teams have the lowest score in question 1, with question 3 close behind.

If your team scores the same, it’s a clue that they don’t have buy-in on the behaviors being identified. Either that, or they lack trust, conflict, and commitment so they’re not comfortable holding others accountable.

Growing Strong Teams 14

ACHIEVING RESULTS

In healthcare, everyone understands how important patient results and outcomes are. 

Each team member has their own metrics and goals that are required for their position. Many teams share the metrics (KPIs – Key Performance Indicators) to show how each team member’s metrics impact the bottom line. 

This is critical in healthcare. Every healthcare worker knows, “No margin, no mission.”

Team members need to make collective results their top priority, even when it is easy to get side-tracked and be more focused on their own goals.  

Building the team with the foundational traits of trust, conflict, commitment, accountability first, achieving results happens because of everyone’s work collectively. 

Acknowledgement and Praise

Who doesn’t love praise for their work?

Praise initially falls on the owner or leader to model for the team. Even though most teams report their successes at staff meetings, unconditional, spontaneous acknowledgment at different times can carry more weight and more value to individual team members. 

To be most effective, praise should be unexpected, but regular, both for the team and each individual. That type of recognition becomes exponentially effective when it also acknowledges support of the mission and core values of the business. 

Acknowledgment and praise, both from leaders and between team members, regularly and unconditionally, is a benchmark of high- performing teams.

Growing Strong Teams 15

Assess Results

Answer the following three questions from Patrick Lincioni’s Team Assessment to assess the behavior of results in your team. Review each statement and rate your team according to the following scale. 

3= USUALLY     2= SOMETIMES   1= RARELY 

  1. Morale is significantly affected by the failure to achieve team goals. 
  1. Team members are slow to seek credit for their own contributions but quick to point out those of others.
  1. Team members willingly make sacrifices ( budget, PTO, coverage for their peers, etc) in their area of expertise for the purpose and/or good of the team. 

Afterwards, share and discuss what the responses mean and how they impact your team individually and collectively. 

Teams report the lowest score for question 1, followed closely by 2.  

As a leader, if your team scores similarly, consider whether you’re making it clear to your team members how their individual goals and achievements impact the team collectively. Ensure they realize not only the positive impact for meeting their goals, but the negative impact that ripples out to the team when their goals are not met.

For a team to excel, all members must put team goals ahead of their individual goals. This is a challenge for all leaders to create and to facilitate this balance.

IDENTIFYING FUTURE LEADERS IN YOUR TEAM

Now that you understand the five behaviors high-performing teams demonstrate, it’s time to find and develop future leaders in your team to instill them.

WHY DEVELOP LEADERS?

Turnover is costly.

It affects you, other team members, and your overall business performance. 

You also should know how difficult it is to recruit the ideal team players you need to provide the professional services your business offers.

The strongest organizations have a system in place to identify and develop emerging leaders. But in healthcare, leaders and CEOs are not sure where to start this process. 

Growing Strong Teams 16

EMERGING LEADERS DEFINED

You might think an emerging leader is a Millennial, or someone from Gen Z, but it’s not just a generational consideration.

Emerging leaders are people in your organization who have high potential and are top performers. They may be individual team members, managers, or other program leaders. 

Simply put, emerging leaders are people who are, or will be, in some leadership role at some point. So, if you want to retain these team members, you need to invest in their personal and professional development. 

Give emerging leaders and other valuable employees a good reason to stick with your team.

WHEN TO DEVELOP YOUR FUTURE LEADERS

How does now strike you?

Most healthcare leaders, CEOs, and business owners tend to wait until everything is in “perfect” order and the business is stable. However, until you shift your mindset about when you need leaders, it will have a negative impact on growth, retention, and even your potential exit strategy.

According to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends, 89% of organizations say developing leaders is a big focus. However, they’re stuck when it comes to identifying who those emerging leaders are.  

Bridging generational gaps with your team has its own set of demands. Things to consider are differences in attitudes, priorities, and goals. This pushes most business owners and CEOs to seek out new ways to retain, develop and grow employees. Specifically, developing current team members who already support you into leaders is the most viable play for the long-term success of your organization.

WHEN YOUR EMERGING LEADER IS PART OF AN EMERGING GENERATION 

Every employee wants clarity and understanding of how they fit into your organization.

The evolving generations – primarily generations  X, Y, and Z – are also looking for growth and development opportunities. 

Top words and phrases that emerging generations share about what they want in their workplace include the following, listed in the order of priority.

  • Support for business leaders or senior managers
  • Growth
  • Coaching
  • Work-life balance
  • Mentoring
  • Training
  • Values
  • Purpose 

As a leader and CEO it’s important to consider the values your emerging leader in an emerging generation holds so you can choose how to develop them appropriately. 

Growing Strong Teams 17

IMPROVE YOUR TEAM’S PERFORMANCE WITH COACHING

Your job as a leader is to set expectations for your team’s behavior. 

Become the model for what you would like to see, hear, and experience in your team and your business. 

The most effective way to model behavior, set expectations, and drive better performance is through coaching. And truthfully, anyone can learn to become a good coach over time.

Some things to consider when coaching is a tool you decide to utilize are:

  • Coaching mastery is a teachable skill 
  • Anyone on your team can coach anyone else
  • Coaching is not transactional or dictating
  • Coaching is inquiring and asking curious questions
  • Coaching builds connections, relationships, trust, and accountability 
  • Coaching encourages conflict, supports commitment, and achieving results 

Following are a few simple examples to help you practice coaching in day to day conversations with anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Use these scenarios to shift that feeling of stress you may feel as a leader of your team to be the one who’s accountable for everyone else on your team. 

These exercises will empower your employees to jump on board with the transition or culture shift you’re leading into growing a strong team.

COACHING PRACTICE SCENARIOS

When talking with your team about a challenging issue facing your business, showing your vulnerability and willingness to ask for help is a great place to start.

“ We are having this problem in this area. I’ve put some thought into this, but I don’t know what to do. I really need your help to identify the problem and help create a solution.”

Developing stronger relationships with employees and acknowledging their needs or accomplishments unrelated to work is another area to explore.

“I noticed that you’re running out of the office everyday right at the end of your shift. This doesn’t seem like you. How can I help you so you don’t have to hurry?”  

Creating an opening for a safe discussion with the employee allows for additional conversation.This creates a connection with the employee allowing you to have a conversation with lasting impact.

Potential conflicts about tasks that aren’t being done correctly or in a proper time frame is another coachable moment.

Your employee isn’t tracking new referrals as instructed. Ask the following questions.

“Tell me how the tracking system is working for you on the new referrals?” 

“What barriers or obstacles are getting in your way of completing this log?”

Then, conclude your discussion with,

“Let’s make sure you’re clear on why this tracking system is important. Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough on the process.”

For additional questions you can use to shift your conversations into coachable moments that produce meaningful discussions, click here. 

Growing Strong Teams 18

NEXT STEPS TO GROW YOUR STRONG TEAM

You realize your most important business asset is your employees. 

To review, here is the list of elements required to build and grow an effective team inside your business.

  • Top 10 challenges to building a high-performing, cohesive team
  • Five behaviors all high-function teams have in common
  • How to develop emerging leaders to engage, grow and retain a high quality team
  • Ways to improve your coaching skill set as a leader and a team

STRONG TEAM SPOTLIGHT – DENNIS PRICKETT, ATRIUM PT 

Dennis sought out my services initially because he was tired of working in the weeds all the time. He was stressed and wanted to grow his business, but he had a small staff and was always the one putting out fires running the day to day ops. 

First, Dennis invested in executive leadership coaching for himself. You can learn more about the benefits of that program here. 

He was so motivated by the positive changes happening as he became a better leader, he decided to identify and invest in developing his own emerging leaders. Now, his team is stronger and more effective than ever. 

In fact, his practice has tripled. 

Dennis claims that enrolling his emerging leaders into my Leadership Development Group Program is a major contribution to the successful growth of his practice. 

GROW YOUR OWN STRONG TEAM

Leadership development group coaching is a tool I created to help you create a high-performing, cohesive team of your own.

It’s the same tool I used to turn my last PT practice into an environment where every person on my team understood their value and their contribution to the success of my business. 

In short, business owners who are ready to recapture growth and redefine the way they do business develop emerging leaders to help them execute on those goals.

They are tired of the status quo. Overwhelm is no longer where they want to live. All they want is to have a strong team behind them who can deliver on the vision they have for the business.

Are you ready to drive that vision by investing in team members who want your business to succeed as much as you do?

There’s only one way to know for sure.

Take action and book a complimentary strategy session with me. 

We’ll have an honest conversation on whether I feel I can help you improve your business environment with leadership development group coaching. And, you’ll leave with action steps you can take immediately following our call to strengthen relationships with every member of your team.

REFERENCES

1. Pentland, A (2012). The New Science of Building Great Teams. Harvard Business Review April Issue
2. Glaser, J. and Glaser, R (2014). The Neurochemistry of Positive Conversations. Harvard Business Review June Issue
3. Autry, A. (2019). Employee engagement & Loyalty Statistics: The Ultimate Collection. Blog.accessperks.com
4. Dimoka, A. (2010). What Does the Brain Tell Us About Trust and Distrust? Evidence from a Functional Neuroimaging Study. MIS Quarterly  
5. Lencioni, P. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team 

Filed Under: Team building Tagged With: develop strong teams, leadership skills, management skills, team development, team leaders, team leadership development, team management

BUILDING TRUST WITHIN YOUR TEAM STARTS WITH THIS

March 25, 2020 by Judy Cirullo

Without this one attribute, building trust within your team will elude you. That trait every good leader needs…to be transparent. 

THE TRUTH ABOUT TRANSPARENCY

Transparency is one of the five requirements to building trust within your team. Arguably, it’s also the most important.

What exactly does it mean to be transparent?

Some would say, telling it like it is. That’s definitely part of it.

Another response is that being transparent is about being yourself. There’s truth to that too.

Others might equate transparency to telling every person on the team every detail about all non-confidential facts related to the business. This is less of what you’re going for when you practice transparency.

CONSIDER VULNERABILITY 

What if I told you that being a transparent leader meant that you needed to be vulnerable? Show your feelings. Share your concerns. That kind of vulnerability.

When you embrace the fact that you don’t know it all, that you’re fearful, hesitant, overwhelmed, or even anxious, you are not burdening your team.

You’re modeling a behavior of opening up that most aren’t used to experiencing in the workplace. They will not only notice, but will be more likely to follow suit.

YOU CAN’T DO IT ALL

As a leader, business owner, or entrepreneur, your role is not to do everything. 

This may be a tough pill for some of you to swallow, but it’s the truth. Unless, of course, you want to continue down the path to complete burnout.

Your strengths are to develop your business mission and vision. A close second is to pick the right team members to help you carry out the operations of your business.

Being vulnerable means you get to ask those team members for help. Call on the support you’ve already put in place around you when you need it. 

You do it, and they will feel comfortable asking for help when they need it too. 

STAY OPEN 

On the flip side of asking for help when you need it is remaining open to two things.

First, remain open to the help you asked for. Don’t allow your inner critic get in the way and tell you you’re “less than” because you couldn’t do everything yourself. Resisting the help you asked for raises distrust in yourself and your team.

Second, remain open to others on your team who are vulnerable with how they feel and what they need help with. Reserve judgment and acknowledge your team member for feeling comfortable enough to come to you with their request.

In other words, remember to be kind. 

Consider asking the question, “What do you need from me to help you feel better about being able to complete this task.” 

BUILDING TRUST IS A PROCESS

As mentioned before, there are five steps to building trust within your team. Transparency is just one of them.

Being vulnerable, asking for help when you need it, and staying open are critical if you want to practice transparency.

To find out more about the other four team trust building steps,  schedule a free strategy session with me. You’ll leave our session with my winning framework on building team trust and growing a strong team. 

Filed Under: Team building Tagged With: leadership development, team building, team development, team management

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