The Winning Edge Take Another Step System is an inspirational leadership workshop where we discuss what leadership is. There are 10 concepts that we have identified.
This week, we will discuss the concept that Leadership is building a cohesive team.
For us to build a cohesive team, we need 3 ingredients:
- Functionality
- Attention to relationships
- Buy-in
Consider this from Peter Drucker, “Culture eats strategy for lunch.” For your team or organization to come together, stay together, and then grow together, these 3 things will be vital in connecting the heart and spirit of your people together to be their very best in a team environment. Once everyone understands that they are an integral part of the team, then everyone will be liberated to take another step.
1. Functionality
First, leaders must build systems and processes that work. Then they must put the right people in the right places to maximize performance. When teammates are placed in roles best suited to their skills, they will become more confident, more effective, and more invested in group outcomes. With the right inspirational leadership driving the process, the organization then has the capacity to grow and adapt through changing circumstances. With functionality as our foundation, our team will grow and thrive.
2. Attention to relationships
The most effective leaders have nurtured and developed positive relationships with those around them. They have shown their people through words and deeds that they care about them and that they are interested in their well-being, not just in improving the organization’s outcomes, but also for the benefit of the individual. When leaders meet their people right where they are, not in a place where they wish them to be, that is where relationships are formed. Once our people know, see, and feel that we genuinely care for them, then their fears will be turned into fuel, and then our team will be building cohesiveness.
3. Buy-in
Has your team fully bought in? Do you have a clear mission and core values that people can embrace? People have an innate longing to be connected to something bigger than themselves. We must intentionally tap into this desire and they will get on the proverbial bus. When everyone is on board, there will be less stress, less friction, more common purpose, and the bus will travel faster and smoother. When everyone has settled in their minds and hearts that they are all in, then everyone will be focused and determined to take another step.
As I write today my heart is heavy, and my spirit is troubled, worried for the lives and well-being of all of our fellow citizens. Our challenges seem overwhelming, and it is my hope that I can offer peace and comfort with these words.
We all must look within ourselves and, as John Kennedy says, “Ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country.”
In truth, our greatest danger is that our cohesive American team is being ripped apart. We must each commit to a cause greater than ourselves and resolve to be a part of the solution, not the symptom of the problem. If we do this then each of us in our own small way will help bring our nation back to cohesion that will allow everyone of our fellow citizens to take another step.
Find your winning edge today by building a cohesive team within yourself, your family, your church, your community, your company, your country, and the world. IN THAT ORDER.
I love to hear your success stories on how you are building a cohesive team within yourself and your world around you! You are a play-maker - make a play!
Let’s grow!
