Enhance Your Organization’s Success

Trying times have brought a reduction in business to many which in turn, have resulted in a reduction of the number of people in the organization.  Still many organizations expect to stay on their success plan without missing a beat as in ‘doing more with less’.  What we would like to point our readers to is the value and benefit of creating a team that is cultivated with respect, admiration, and a real understanding for each other. Do this and, voila! You have expanded the productive capacity of the entire organization!

Being a leader, whether you are a CEO, executive, a manager, or employee is one of the most important factors in determining the success of your own career, the accomplishment of your team, and, the victory of your overall organization.

1.Get to know your team.

Understanding who is on your team is critical! To truly realize who your players are you must see them for their strengths. Coach each member on utilizing their inherent talents to gain results. Having your members focus on what they already know and are doing very well will give them the confidence to step into new and un-chartered territories.

There are a variety of available tools that make obtaining this information easy; a personality assessment, and or a team assessment, both of which The Third Zone uses, are two ways. Another way is by asking meaningful, powerful, curious questions such as:

• What is working well for you?
• What would make success easier for you?
• What gets in your way?

Yet an additional useful skill is acknowledging your employees. It promotes a working environment that has an “I Can” attitude and allows no room for “I Cant’s”.  Acknowledging is best when it is short and to the point. One important thing about acknowledging is to leave room for its impact. Let the person take it in. A few seconds of silence will do the trick!

2.Allow your team to know you.

• Let them see who you are.
• Let them know what you need to hold a successful meeting.
• Let them know what your expectations are when you are speaking.
• Show them the power of listening by role-modeling what it looks like.  Use eye contact. Take the time to focus on the other fully and give them your undivided attention. This will let them feel understood, important and valued. You want the same from them, always.
• Allow your team to know what they can count on you for and what you will be needing to count on them for.
• Let them in on your personality quirks
  • How will they know when you are satisfied or dissatisfied?
  • How will they know when it’s ok to intrude into your office and when it is not?
  • What can they expect from you on a consistent basis?
• Tell them what it feels like and looks like to be in your position on a daily basis. Let them in on what your world looks like, so they can make decisions based on having a trusted, consistent experience with you.

3.Create a culture that allows and stresses the importance of a persistent understanding of each other. 

Hold a meeting where each team has an opportunity to experience what it is like for each department. Have each department “visit” each other. Teach your employees the skill and value of acknowledgment and have each team start there (acknowledging) while visiting. Have them acknowledge what they respect, like and enjoy about each other. Allow them the time to state what they count on each other for, what they think each team’s strengths are, what they rely on them for. Include your perspective (executives/CEO) in the mix! This is very important.

Fostering a culture of respect, admiration and listening are key components to having an organization operate smoothly. Once your organization is saturated with these key ingredients, you will have happier, self-motivated successful employees, teams, and an organization that understands each other and is willing to talk about what is working and what needs improvement.  Above all, you will have maximized the effectiveness of working together in your organization – certainly in times that encourage and even necessitate it.