It’s not you, it’s me

My family and I went to an NBL basketball game a few weeks ago. 

My 4yo daughter lasted 5 minutes. Despite all the prep work we had done beforehand and despite the ear muffs, it was too noisy for her. Sensory overload is real. And it’s not pleasant.

The whole experience made me think about the role our environment plays in our lives. How it enables us to bring out our best. How our environment constraints and constricts us. 

The feeling in your team environment – your psychological safety, also has an impact on the functioning of your team. 

If you’re in the right environment, you can thrive. How can you move from a feeling of apathy to a comfortable, high performance and learning zone? 

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

– Einstein 

Google once did a fascinating four year study into what makes excellent teams. The results indicated that psychological safety is the single most important factor that a team must possess in order to perform at their highest potential. 

Feeling safe in a team enables:

• Innovation
• The ability to learn from mistakes 
• Higher employee engagement 
• Increased reporting of any concern

What can you do?

1. Everything is an experiment – Make it explicit that there’s an enormous amount of uncertainty. We need everyone’s voices in the game.

2. Ask a lot of questions – Make space to speak, model curiosity and ask questions. See and invite input, and ask others to contribute.

3. Admit your mistakes – When you admit you’ve made a mistake or you don’t know the answer, you allow other people to do the same.

Contact me to chat more about my team programs.

Is your team failing to LAUNCH?

My friends and I went to a DJ concert/music festival (what do the cool cats call them these days?) and it was a let down.

The beat just didn’t drop. I mean, it was enough to step right and step left. But not nearly enough to get the crowd to raise their arms and LAUNCH!

It reminded me of the hum drum of working life that people tell me in 1:1 sessions. They’re going through the motions, getting the bare minimum done, going with the flow but not smashing the lights out. Failing to launch.

The latest Microsoft Work Trend Index revealed that a whopping 62% of Australian workers reported being burned out at work.

Why is that? What’s holding us back?

It’s not always ourselves…

It’s the environment… the team vibe… the relationships we have.

It’s the lack of alignment on purpose and leadership that isn’t a good fit for what’s needed.

It’s a combination of all of these things and more.

We all have a responsibility to change this, for ourselves, our team and the organisations we work for.

But where can we start?

Firstly, like when you go to the doctor, you need to look at the symptoms before you can reach a diagnosis. To investigate the symptoms, you need the right tool.

Afterall, there’s no use taking your blood pressure with a thermometer.

To help with this, I’ve developed a Team Excellence Test.

Discover where the biggest opportunities are hiding in your team to drive performance and help your team LAUNCH this year.