LOUISE GILBERT
Founder & Director
What’s love got to do with it? The power of teams.
I was at a party over the holiday break. Chatting over a salty margarita, Emma confides in me telling me that her boss takes all the credit, she’s been in her role for two years and it’s not stretching her anymore. She doesn’t feel like she can speak up without repercussions. I asked her why not leave? “I love my team,” she said. Tina Turner was onto something.
Most organisations are struggling in this war for talent. I know this issue deeply, as last year we received government funding to address this problem with our World of Work project. They tell me it’s hard to find people, hard to get enough applicants for roles, people are leaving left right and centre and retaining existing talent is critical.
Last year, according to research from NAB, we saw that one in five Australians had changed jobs within the previous 12 months and almost one in four were considering leaving their current place of employment.
The glue that connects us to our colleagues also connects us to our companies.
People stay because of the team they’re in.
People leave because of the team they’re not in.
The biggest factor of high performing teams is relationships.
I like to think of the team as a “hive.” Think bees. In a hive, the team always supersedes the individual. What is good for the team is always good for the individual, whether the team member recognises it or not. The hive operates from a singular mission and message and stays on course — or dies.
When there’s issues with relationships in your teams, you’ll see:
- People pursuing their own agendas
- Conflict (not the good kind!) with stakeholders
- People avoid “interfering” with each other’s “territory”
- Big elephants in the room
- People hoarding their knowledge and holding their cards close to their chest.
Relationships are everything. It’s how you foster psychological safety and it’s how you’ll attract and retain your people.
It’s through the relationships in your teams that you’ll create effective ways of working, accountability and quality decision making.
Your three questions:
Thinking about your team, here are some questions for you to consider:
- In your team, what are the conversations that need to happen this quarter?
- What personal things are you sacrificing for the collective benefit?
- Is there something you’ve been saying that no-one’s heard?
What can you do?
1. Follow a proven plan
Get more engagement and connection in your teams
2. Take charge of change
Help your leaders and people feel empowered and confident to tackle the tough issues
Just one step. One step.
Have you watched ‘True Spirit’ on Netflix?
It’s the story of Jessica Watson
One step changes everything for Jess.
After 210 days at sea, she made it… Home!
She takes that step off her boat and onto land where her supporters are waiting. She becomes the youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world.
She says “I’m not a hero”. Just a girl with a dream. Find your dream. Believe in it and work really hard.
She took that first step to make her dream a reality and in that last step she’d done it.
What’s your one step? Your one big thing? Something you’re going to work on this year?
The movie was a great reminder that
“Courage involves the ability to take action and carry on even when we are afraid.”
– Immunity to Change by Kegan & Lahey
Now, how do we take that first step…
One of the things I teach in my ‘Science of Confidence’ workshops (insert link to product catalogue here) is this idea of the confidence cycle. The actions of confidence come first and the feelings of confidence come later.
The confidence cycle is adapted from Dr Russ Harris. You build confidence through action and these actions can be small. For me, it’s writing out my targets on the whiteboard each month. For a woman on our program, it was hitting send on an email.
In his book, The Confidence Gap, Russ talks about the confidence cycle – which is a great visual about how to get good at doing anything really.
There’s 5 steps which form a circular loop.
- Practice the skills
- Apply them effectively
- Assess the results
- Modify as needed
- Praise yourself
Go back to step 1 and practice.
The movie’s a real tear jerker so check it out when you don’t mind ending up being a blubbering mess.
Then, check out Tones & I belting out the awesome outro.
