Finding the Hidden Potential in Everyone On the Team!

 

As a Leader you are working for your clients and your team!

Make team building fun and rewarding so they want to perform! One way to do this is to consistently recognize your team’s accomplishments. Let them know you have noticed how well they are working together to reach common goals.

When a problem arises, make it a team effort to solve it. Focus on the obstacles or challenges everyone on the team faces. Do not use this time to address personal issues, such as bad behavior. The most important thing to remember is that your team wants management to implement the TEAMS solution approach if it solves the problem. This is the highest form of recognition!

Discovering and recognizing the potential in everyone will make your business so inviting that people will stand in line to work with you.

Here is a study from the New York Times:

·         25% reported being driven to tears in the workplace

·         50% call their place of business a place of ‘verbal abuse’ and ‘yelling.’

·         30% are regularly given unrealistic guidelines

·         52% must work 12-hour days

Most leaders have no idea about the unhealthy state of their workplaces. It’s the last thing on their mind, especially when the only metrics they are concerned about are the P&L reports. They don’t work with their team; they separate themselves from them.

• They do know what their customers need

• They can recite their product list by heart

• But they don’t know much about the people who are getting the work done

This is important because people will work harder for leaders who care about them as individuals.

Three out of ten people are uncaring about the work they do, the quality of their work, or giving leaders their best ideas and energy, and they are actively recruiting others in the workplace to join them in their discontent.

They feel invisible.

The best leaders LEARN how to make people feel valued and appreciated. If you have felt invisible at past workplaces, you will need to learn this skill because it wasn’t modeled for you. I know. I was one of the ones not shown the right way in my early career.

Things you will need to learn:

•         Be a strategic force by rewarding behaviors you want repeated

•         Be a superior communicator so that no one tunes out when a peer is being recognized

•         Create an emotional bond between those you manage

•         Be intentional in educating managers and team members so that they can be better at what they do.

•         People who feel appreciated perform much better, which will affect your bottom line.

You want your team members to be on fire! Once they achieve a goal and are recognized and rewarded for it, they will try to figure out how to do it again, or how to do it better.

A good leader knows how to find the invisible team members and bring them out of the shadows, spurring them to reach their full potential. By recognizing their accomplishments, you will build stronger teams and businesses.

Here are a couple of examples of how people feel invisible:

•         Lost in a conference call, not recognized as being on the call

•         Their first name is never used, called ‘that girl’

Invisible people can do incredible work, but the only way they know how to fight back is to stay invisible. Why shine if no one is going to notice?

There is a solution to this, and it doesn’t cost any more money! Sometimes leaders think that throwing more money at a problem will solve it. The best way to move your team from ordinary to extraordinary is very simple:

•         Set a guiding vision

•         Actively see team achievements that move the business forward

•         Celebrate those achievements

Great leaders lead people, not programs, processes, or functions. 79% of people leave a company because of a lack of recognition or appreciation. They don’t leave because of money; they often leave because of management. And the most talented will be the first to go because they have more options.

It’s a balancing act. How much praise versus criticism is enough? Praise must outweigh criticism by a five-to-one margin to achieve a high-performance culture (Gallup research). Many think a one-to-one ratio is good enough, but you don’t get anywhere.

Example. That dress looks great on you! It doesn’t make you look so heavy. You've gotten nowhere.

When your team trusts you to recognize their efforts, polls show that 79% of them say they are inspired to do their best work every day.

A leader is only as good as their people. With praise, you and your team are always at your best.

Turnover is very costly. Most in management understand that they will spend about 5-6K to replace one person. This includes advertising for the position, training, lost opportunities, possible temp replacement, interview time, and orientation. Even if you are running a small team, this can be very costly to your business.

What is not taken into account is the loss of valuable knowledge, customer service disruptions, loss of client knowledge, lost sales costs, emotional costs, loss of morale, and burnout among remaining members.

A great leader connects with their team, always looking for the hidden potential in everyone and bringing it to light. Finding beautiful gems in the making is a plus, more ways than one.

#leadership #management #recognition #teamwork #potential

Debra Lee | Author & Keynote Speaker | Biz & Life Coach

DLBizServices.com