1. Ask team members to rate on a 1 to 10 scale how excited they feel about the team’s goals.
You might want them to do it anonymously to prevent the “what they think you want to hear” responses. If you don’t get at least 8s, this is a key area for you to work on.
2. How passionate are you about the goals of the team you lead?
If you aren’t hitting an 8 on the 1 to 10 scale, there is no way the people you lead will.
3. Check the bar you are setting for your team. Is it at the right level to be challengingenough to create energy?
If your immediate though was “You’ve gotta be kidding! We’ve got goals that are nearly impossible to reach,” check how you are leading your team toward these goals:
- Are you keeping the goals positively in front of your team members as an exciting challenge that you believe can be achieved, rather than an onerous task that somehow must be got through? If you don’t believe attaining the goals is possible, those you lead won’t believe it either.
- Are you building energy for the big challenges by consistently celebrating the small wins? Do you take every opportunity to recognize and reward individual performance as well as team performance?
About the author:
Leslie Bendaly is recognized as a leading thinker and practitioner in the areas of organizational leadership, teamwork and change. She is the founding partner of Kinect Inc. and author of several books on leadership including on Strength in Numbers, Winner Instinct, Organization 2005, Games Teams Play and Leadership on the Run. Leslie co-authored her latest book, Improving Healthcare Team Performance: The 7 Requirements for Excellence in Patient Care with Nicole Bendaly. Her models, tools and books are used in organizations worldwide and her books have been selected as mandatory reading for MBA and other postgraduate programs in both the U.S.A. and Canada.