Empathetic Leader Uses Team Building to Achieve More
I had the pleasure of working with the leader of a company (let’s call her Maggie) who had a team of twenty-three very creative and dynamic employees who were excited about the work they did but who couldn’t seem to come together to get things done more efficiently. They had a lot of enthusiasm but took a long time to get things done because people would go off on tangents and overcomplicate things. She cared for her staff greatly and said they all got along quite well and worked hard, it was just that things would routinely become derailed for one reason or another. She was looking for a way to harness her employees’ energy and help them work together better.
While corresponding with Maggie, it became clear that she wanted her staff to succeed and that all she needed was some kind of strategy to improve collaboration. Here’s what I noticed as we worked together.
Her Strengths
- Empathetic and kind.
- Treats employees well.
- Pays everyone well and provides benefits.
- Avoids power differentials.
- Has an open-door policy to address concerns.
- Morale is good.
- Attentive to employee needs.
- Able to keep employees motivated.
Areas for Improvement
- A lack of a structured way to help people collaborate as a team and make something happen.
What We Worked on Improving
All Maggie really needed was some kind of methodology she could follow to build more effective teams, so I developed a team building approach she and her staff could use to work together well and get more done. The issue at hand wasn’t that people didn’t want to collaborate, but rather that they didn’t know how. I created a methodology they could follow to move beyond perpetual brainstorming to deciding what to take action on and assigning tasks that people would take ownership of.
The Results
Maggie informed me that the new approach made it much easier for her team members to come together, choose something to work on, and see tangible results. She said that they went from feeling disorganized and unfocused to having a sense of direction and that they were able to actually get more done with less effort. It also came to light that they realized the missing element was simply having some kind of system they could follow to take all their enthusiasm, creativity, and drive and focus it into taking action. The result was that they were able to collaborate effectively and achieve more than they had in the past.
What are your thoughts? Share your story below. I look forward to hearing from you.