We focus a lot on building smart organizations that feature three key ingredients for success: a strong mission, industry expertise and solid business acumen. But it’s also important to consider the health of your business.
For starters, does your leadership team trust each other and hold one another accountable to what they have committed to doing? Are everyone’s roles in the organization crystal clear?
Getting “healthy” is not about creating a kumbaya moment. It’s about diving deep into your organization to bring the best out of everyone at every level. In a healthy organization, people set their fears aside and bring an authentic passion and enthusiasm to their work.
In his best-selling books, The Advantage and The FIVE Dysfunctions of a TEAM, Patrick Lencioni directly addresses this key piece of business success. Consider the five behavioral attributes necessary to build a cohesive/healthy leadership team:
Building Trust
Mastering Conflict
Achieving Commitment
Embracing Accountability
Focusing on Results
It all begins with trust
Lencioni’s “trust” concept refers to a deeper, more vulnerable version than the word’s traditional definition — he is referring to the ability to be totally authentic about one’s failures, weaknesses and fears without being crushed during the process. Achieving this level of trust and the ability to master healthy conflict is a crucial step toward elevating your organization’s health. We so often see conflict as bad or dysfunctional, but team members should embrace the process of eliciting passionate arguments around differing points of view.
Experiencing healthy conflict leads to the third attribute: the willingness to commit to decisions you don’t necessarily agree with. You had your say, everyone listened, and then a decision was reached — now it’s time to move on. Healthy teams quickly move on to the next stage: accountability.
Holding people accountable to what they committed to doing is more than an individual endeavor; it’s a requirement for the entire team. If one person looks away when a team member falls short of their commitment, the whole team suffers.
It all leads to quicker and better results
By focusing on building a healthier, more transparent team, you will achieve quicker, more substantial results. You’ll also see that your journey becomes more satisfying and fun.
How’s the health of your team?
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