Why your team must stop being complacent and embrace a sense of urgency…
One of the most common frustrations I hear from business leaders is that their team members are ‘complacent’.
Now, let’s have a look at this for a moment. What does complacency look like to the business leader who drives the team?
Complacency looks like:
- Not meeting deadlines
- Saying yes and then not delivering on time
- Agreeing to deliver and then not delivering
- Not really caring if workflow is held up as a result of them being behind
Complacency looks like masquerading as a dedicated team player and then showing up as a self-focused individual who says what people want to hear to get everyone off their back. Complacency sounds like, “I’m waiting for xx to complete their piece” or, “I cannot start until I get xx from xx.”
The cost of this kind of interplay happening inside your team and your company is enormous as it erodes both morale and trust. Once trust is eroded, people withhold information and fail to contribute in ways that bring the business forward and progress the workload. In fact, this one thing is perhaps the biggest nightmare for directors and business leaders who run teams. It results in zero momentum. A high functioning team or business unit has a momentum of its own, and things ‘just happen’ – timelines and budgets are met, goals are achieved and results come without a lot of intervention.
When a business team is humming, there is a natural rhythm and a natural sense of accomplishment. Everyone is somehow, by osmosis, working to the same song sheet, on the same page and a whole other round of sayings that we hear often in business. While the sayings may sound glib, they’re quite true because the sense of urgency and drive is happening from within. It’s self-generated from the team rather than it being imposed on them by management or leaders.
When a business team is high performing, there is a lot of nodding and a lot of understanding. There are short meetings and people feel connected and understood. Their boundaries are respected and they are respected as valuable team members, contributing not only to their own deliverables but pitching in and filling gaps that appear when time pressures arise.
As a leader, it really is your responsibility to monitor work rhythm and what we refer to as the interplay and flow of the team. This style of leadership equips the team and enables the leader to step away from the day-to-day, giving you freedom of choice.
Would you like to understand how you can overcome complacency and activate energy in your team? Apply for a Strategy Call with one of our Team at Intercept so that we can understand what’s happening inside your business and share some of our methods. We’ll be able to see if working together is a fit, to support you to create a high performing team, and get everyone in your business on the same page.
Apply here: www.interceptexperience.com
Or email us: mail@interceptexperience.com
