MaxiMeyer.com

Trust is critical in any team.  Without trust, it’s the equivilent of running a 10K race while carrying a 50-pound barbell.  It starts at the top and must be protected throughout the team… What does it look like?

When you don’t have trust:

• At the end of the day, everyone is protective of themselves, their projects, their opinions, and ideas
• Tough issues that should be addressed don’t as no one is willing to put their neck out on the line
• The tendency is to hide and cover-up issues rather than ask for help and expose issues
• Team members will work against each other rather than align, productivity goes in the tank
• People choose to keep their mouth shut rather than proactively helping someone else on the team
• Ideas and brainstorming becomes flat and safe- no one wants to be ridiculed or held accountable for a bad idea
• The leader is often a major cause with lack of consistency, talks about other staff members behind their backs, hasn’t created a safe environment, and tolerates others doing the same

How can you take steps to infect your team with trust?

• It starts with you.  Admit your mistakes and go to the people you’ve broken trust with and apologize.  Then work and pray like mad to be authentic in your leadership.
• In brainstorming sessions, create an environment where no idea is a bad idea- As soon as you start shutting down ideas in meetings, your team will immediately filter their ideas or say nothing at all.
• Don’t allow people to gossip. Pour water on the gossips fires, don’t add fuel.
   If someone is talking to you about someone, encourage them to talk directly to that person rather than you to work it out.  (Obviously, resist the urge to gossip yourself)
• Reprimand or correct one on one, not in front of the group.  If necessary, call a break in a meeting to talk to someone individually privately. 
• Each member of your team needs to know you’re for them and their success.  Work to remove barriers for them, give them private, candid feedback so they can improve, and genuinely work to make them thrive.
• Give away praise.  When your team wins, use is as an opportunity to give credit to specific members who worked hard to accomplish something and let the team get the podium.  It’s not about you.
• Freely admit your weaknesses, your team already knows what they are.  There’s no sense in walking around like you have all the answers, you’ll simply be modeling dysfunction.
• Read Five Dysfunctions of a Team  together and start practicing better steps.

There are many days I look back and cringe at a small comment I made or where I missed opportunities to build others up…  Trust is a daily decision.

Who’s responsible?  Who owns the problems in your community?  At your church or business? 

Example:  The high school graduation drop out rate in your community is one of the worst in your state.  Parents are blaming the teachers, the teachers are asking for better pay and blaming the government, your city continues to be the poster child for getting an “F” in education, and finger pointing is everywhere.

This is a great opportunity for a team to simply step up and say, “We’re responsible.  We own it.  We got this.”

Imagine if a church said it “owned” the issue of failing schools in their community? But that would be crazy… It’s not their fault, they don’t even get the funding from the state, and only a tiny fraction of the kids even go to the church!

When a team simply takes responsibility and owns an issue, it eliminates the clutter and chatter and empowers them to actually get something done.  (Regardless if they were at fault or not)  What might happen?

• The goal becomes crystal clear, we need to improve the education and graduation rates in our community and we won’t stop at anything to make that happen
• Your team is forced to think solutions, not blame.  Suddenly an environment is created for brainstorming after school tutoring programs, rallying volunteers, support programs for teachers, networking with other organizations that have been trying to help, pre-school programs, and more…
• Excuses are simply a waste of time.  You’ve taken this on, the “yeah buts” don’t matter, and it’s time to go after the giant and cut it down.
• Assume you’ll have to pay for it.  Once you start expecting funds from the government or other outside entities, you’ve created an excuse or a barrier you don’t control.  But as you cast the vision and lead, chances are some unexpected help will come along the way.
• Assume your team will have to do all the work.  Again, lead with an ownership attitude, invite others along for the run, and chances are some others will come along side of you.
• Don’t do it for credit, do it for purpose.  Others will probably try to take credit for what your team does… if your efforts seem to go unnoticed keep going… and focus in on the purpose of how you’re making a real difference in your community and the lives of scores of people.

This is one simple example of hundreds of issues you could rally your team around.  These issues can be internal to your organization or external to your community.  They come in all sizes.  Infect your staff with responsibility and go after something big.

On Wednesday May 18th, I’ve been given the opportunity to chat for five minutes about creating a healthy church team- my topic will be “Safe is the Enemy of Great”.  For four hours, you can have the opportunity to watch a series of 5-minute clips from great leaders giving you insight on how to raise the bar with your staff and teams. While preparing for the video shoot, I realized how much difficult it is to pack five minutes related to teams, staff, and everything that they entail.  Leading up to the May 18th event, I plan to post a series of blogs for overflow content.

I’m honored and jazzed to be part of this- looking at the line-up I highly recommend attending this event… after all, it’s free!  More details on the event are here:  

http://www.staffinfection.tv/main.html

While this is primarily for church leaders, the reality is I live in both the corporate and ministry world.  The principles for building a healthy team span across all organizations. 

So what would you share in five minutes about building a healthy team?