(By Buzz Knight) Great teams can be fragile. They silently do the job day in and day out, through thick and thin, good and bad, all with a sense of purpose and dedication. Yet, leaders can often take their teams for granted if they subscribe to a “no news is good news” philosophy about their team’s internal psyche and morale.
If you lead a team, no matter what the size, take stock of your team and the work they do. Stay very close to the pulse of your people.
While there are some quality sophisticated systems to track the internal psyche of your team, in the long run just figure out some method that regularly tracks how your team is feeling about various important workplace metrics. One workplace dynamic that is important to be aware of is the value proposition of the team.
When workers feel the value of co-workers who they enjoy being around, collaborating with, and striving to reach an aligned goal, it matters greatly to the organizational success. We have seen this time and again with great sports teams, who have quality players all around, whether they be positional starting players or players who provide utility.
So often, we’ve seen those game-day camera shots of two players on the bench, talking intensely and sharing insights. All boats rise when everyone is pulling for each other. Sometimes lack of internal communication can be the reason when internal psyche falls flat.
Team members don’t need to be exposed to everything that leaders at the top of organizations are dealing with, but they do need to feel in the loop and in the know about where an organization is headed. They also need to be aware of specific successes that have occurred. On many occasions when an organization is siloed, one department can have no idea what the other department is up to.
The greatest new challenge thrust on leadership has been the move to hybrid work methods since COVID. Some companies have moved back to an in-person work approach while others allow for some remote work options. This comes with extreme benefits for companies but also adds to the degree of difficulty for managers to monitor the internal psyche of their teams.
When the day is done, monitoring the overall health of an organization and its people is one of the most critical aspects of success and survival for companies today.
Buzz Knight can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Read Buzz’ Radio Ink archives here.
