By Steve Moran

 

 

 

 

I am currently involved in two organizations that I care passionately about. Each one has significant workplace cultural issues. It is obvious to the leaders that their organizations have problems and don’t function the way they should or the way they want them to. But they are completely clueless as to the WHY, or how to fix it.

And this is not even the worst part of it.

They are completely 100% clueless that they ARE THE PROBLEM and that it is 100% in their power and control to fix it.

In both cases, the fundamental problem is that those being led do not have a real and serious commitment to the organization. This is because the leaders have given them few if any, reasons to be committed.

It drives me crazy because these leaders don’t want to hear it. They have just decided that it is not their problem. Rather, it is the fault of the people they lead.

If you are struggling to get your teams, your volunteers behind your organization, and you as a leader, you might be the problem.

Are you not sure?

Is This You?

Ask yourself these 10 questions about how you interact with your team. Initially, I was going to create a scorecard for these. But if you are willing to be introspective and honest with yourself, you will know whether you are hitting or missing the mark.

Here they are:

  1. How often do you thank your team members in public?
  2. How often do you talk about how your team members are a part of something big and special?
  3. Can you articulate what makes your organization or part of the organization special?
  4. How often do you simply sit with the people you lead and ask them, “How are you doing?”And then pay attention to the answer and affirm it or help if they are struggling?
  5. How often do you do this with the people on your team that you like the least? You know there are some of those.
  6. How often do you take the time to ask a team member to teach you something?
  7. How do your team members know they are doing a good job?
  8. When someone makes a mistake how do you handle it?
  9. How often do you say, “I am sorry, I got that wrong”?
  10. How often do you say, “Just go do it, you don’t need to ask permission”, and mean it?

If you are thinking, “that’s not me” about any of the 10, don’t beat yourself up. It just tells you that you have some easy wins right at your fingertips.

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