Identify Current Team Roadblocks

Day 9

Welcome to Day 9 of the March Forth Leadership Challenge. We focused yesterday on getting the team’s focus narrowed down to one specific goal to work on together. That’s great progress!

Reflection:

Let’s try to identify some roadblocks that could keep your team from achieving their ONE thing (and that could be derailing other goals too).

As the team leader, there’s a degree to which you should look in the mirror first. Just by virtue of their position and skill level, leaders can sometimes intimidate.

Team members who are intimidated can be fearful to share problems they’re running into or feel dumb asking questions. If they get stuck and can’t move forward with their portion, it’s going to affect the whole team’s progress.

What’s your personal leadership style like?

• Do you ever share freely about mistakes you’ve made, bad decisions, or failures? This openness won’t cause your team to lose respect - they’ll know you’re human too and love you for that.
• Do you ever make a point of walking around to chat and see how everyone on the team is doing, aside from their work?
• Are you trustworthy? If you say that you’re going to do something or will get back to them on a question, ensure that you do.

What about the overall work culture? Are there aspects of the work culture in general that keep your team from feeling like a unit?

Too many interruptions, no opportunities for fun or relaxation as a team, one or two people carrying the bulk of the work while others have a much lighter load - these can all keep a team from feeling cohesive.

Action:

Go back and review the exercise on Day 3 about personal roadblocks. Choose a few of the personal roadblocks you uncovered that derail your plans and goals.

Share your roadblocks honestly with the members of your team. Do it today. Ask them what personal roadblocks they encounter.

Transition to asking about roadblocks your team members experience in their current work culture. This typically is hard for people to feel comfortable sharing. You’ll need to encourage them - give examples again if they’re hesitating. You could give an example that you’ve seen in the office or experienced in another workplace.

Encourage team members to talk about what they see or experience and help each other find strategies to combat these issues.

Tomorrow we’ll formulate the steps of a team action plan for your ONE thing.

Until Tomorrow, 

Kyle Sexton