The Power of TEAM

Peter is an Executive Director of a not-for-profit that works with people experiencing homelessness. Their focus is transitional housing, recovery and vocational programs and job employment.

The success rate of the program is over 70%, which is incredible considering the challenges the homeless face.

Though Peter’s organization was hitting high numbers, he came to me frustrated with the toxicity of his employees.

He was bothered by the high turnover, low morale and dismill ratings by HR in exit interviews.

He would lie awake at night, wondering what was wrong. The vision was clear, funding was plentiful, strategies were successful yet the constant turnover of employees made him doubt his leadership.

At a very insightful 2 day retreat, I identified 4 things lacking which were contributing to low moral and high turnover.

The first was...

A lack of TRUST.

“Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.” ― Patrick Lencioni

Though everyone believed in the vision and had huge passion for the mission, many felt they were operating in silos and people were in it for themselves. Motives from superiors were questioned and bottom lines and numbers were more important than people.

I encouraged Peter to take his teams through the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni. This book describes how trust is the foundation for producing organizational health that leads to organizational growth.

The second was...

2. A lack of ENERGY

“In the minds of great managers, consistent poor performance is not primarily a matter of weakness, stupidity, disobedience, or disrespect. It is a matter of miscasting.” ― Marcus Buckingham

During the retreat, I met Sarah, who worked in the recovery part of the program. Sarah had a huge passion for and was a trained expert in helping people overcome addictions. She had a natural gift to be in front of people and an ability to rally people around a cause. She could energize a room. When I asked her what she loved most about her job, she said it was working face to face with the clients. When I asked her what frustrated her the most about her job, it was how she spent most of her time filling out detailed paperwork to secure grants and funding.

Sarah was wired up for people, not paperwork. She loved what the organization did but was discouraged by the role she was assigned. She was thinking of looking for other work. I found Sarah’s example common within the organization.

When working in our passions and strengths, there is a natural sense of energy and excitement.

When working in areas that are not our strengths, we get drained and disillusioned quickly.

I recommended Peter to take his team through “Now Discover Your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham. This book helps people find their top strengths where the goal is to work in them 80% of the time.

The third was...

3. A lack of positive ATTITUDE

“Attitude: It is our best friend or our worst enemy. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.” John Maxwell

Peter had to own this one. Peter had a way of focusing on what was not working and not celebrating what was.

A leader sets the tone.

A leader looks at problems as opportunities.

Without problems, we need no leaders.

When a leader’s attitude is, “Challenges are just opportunities to get better and do something great!” teams begin to live that out through courage and boldness.

When a leader goes negative, teams avoid problems and failures and quickly become discouraged.

My challenge to Peter was to read John Maxwell’s book “The Power of Attitude” and to begin to own the fact he is the number one determiner of healthy attitudes in his teams.

The last was...

4. A lack of MATURATION

As we spent time during this retreat, there was one more thing I observed. Many employees felt there was the inability to grow and advance in their skills and careers.

Most of the people leaving Peter’s organization did not feel invested in. They felt stuck without the ability to expand their career. In fact, there was an underlying feeling that you would be penalized if you talked about future goals or dreams.

There was also an underlying fear from Peter and his leadership team that if they invested in people, they would leave and other organizations would benefit.

Truth is, when people feel their organization is interested in their personal and vocational growth, they will stay.

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When the retreat was over, I met with Peter and told him about my findings and he was humbled and open to the changes that needed to happen.

We put together a healthy TEAM strategy to move them towards positive, organizational growth.

Trust: To build trust.

Energize: To get people in the right place.

Attitude: To lead the way in building positive attitudes when problems come.

Maturation: To build into and help people grow in their careers and life.

GOOD NEWS: A year later, Peter’s TEAM strategy is working.

He not only is keeping his best people, he has had far less turnover. There is a high level of energy and morale. And the exit interviews that do happen have commented that they appreciate the effort of leadership in investing in their personal and vocational growth.

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." Andrew Carnegie