Helping individuals, businesses, and organization leaders through coaching, hiring assistance, behavioral assessments, problem solving, training, and facilitation
NO. Followed by a puzzled look and a little pushback.
Sometimes there is more to this NO than I can Explain.
Sometimes there is no time to give the explanation due to the circumstances.
Sometimes there are others around who cannot hear the details.
NO needs Trust.
Trust that when the awkward No arrives and seems out of context that there is something more at stake.
Trust that when the situation calms or the opportunity arises, the explanation will come.
Trust that trusts you.
It snowed. It snowed a lot. It is still snowing. In the next few hours the daunting task of digging out begins in our neighborhood, and neighborhoods all around us. These events cause a strange sense of teamwork that doesn’t always exist as we rally together and help each other. I have said before that sometimes snow is just what we need.
Let the teamwork begin! Now we just need a better way to keep this teamwork going when the snow isn’t falling outside.
Teamwork. There is a seemingly endless list of how to define it, thousands of books written about it, and the notion that we should all strive to obtain it. Teamwork has been rattling around in my head lately, and I was trying to remember a defining moment for any team where I was a member. Nothing was coming to mind until I met recently with a member of this team for breakfast.
This particular team had been through some rough times together, but also celebrated well during successes. The defining moment that I remember was during a meeting where we had been instructed to reduce our budget. It wasn’t just a little reduction, the reduction was large enough that it would cause everyone in the room to take a hit. I had instructed each of them to bring a list of what was important that needed to remain, and a list of what could be reduced.
One by one, each member of this team shared their list. The items on the lists were important things that would have a significant impact on each person’s part of the operation, their ability to provide the right level of service. After all the lists were read, it became quiet. Part of me expected the real battle to begin, and each person around that table would start lobbying about why their department should be retained, and someone else should take the cut.
It was at this very moment that I witnessed teamwork, and what I heard had and still has an impact on me.
“After listening to the group, their lists seem more important to the overall operation. I think I can reduce a little more.”
“I can take the hit, let’s make sure that other department has what it needs this year.”
“I don’t know how I am going to explain this to my employees, but I am withdrawing my list of needs, the other lists just seem more pressing.”
One by one, every member of that team saw the overall organization and operation as more important than their particular department, silo, or fiefdom. Each member of that team knew that the only “win” was ensuring that the organization “won” not whether or not it was a “win” for them individually.
How should we define teamwork? Maybe the definition is simple. Teamwork is when everyone that is working together can look beyond themselves, see the larger picture, and “take the hit” for others.
Carl Weber Consulting 