In all great organisations, people are able to speak their minds and also share the truth with compassion. The worst organisations are those where staff consistently agrees with their bosses. If truth is not readily accepted within the organisation, discontentment will usually be the result. And when discontentment grows to hatred, no amount of team building can save the organisation.

When some of these organisations engage me to help them in their team building programs, I will usually tell them that the problem lies beneath the surface and needs them to have a heart to heart talk with their staff. Some activities just simply do not change the matters of the heart.

How do you create a work climate where truth is heard and accepted? Allow me to share a few suggestions:

1. Ask Questions And Encourage Your Staff To Do The Same

Questions should not be seen as being disobedient, intrusive or disloyal but a way of asking ourselves whether present processes work or what we do better? Great leaders use informal sessions where they ask innocent questions like: “What’s on your mind?” “Do you think it works?” “Can you help me understand?” “If you were making the decision, what would you do?” Great leaders use this to gain understanding about their staff and are not threatened when they give feedback. Once you have asked questions, encourage them to ask you back the same questions.

2. Engage Their Questions

Leaders always engage their staff when they ask questions. It is also important to acknowledge all questions as good questions. They also constantly encourage their staff by acknowledging their boldness when asking questions.

If your staff point out that things are not working out, just agree with them in humility. There is no point justifying when the end results show for themselves. Doing so will only aggravate your staff. However, it is important to all agree that once they have shared their point of view, everyone puts the matter behind them and move on.

Another useful method is to engage in a debate. Engage people in debating to and fro; allowing all to express their views. I have often been humbled by the quality of suggestions and improvements when a rigorous debate has taken place. Sometimes debates do get heated up, but it is necessary to allow them to express themselves to a certain limit. At the end of the session, all great leaders have to ensure that they have reached a solid conclusion.

3. Evaluate without pointing fingers

It is so easily to pin-point who makes the mistake. A lot of time is wasted when we start identifying which particular person made the mistake. When Philip Morris acquired 7-UP in 1978, they sold it eight years later at a loss. In one of the interviews with CEO Joe Cullman, he took personal responsibility for the loss, rather than blame his executives. In fact, he dedicated 5 pages in his book, I’m a lucky guy, to analysing how bad his decision was. It analysed the mistake, its implications and lessons. Joe went on to say that if he only listened to people who opposed his plan at that time, the disaster might have been averted. He also made sure that the media knew that it was another Joe Cullman plan that didn’t work.

He said “I will take personal responsibility for the bad decision. But we will all take responsibility for extracting the maximum learning from the tuition that they have paid.”

Conclusion

When leaders start asking questions and encouraging their staff to do the same, it is inevitable that they will start asking good questions that will steer the organisation. If we support this openness and without pointing fingers when things go wrong, we will inevitably have a group of staff that will have no fear and consistently speak the truth.

I rather surround myself with people who sharpen me and speak the truth, would you agree?

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How to Slash Staff Turnover And Create Transformational

Change In Your Team Performance

Do you struggle with office politics and a dispirited work environment? Are your colleagues constantly talking about problems in the work place or new challenges they are excited to overcome? Do they become guarded when they share or do they display open trust and support whenever they talk?

What’s the difference between a Great Team and a Mediocre one? In all the organisations that I have been to, they set specific objectives for the whole year. They expect their staff to achieve higher profits, better efficiency or reduce operational costs. While this is important, my question is: “How many of them actually take time to develop and coach their Team towards better dynamics and cohesiveness?

It is the people that make the team and not just because you want better results, you will definitely get it. This is important because when the team is under pressure to perform, it will be the strong relationships between colleagues that will prevail and NOT your expectations of their performance.

There are 7 Deadly secrets that I want to share with you right now to propel your team to greater heights. Follow them and people will follow you.

1.    Purpose and Mission Driven

What drives your people to work everyday? Are they there to work for a living or are they going to a work that is purposeful. In my experience, most people start of trying to find a sense of purpose and fulfilment in their work. However, over time, they lose this sense of WHY THEY HAVE TO DO THINGS and everything starts to become just work.

It is important as a leader to always remind each person on your team WHY they are doing things, WHY they are involved in a project that is not part of their work scope, WHY they have to put in more effort and etc. This is because without the WHY, there is no ownership in their work. It is important to constantly remind and realign staff, especially when the going gets tough and the staff are under tremendous pressure to achieve results.

Every year, Fortune magazine lists out the Top 100 Companies to work for. A particular company (within the top 10) lists how they were able to share their Corporate Vision with the rest of their employees. From the Head of Departments right down to the administrative staff, all know that they have a vital role to play in creating a better quality of life for their patients who suffer from life-threatening diseases. Even in the annual staff meetings, this company invites a few of their patients to give testimony to how their drugs were able to give them a new lease of life and extend their fragile life by many more years.

If you want to read the rest of this article, just fill up your name and email address in the FREE special report above!

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