We all continue to feel a little out of sorts when it comes to the changes in the world. We continue to hope that we will be able to get back to a little bit of normalcy, although we all know that “normal” has now been redefined. In that same perspective, there have been and will continue to be consistent changes in the way in which we work and operate our businesses, which means our teams are out there trying to navigate a storm we all hoped would have calmed by now. To that end, they are looking to you, their leader, to guide them. Today, I want you to realize that you need to be the anchor, get buy-in from your team to help them feel some sense of security and normalcy at work.
You see, your team has always looked to you and will continue to look to you for guidance and security. It’s part of what happens when you build trust within a team. When things are a bit hectic or the world has shifted under them, they look to you. You are their guiding force, the answer in the confusion.
Now, no doubt you have been providing that guidance and supporting them along the way. But as you continue to face business challenges, sometimes it may seem easier to simply make decisions, inform your team about the changes, and move on. Innocently, you think that you make a decision for them will alleviate some stress. Quite the contrary.
In a world that is ever-evolving, you being the anchor means they can count on you to continue to ask for their input, listen to it, consider it, and come up with a strategy that is a melting pot of ideas and suggestions. When you take that away from them, you have now just become one more change in their world. You have now become inconsistent.
Beyond that, because they are used to providing input and aligning with you on an idea before you proceed, you sharing the “answer” with them without giving them a chance to think through it, digest it, get comfortable with it, is yet another change they weren’t prepared for.
So you have hit them with two changes in one event, one change with your leadership style the other with the actual business change itself.
They need you to be the anchor they are used to having when weathering the storm of business changes. Don’t assume or think that you making decisions without their buy-in or input is what they want. They want you to be the collaborative leader you have always been, that they can count on. And they want to continue to have a voice in the way the team operates.
Your challenge today is to think about if you are being the anchor. Are you getting buy-in from your team or are you giving direction without collaboration?
Be Legendary!
