Showing up for your team

This week, I had the pleasure of facilitating an offsite for what is effectively a brand new leadership team coming off the heels of some big change. We tackled a lot together - building trust, increasing empathy, having more generative conflict, and setting/following through on commitments to one another.

Toward the end of our time, a couple of team members elevated concerns they're hearing from their teams. A few critical behaviors stood out from this exchange -

• 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘂𝗽 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱. They didn't have to, but they knew it was necessary for the health of the team and they leveraged the moment.

• 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀. Others heard a need and immediately provided their colleagues with great ideas for helping their teams navigate change.

• 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗘𝗢. He listened, acknowledged, and - before we moved on - offered a clear "thank you" to them for raising it. There are a lot of ways he could have responded. He chose to reinforce an environment of psychological safety - one in which team members are encouraged to be honest and raise the tough stuff.

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘱 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱, 𝘫𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 (𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦). 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙪𝙥 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙩𝙤𝙙𝙖𝙮?