I hope you find this second installment in our series of FREE leadership tips, webinars, and infographics helpful as you work to innovate, avoid management pitfalls, and lead through these troubled times and into a brighter future. Drop me an email and let me know if these topics are helpful to you.
LEADING THROUGH CRISIS
Topic #2: Healthy Teams Make Healthier Decisions
During normal times, cracks in the health of a leadership team can go unnoticed and/or unmanaged. Issues of team trust and direction can seem minor and too difficult to correct. While the health of your entire organization is always a mirror image of the health of its leadership teams, it is in times of extreme pressure that cracks in team health can become too obvious and too damaging to ignore.
As a leader, it is crucial to take the time needed to ensure that your team is built on TRUST and SHARED VISION. Without these attributes, strong personalities, entrenched battle lines, and mixed organizational vision can lead teams to make decisions that cause much damage to the organization.
TRUST is the first essential strength that all teams must-have. How can you determine the health of your team regarding trust? MEASURE CONFLICT– but not in the way that you may think. High trust teams exhibit health in this area by having MORE CONFLICT - NOT LESS. The fact is that teams with low trust will have little or no conflict because team members with strong personalities will ignore dissenting views and/or bully without letting alternative solutions be fully discussed. In these teams, members simply shut down rather than sharing ideas that might help the group make better decisions. Team members who trust each other enough to engage in healthy conflict, however, generate an atmosphere of vulnerability, creativity, synergy, and productivity that unhealthy teams will never have. Healthy conflict is a sure sign that team members trust and value each other and are willing to listen to opposing views.
SHARED VISION is the second “must-have” for high performing teams. Once trust is established, it is essential that team members work together (yes – healthy conflict will ensue) to identify the shared mission, vision, and priorities for your organization. Certainly, all educational institutions share the mission of “educating students” but what does that mission look like in your community? What are the specific concerns, strengths, cultures, and other factors that make up your educational setting? How do those things impact the way that you execute the mission of your educational system in specific and meaningful ways?
Only with a shared vision in place can you ensure that your team's decisions will most effectively, efficiently, and practically meet the needs of the students you serve. In addition, once your team agrees on a shared vision, it becomes the “north star” that aids your team in answering the “why” questions in ways that make. implementation decisions faster, stronger, and more effective.
As a leader, YOU MUST TAKE BOLD ACTION to ensure that your team(s) are healthy because Healthy Teams make Healthier Decisions.
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Finally, to register for a FREEweb conference where you will join other Education Professionals across the nation to discuss this topic further. During this 45 minute web conference we will learn more about this leadership concept and will give you time to share and receive TIPS, TRAPS, and STRATEGIES, that will help you lead your organization through COVID-19 and into a successful "new normal".
Thank you for all that you do to serve the students and communities to which you have been entrusted.
If there is any way that you feel Educational Management Solutions may be able to provide assistance to your organization please feel free to check out our websitewww.emsaccess.com or email me directly at fred@emsaccess.com.
Until my next Email - keep looking for ways to lead!
Fred Corn
Chief Executive Officer
Educational Management Solutions
fred@emsaccess.com
(760) 889-9591