Team maintenance is easy to overlook. You’ve got stuff to do. Your team has stuff to do.
THE PROBLEM
People are the best part of your business, and they’re the hardest part. Your team has an operating system, an engine, that defines the way it functions.
Company culture.
And Deloitte gives us a few striking statistics:
- “94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success.”
- While they know culture is important, fewer than 1 in 3 report understanding their company’s culture and the forces that shape it.
- And only 12% of executives believe their company is driving the right culture.
“Driving” culture is an interesting and apt analogy.
A great team is a high performance machine — like a BMW. And like most drivers, most leaders don’t know how to keep what’s under the hood in great tune.
And that’s nobody’s fault. It’s why there are mechanics in the world.
Unfortunately, most leaders don’t do much to keep the machine in tune. They leave it to chance.
THE SOLUTION — Team maintenance
Get that hood open. Make sure the plugs are gapped correctly. Insure the timing is tight. Deliberately install the culture you want, and maintain it carefully and consistently.
As a high performance machine, it has narrow tolerances and the habits your people bring from outside will press against your efforts. You’ll notice significant entropy, dragging down on performance, engagement, and satisfaction of the team. Invest in Team maintenance.
Rather than being frustrated, you can choose to expect that. And accept that. Just as BMW drivers accept that a high-performance machine needs frequent attention to maintain optimal performance.
IMPORTANT ADDENDUM
Some leaders are culture geeks. They’ve studied the science and they fanatically follow the emerging data. They put as much attention on the culture as they do on the technical aspects of their business.
Others don’t have that geek-out level of interest and insight.
Neither is a better or worse leader.
Just as there are tech CEOs who are coding geniuses, there are also tech CEO’s who can’t write a single line of code. Their strength is in knowing which they are, and getting the right support where their knowledge and interest is thinner.
And the first kind — the geeker-outers — can only be that person up to a point. When the company grows, they need to find ways to scale their influence.
And when you need help, The Yes Works is here to provide training and support for World-Class collaboration on your team.
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