One grey, cold Monday morning about six months into her new leadership position, Jerri looked out the window and thought, "Did I make the right choice in taking this position?"
She sighed and remembered how well everything had begun. They were all genuinely excited to be working together. The first month had gone well. During that time the team had conducted a day-long work session where areas of focus were collectively identified, performance measures aligned, and assignments designated. Jerri went home that Friday and excitedly told her wife, "I really love this team and know we are going to do great things together!"
Now, that seemed to her, just wishful thinking. Teammates were in open disagreement about their workload, her leadership, and the team's direction. She had done what the leadership books said and empowered her team. So, she wondered, "how did we get to this?"
At that moment Tom was walking by her office and asked, "You doing okay?"
Without turning, Jerri said, "Not really. I have no idea what to do about my team."
"I have a minute. Do you want to talk?" he asked.
Twenty minutes later, Jerri had laid it all out. People on her team were regularly showing signs of stress; very little collaboration, meetings now had her doing all the talking with long, uncomfortable silences when she tried to solicit input, on a nearly daily basis people were expressing frustration with one another, all the planning they had done six months ago had been forgotten, and worst of all her director had begun expecting more production from her team.
Tom listened without saying a word.
"I'm so overwhelmed and need something, anything, to turn this around," Jerri quietly finished.
Tom took a deep breath and said, "You feel like your team is falling apart and could use some help."
"Yes," she whispered.
"Well, first let me ask a question. Do you know what motivates each person and what's triggering their stress behaviors?"
"No, not really. I mean I just assumed it was the normal work stress we all deal with," she answered.
Tom chuckled, "Yeah, that's what I used to think too. I now know it's more than that. Because we are all unique, we each have our own needs. Understanding that, and learning what they are for me, and each person on my team, has been a real eye-opener."
Jerri sat up, "How did you do that? Did you do interviews with them? Send out a survey? What did you do?"
"I can relate to where you are. I contacted the Center for Organizational Effectiveness, COE, and they recommended we all take the Birkman Method behavioral assessment, have individual debriefs, and a team work session. The assessment is online and takes about 20 minutes to complete. Soon after, we were emailed our individual results and went through individual debriefs with one of their three certified Birkman professionals. I learned that I'm a 'doer' while most of my team are 'thinkers.' That means I must be aware when I'm pushing too hard for answers because they need time to process or they will shut down. I really liked learning about the nine components that drive my usual behavior, how I show up to others, what my stressors are, and how I act when stressed. For example, I like a fast pace and when stressed I actually speed up. That's when I need to trust what I now understand is the team's need to have time to process. It was so hard to give up my need for speed, yet, when I sat on my hands and let them decide, it was a great outcome! That's not all we learned. For example, we learned our preferences for social, physical, and emotional energy, sensitivity when communicating, assertiveness, decision making, incentives, work focus, and approach to detail. You can have everyone do it individually. We also opted for a team work session because learning as a team is important to me."
"Seriously? That must have taken a huge commitment!" Jerri exclaimed.
"Not really. The Birkman assessment was only $250 per person. With the team session, it added just an extra $100 per person. The way I look at it is, yeah, it seems like a lot to spend. However, I think the team session was worth so much more than we paid. I now recognize and address my stress behaviors. Not only that, we all know the same about each other. It has helped us to proactively accept behaviors we used to judge as negative. I can honestly say, it's significantly decreased team stress and increased team productivity. Believe you me, I was hesitant to make such an investment. I guess the way I look at it is we can all benefit from some self-awareness. What I learned in the process about each person's needs and stressors could have taken me a long time to find out and even then probably not been very accurate," Tom explained. "Well, I guess I better get back to my team. Let me know if you would like to talk later."
Several months later, just before the start of a leadership meeting, Tom saw Jerri smiling and asked her, "How's the team doing?
"Better! So much better! I've been meaning to thank you for talking to me. I took your advice and contacted COE for Birkman's on my team and we also did the team session."
Jerri smiled and thought to herself, "Yeah, I made the right decision."
