In Part 1 of Sarah's story, we learned that Sarah wants to cultivate a high-performance team aligning individual purpose and drive to team and organizational vision; to create a work environment her team is excited to work in every day, which creates a drive to work with pleasure, drive and achieves results above and beyond expectations. Sarah completed a self-assessment and came to understand what she needs to do. The problem is she's finding it hard to achieve it and continue to meet organizational demands. She's exhausted.
So what does Sarah do. For a long while she does nothing. One year goes by with no tangible progress. During her yearly reflection she assesses the situation:
🔺 Her team is still achieving the company goals.
🔻 She has had some turnover, which was expected and within normal standards.
🔻 Her team is still split between low, average and high performers and she is spending most of her time with the low performers.
🔻 She fears she may lose some good people if she doesn't do something fast.
🔻 She feels like she is drowning sometimes trying to please everyone and is depleated.
While the situation doesn't look too badly on paper, she feels that the future is not bright.
She needs to reinvent how her team approaches their daily work. But how?
She came across the work of Nadya Zhexembayeva, the Queen of Reinvention who is taking the world by storm. She downloaded her reinvented book, TITANIC SYNDROME: Why Companies Sink and How to Reinvent Your Way Out of Any Business Disaster, and was hooked.
So she started thinking, "If I want to reinvent how I lead and how the team works, then I must truly understand where I am now and what I stand for today". In defining the present, she will be in a better position to design the future. A big question that she had never thought about before.
So she wrote some questions down and starting thinking of answers:
🤔 Do people know what I stand for? My goals, aspirations, vision?
🤔 Why do I do what I do? Are my words, actions, thoughts aligned to the behaviour I want to see in my future team?
🤔 Do I truly understand my own purpose and how it aligns to every team member's purpose and to the organizational goals?
While she felt that the people around her may know her intentions, she could not be exactly sure. Everyone is so busy doing and they don't stop to reflect, assess, share and plan.
Plus she was skeptical. Even if she had answers to all these questions, would she really want to share them?
"Why would I want to be vulnerable with the people I work with who may use it against me or misinterpret my intentions? Seems risky."
She thought long and hard about whether this was the path she wanted to embark on.
Read Part 3 here.
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I’m the founder of Harvest Performance, a leadership development agency that turns emerging leaders (of all ages) into purpose-driven, ground-breakers who leave a positive impact on the world.
I work with global aviation professionals, executives, emerging entrepreneurs, graduate students, and learning leaders.
Through my foundational degrees in Communication and Educational Technology (with distinction) I discovered a gift of connecting with people to help them create a strong connection with others.
I am also an award-winning author of the Ken Blanchard endorsed book, The Apple in the Orchard: a story about finding the courage to emerge, which birthed the Take the Leap! Make an Impact program for those looking for growth and meaning in their every day.
Let’s talk about how I can assist you and your team in building stronger, more powerful connections, and to get an eVersion of my book, drop me a line at sonia@harvestperformance.ca.
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