The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Your Team Sees You | FF38

Episode Date: October 8, 2021

Whether we’re leading a project, coaching kids on a sports team or the Section Chief for a special event, we as leaders need to always remember that our team sees us. It’s up to us to provide the best example and support for them that we can.

Welcome to Foundations Friday 38. Your team sees you. What does that mean? So one, it's pretty straightforward, right? Whether you're a project manager or a stakeholder or the sponsor of a project or program or product, whether you're the coach of a little league or a high school or a middle school team, whether you are the section chief on a big event or incident or the incident commander or general of entire organization, entire army or Marine Corps or whatever, Air Force, your team sees you. We've all seen leaders who, even with their whole team's eyes on them, act like it's just the team's fault. They're not taking ownership for how they did or didn't prepare their teams,

for mistakes their teams made, and for giving up on their teams in front of them. And that's unacceptable when you're on a Zoom call, letting your emotions get the best of you. And there's times when maybe we need to kind of be more direct in our speech and kind of speak up and those kind of things. But rolling our eyes and looking away and making faces when we're on the zoom calls or storming away after a bad play.

If you're the coach of a team that, that made a mistake, how did we prepare them? Did we get them ready? Did I set this team up for success? Did I give them enough information? Did they just make a mistake? Did they make a blatant mistake or a bad decision? Either way, if you're in a position of leadership, when we're in positions of leadership and folks see us, it is up to us to be the example. We're not all perfect. We're going to make mistakes, and that's part of my lessons and my sharing. Certainly when I was younger in my career and given authority when I was in the Navy, I went to my head a bit and thought, oh, I've got to use this rank

and be just like the drill sergeants and wrong, right? And now, older, being 47 and having some life experience and leadership experience under my belt and just seeing how some adults lead kids or don't or yell during games or how they act on calls or in meetings it's just it's not acceptable and we can do better and we should do better and I think we always need to remind ourselves my team sees me my team sees how I'm acting they hear how I'm speaking they watch what I do or don't follow up on. They know whether I'm supporting them or not, or whether I've given up on them.

But I appreciate you all for not giving up on this show, for doing the best that you can out in the world, for getting after it. I hope you're getting healthy, doing some exercise, and washing those hands, and staying safe. And I wish you Godspeed.