The Secret to Aligning Teams for Fast Results
Written by Renée Safrata - renee@reneevations.com, January 18th, 2010
People often say to me, Renée, you make teamwork look so easy—what’s your secret? Well, the quick answer is, it’s all in how you apply emotional intelligence. When it comes to aligning teams to get the results and productivity you want, the fastest way to do that is to start with this simple team building exercise called the “check-in.” (Not seeing a video-screencast below? Click here)
Let me tell you a story about how the check-in works. I was working with a team last month, and they had this wonderful VP of Marketing. She walked into a meeting and the first thing she did was not dive into the agenda. Instead, she took a couple of minutes to share where she was at—and in detail. She talked about the four projects she was managing and how two had just derailed. In short, she did a check-in, and invited everyone else at the meeting to do one too. In less than 10 minutes, she had re-focused and aligned everyone around results.
Now if you think about it that rarely happens. Usually, meetings go something like this.
You call a meeting. As the team leader, you’re focused on the agenda—there’s a lot to get through. But in truth, your mind is all over the place. You’re thinking about the numbers, some client problem, a personnel issues, a business opportunity. You’re barely at the meeting—your mind is back at your computer or on the phone.
What if you took a moment to do a check-in, just like the VP of Marketing did in our example?
What if, starting with you, the team leader, you went around the table and gave everyone a chance to dump all the data and details in their heads? Each person would get a couple of minutes to talk about what’s going on for them right now. Everyone else would just listen.
That’s the check in. It’s simple and fast and it works. Give people a chance to get the swirl out of their heads and amazing things start to happen. People shift from being preoccupied by their internal agendas to connecting with each another. They develop empathy as they hear what other people are going through. They get aligned and get results.
The check-in is a great example of applied Emotional Intelligence. What it’s really doing is raising everyone’s self-awareness, and in doing that, creating connection and alignment.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes. The next time you call a meeting, start with the check-in. Before you jump into the agenda, give yourself and your team a chance to dump out all the distracting stuff first. You’ll be amazed at how easy and quickly you get full engagement, and how that kind of focus can make productivity soar.
Interested in more on developing emotional intelligence within your team?
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