3 Essential Things for Tackling the Needs of Your Team

Every team has been presented with some sort of challenge. In fact, some people might argue that the sole purpose of a team is to tackle problems and overcome challenges. While there are many great resources on how to build a successful team, we think there are really only three essential elements for teams to tackle problems and thrive.

In this episode, we discuss how to embrace compassion, courage, and connection to build successful teams. We also share a few tips for implementing these essential things on your team.

3 Essential Things for Tackling the Needs of Your Team

How do you build the right teams and help them to be cohesive, productive, and engaged so that they can find ways to thrive and provide value regardless of strain? 

How do you show up to tackle the big issues of our age? How is it that we as leaders show up for our employees? How is it that we as team members show up for each other so that we can address the issues that are extremely important? And then most importantly, how can we sustain the change? 

We believe what’s important is how we show up. As we invite teams, leaders, and team members to show up for each other, we ask that they show up with compassion, courage, and with an intent to build connection. 

1. Compassion

We build processes to help you learn to be present empathetic and responsible team members.

The idea of compassion is an invitation for us to be with other people in their struggles and challenges, and to understand that pain, struggle, and frustration is an authentic experience for each person. People really want to be known as individuals who are struggling, but oftentimes we feel alone. When you start to understand what compassion really is, it is edgy. It is intense. It is difficult.

Being compassionate to one another is an emphatic statement of caring for others. It’s also caring enough about ourselves to be honest with our reality and our feelings. We build esteem into our team members by listening to what they’re going through and paying attention. 

We all have compassion indicators that are at play when we’re in person. What are the compassion indicators in the virtual world? What are the things that you can know? In the person’s context, even though you’re within a screen?

2. Courage

We prepare team members to embrace their vulnerabilities and step into challenging moments.

Courage is a response. Courage is an indication. Courage is an invitation. Courage is a relationship. Courage is someone who steps into a challenge whether they know how to figure it out or not. Courage is a practice. There are so many moments where courage is standing right before us and asking us to engage.

We want to prepare team members to step into moments where they have to extend themselves beyond their comfort level or lean into their capacities in new ways. It takes courage, self-acceptance, and self-denial to step into a moment where they’re going to be vulnerable in order to face a challenge.

Sometimes courage is nothing more than trusting that the moment is right and the answer will emerge. What do you need to step into this challenging moment?

3. Connection

We create environments where authentic relationships develop between team members to deepen trust and productivity.

Connection matters. We seek to build connection in the kind of questions that we ask and the self-reflection that we prompt our different team members or clients to consider.

Curiosity is such a great tool to create connections. It isn’t just the greed of knowing facts about other people, but rather as leaders, as team members, how can we be curious for the sake of others to build the kind of connection that we desire? 

Build Compassion, Courage, and Connection on Your Team

What Strengths do you use to be compassionate, courageous, and connected? What capacities do you leverage?

Try this application at home to start building compassion, courage, and connection on your team.

First, think about the last two years as we’ve navigated this pandemic and consider these three words, compassion, courage, and connection. Think of a moment or a time or a place when you felt someone express compassion.

Second, think about moments where you have truly acted in a way that was courageous. What initiated these actions? What context were you in, who was around, and how did you act?

And third, think back to a moment where you felt really connected with someone, including in a virtual context.

Sometimes these are just 30 second moments, they aren’t big, long stories. It’s just a moment in time that gives us an appetite for something better. This is the place where you start to build into your team. 

How Can We Help?

If you have questions about this episode or want to learn more about how you can help implement a more compassionate, courageous, and connection-filled environment, send us an email to connect@leadershipvisionconsulting.com. We’d love to hear from you!