ClickCease

alignment

Team Success

My former mentor and boss Zig Ziglar taught me to keep it simple. So when I am asked by my clients how to make their team work I answer with a simple acronym T.E.A.M.

T is for Trust.

The biggest factor in building a strong team is trust. Trust is defined as firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. So that’s simple right? Well not exactly. Trust starts with the leader! Your leadership must be a model of reliability & truth. If your team trusts you and knows you stand by your actions, it empowers them to act in the same manner. Your team must also feel that everyone in the organization can be trusted to do what’s right.

E is for Engagement

If your team has mutual trust they will naturally be engaged, especially if they have a clear sense of your company’s purpose and vision. Establish your vision. Make sure your team understands their role and how it impacts your organization’s purpose, which will encourage engagement. Keep in mind that only about 30% of any organizations people are truly engaged.

A is for Alignment

Alignment comes through a singleness of purpose around your company’s vision. Alignment in critical to get everyone pulling in the same direction. Are your goals clearly stated so that everyone can work together for the common good? Look for areas where unity is not taking place and the folks back in alignment.

M is for Measured

For a team to function you must have a clear way to measure performance and keep all concerned accountable. A major failure in many organizations is the failure to hold everyone accountable. Put into place clear benchmarks to keep progress moving forward toward your team goals. Hold regular meeting to measure accomplishment and make course correction where necessary. All in all, if you keep Trust, Engagement, Alignment and Measurement at the forefront your team will move forward and enjoy great success!

The R.O.I. Thing

We use the Return on Investment (ROI) calculation to make investment decisions in our personal lives and businesses weekly, but we don’t typically think of ROI relating to our spiritual life.

In fact, a certain amount of dissonance exists between our ears when thinking about, on one hand, competing, building, investing and growing a company in the marketplace and, on the other, what our eulogist will say about our life on the day of our funeral and what eternity will be like in Heaven.

Jesus wants there to be resonance & complete alignment , not dissonance, with these areas of our thinking and within our lives.

If you take Him at His word, literally, as I do, then you have to read Mathew 19:29 to mean that the amount of money we allocate from our business’ profits to (1) loving our neighbors as ourselves (think funding your local Christian homeless shelter/rescue mission), and, (2) making disciples of all nations (think funding missionaries who take the Word to people groups  who have never even heard of Jesus throughout their existence), will yield us a 100x ROI of economic value in Heaven, forever, literally.

I submit that there’s no other way to read and interpret it.  Jesus wired we five talent and ten talent guys and gals to compete, grow and build a business, so that we can fund his Kingdom here on earth. 

If you feel this dissonance, commit a percentage of your profits to Kingdom investing today and see if it changes how you feel Sunday relates to Monday through Friday.  I’ll be curious to hear how your business performs during that period, too.