By Guest Writer Don Khouri, Managing Director, Fortune Management Northeast
Have you ever had a day like this?
You prep for your Monday morning team huddle; notes, handouts, metrics, everything is just the way you like it. It’s 7:45 AM and you are ready to go!
Then, two critical team members want to discuss another important topic. The link to your metrics monitor isn’t working. When you’re ready to go, another team member has a birthday coffee cake with candles and begins her rendition of Happy Birthday to You. This leaves you frustrated, you muddle through the huddle, and sulk off to the first patient.
It is a total derailment from a values perspective. Here’s how:
- You value accuracy, commitment, order, timeliness, and unity.
- The two members that were late value acceptance, compassion, flexibility, and resourcefulness.
- The birthday singer values belonging, boldness, connection, generosity, and spontaneity (yes, it was about surprising everyone).
All the values listed above are impressive and are needed, in part, by every team. But under stress (full workload, post-COVID scheduling, childcare challenges), differing values can collide causing frustration, disappointment, performance drop-off and, in some cases, anger and avoidance.
Step one to avoiding a collision is knowing your root values. At Fortune we developed an exercise for you (and your team) to identify your root values. You can download it here, www.fortunenortheast.com/values-exercise.
Step two is sharing your values with the team.? A great time to share is during annual goal setting and planning which is perfect to do as a team activity.
Step three is to help your team identify their individual values followed by the development of a team value statement.
You are welcome to reach out to us directly at adminne@fortunemgmt.com, and we’re happy to help. Happy and Safe Huddling!