Is your team (and you) operating above the line?
I was meeting a builder client of mine today and we got on to the topic of incentives versus fines for staff performance.Also how some team members seemed to constantly come up short and be quick with an excuse. My client said he regularly talks to other builders and they often compare stories of what excuses their staff come up with as to why they failed at a task, forgot to do something or generally screwed up. Some of the excuses are pretty imaginative and make for great stories to tell over a beer. While they laugh about the excuses, there is a river of frustration running below. These team members are choosing to be “below the line”
The line of life
As you or anyone goes through life you bump up against challenges, problems and frustrations. How you deal with them will determine your long term success. You can take the easy route and look to Blame someone for your situation, have an Excuse or worse, Deny there is a problem at all. This is where life’s victims (read losers) live.
On the other hand you can take the more challenging route and decide to take Ownership of the issue, take Accountability for the result and Responsibility for taking action to address the problem. This is where life’s winners live. It may take a bit of time to get there but it will be worth it in the end and provide you with a more satisfying life.
And before you blame your team for being a bunch of below-the-line losers, take a good hard look in the mirror and ask whether you are taking ownership of the situation yourself.
Lifting people’s vision and attitude to be above the line is not easy, especially if that is their default setting. It needs to be a part of an overall culture/core values reset process. The whole team needs to have their input into this process as they are more likely to buy into to result. If there are individuals who refuse to come along with the process, you may need to “free up their future”.
To discuss whether you or your team could do with a culture makeover contact me at andy@tradescoach.co.nz or 027-6886721 and we can talk.