Category: Company Culture

1 Simple Habit To Deepen Your Working Relationships

Listen to the podcast below or subscribe to the Team Success Podcast on iTunes.
Extraordinary Coach Culture: The Positive Focus®


There are certain underpinnings and values every company operates with that determine the quality of their office culture and the relationships team members share.
A practice that’s ingrained within Strategic Coach—and that I encourage every company to adopt—is what we call The Positive Focus. The Positive Focus is a practice where we take time to appreciate the personal and professional progress we’ve made in our lives, and we share that with one another.
It may sound simple, but it means that we’re always focusing on what is working as opposed to what’s not working.
The difference The Positive Focus makes.
We’re constantly being bombarded with information and “stuff”; there’s so much that gets in the way of being present.
The Positive Focus mitigates this. When used at the beginning of a meeting, whether it’s with clients or team members, it allows people to slow down and focus on the things that represent progress or achievement in their lives. Most importantly, it creates space for people to be in the moment instead of distracted by the million other things going on in their heads.
This boosts confidence and forces us into a positive headspace.
It’s also a more productive mindset from which to address setbacks. How often have you been part of a meeting where you immediately dove into the problem? By instead prefacing the issues at hand with The Positive Focus, you raise morale for everyone involved. When people are confident about what’s working, they have more courage to look for the improvements they can make. They’re playing offense, not defense.
Strengthening your relationships.
Another benefit of The Positive Focus is that it’s a great way to get to know people and to build your working relationships. You can quickly get caught up with team members on projects and also find out what’s going on for them personally.
The majority of our time is spent at work so it’s important to treat people as people, not just as functions. Relationship building is crucial to the ongoing success of your business.
“Get to know your team members as people, not just as functioning, contributing members of your staff.”Click To Tweet
How to have the conversation.
Getting your team into the right mindset to have The Positive Focus conversation may require setting the context. You can say, “We’re going to start this meeting a little differently. Instead of jumping right in, we’re going to first share one area of progress.”
For example, in meetings at Strategic Coach, we often ask, “What’s a personal, professional, or team achievement that’s happened for you over the last week?”
To take this a step further, ask team members to share or think about why it was an achievement for them—this makes it real. It also ensures they’re talking about something personal to them, not something they know would please other people.
You can also add another dimension by asking, “What further progress can you make?” The point of this is to keep the momentum of their achievement going.
There are lots of creative ways you can extract the positive from people’s experiences, but the key is to make the time for it. It’s a way to promote progress. Otherwise, people fall into the “perfection trap,” not realizing it’s really the small wins that lead to bigger wins.
Making The Positive Focus a routine in your organization is a guaranteed way to improve working relationships and transform people’s mindsets to focus on productivity. Train people’s brains to find progress—this is where confidence is bred and resilience built.


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How We Grow Entrepreneurial Team Members

Listen to the podcast below or subscribe to the Team Success Podcast on iTunes.
How People Grow


“What’s my growth path?” is a common refrain I hear from team members. It’s also a question most business owners struggle to answer.
There’s often misalignment and a mismatch in expectations in how fast people will grow and where they can grow to on an entrepreneurial team, which is why this is such an important thing for leaders to have total transparency about.
I remember, many years ago, when I was working as a unionized cashier for a major grocery chain, increased pay and the choice of shifts were a result of seniority. That meant, as a 19-year-old, I was paid minimum wage to work the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift on Friday nights—despite the fact that I was fast and accurate.
And although many of my co-workers were not as efficient, they had the prime pick of shifts and were paid the most in scale. At that point in my life, it was my only experience of how growth happened in businesses.
The corporate growth ladder.
In the corporate world, the path to growth is well defined and clearly structured.
You start out in a particular role, and if you’re put on the fast track, you could be promoted as quickly as within three to six months. Once you’ve moved into this new capability, depending on how you perform there, you’ll likely move on again. It’s the nature of this world to move quickly through the ranks—you know the hoops you have to jump through in order to be successful.
In many ways, this is great because the expectations are so clear. And yet if you don’t conform to these standards, you may not get very far. The opportunity for individuality and unique contributions is often limited.
Finding yourself in the entrepreneurial world.
On an entrepreneurial team, on the other hand, growth happens according to a different premise. It’s a journey and requires self-determination.
For example, my co-writer, Jayne, started out in a completely different role when she joined Strategic Coach. As a member of the accounting team, she was responsible for accounts payable and various other administrative and logistical tasks.
However, her real passion was in writing, so she started volunteering herself to write blogs for the marketing team in addition to her daily responsibilities. The writing team took notice, and over a one-year period, she was able to navigate herself into a role as a full-time writer.
So how do you coach your team to grow in an entrepreneurial company?
It starts with getting them clear and confident about what we call their Unique Ability®—what they love to do, are best at, and contributes to the overall growth of the company. Once they’re clear on that, it’s about expanding their value creation through their Unique Ability. It’s a very organic process, and it’s your and your team leaders’ job to stay alert to talent and encourage your team to take initiative.
“All growth in an entrepreneurial environment is the result of self-determination.”Click To Tweet
Align expectations with reality.
As an entrepreneur running a successful business, make it top of mind to ensure your team is always on the same page as you.
Be clear with them that in an entrepreneurial organization, no one’s going to lay out their path, and growth has no timelines or ladders to climb. Let people know that additional rewards, compensation, and status come from increasing their value creation and innovating in ways that produce faster, cheaper, easier, and better results.
The largest amount of personal and professional growth is rewarded to team members for the increased contribution their Unique Ability makes. Be open and clear and give your team the opportunity to get innovative with how they create value.

FREE EBOOK: 12 STRATEGIES TO HELP YOUR TEAM SUCCEED

Give your team the most fun, fulfilling, and rewarding experience of their working careers!
GET YOUR COPY NOW »

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