Elevating Team: Increase Engagement & Productivity

“It is all shit!” I would scream, curse, and rage during the training sessions when something did not happen as expected. I would be extremely disappointed if I didn’t throw the javelin as far as I wanted to, which happened most of the time. I believed that constantly criticizing everything and everyone, complaining, and always being frustrated was normal when striving to be the best and achieve the most. I constantly needed to show that I am capable of more and that nothing is good enough. I assumed this angry perfectionist stance because so much depended on my performance.

If I wouldn’t perform at the highest level during major competitions, I would lose my scholarship, education, dreams as an athlete, and future. I would be forced to return home and face my family’s and friends’ possible disappointment. Every practice became a life-or-death situation for me.

“Inga, we need to talk”, my teammate invited me to her apartment. I found all my teammates sitting in a circle, and there was a seat left for me. One by one my teammates shared their stories of frustration with me. Suddenly, I realized that it was an intervention. I listened silently to what everyone had to say and left feeling confused.

“Who are you to tell me how to be during practice? I am the best athlete here. I am a National Champion, and none of you even qualified for the championship,” raging thoughts swirled in my head. I called my coach to ask if he had problems with my behavior. He recognized how difficult it was every day for him and the team to handle my rollercoaster moods.

I just wanted to do my job very well. But how I was doing it was influencing so many people in a negative way and damaging my relationships with them.

“If I have so much power over other people’s lives, maybe they also influence mine in ways I am not aware of. What if I changed my mood to a more positive one? Would my results improve?”

No one can achieve the highest results and create the biggest impact alone. How we show up every day and the kind of influence we have on each other matter. Teamwork is so much more than just a mechanism to achieve the highest results together.

• How to motivate the team for higher engagement and proactivity?
• How to increase team productivity but not burn them?
• What does it take to lead an Elevating Team?

We invite you to join live talks with Olympians and Performance Coaches to explore topics that help us break our limits.

HOSTS

Bahar Alexander, CHPC High-Performance Coach for Organizations & Individuals, founder of The Alexander Method Coaching alexandermtd.com

Inga Stasiulionyte, Olympian in javelin throwing, performance coach at Valor Performance, and founder of ofounders.com

Joe Jacobi, Olympic Gold medalist at whitewater slalom, author of “Slalom: 6 River Classes About How To Confront Obstacles, Advance Amid Uncertainty, & Bring Focus To What Matters Most,” performance coach at Valor Performance, and founder of joejacobi.com

LIVE TALKS: Elevating Team: Increase Engagement & Productivity

Watch the LinkedIn Live recording here.

TIMESTAMPS

04:00 — What are the biggest problems for executives when leading teams?

• What do we want to accomplish with our team? The most common answer that executives provide is that they want productivity and engagement from their team.
• What do the people on the team want? How can they see their impact on the org? How do they want to grow personally?
• The golden rule of leading others is to meet people where they are.

09:00 — What drives team engagement? How can we connect people through their differences?

• Even before COVID, the sense of loneliness at the workplace already existed.
• Productivity and engagement depend not on where the people are, but on the leaders who create environments to connect people’s personal and organizational goals.
• Addressing the primary needs of every person: to be seen, heard, and appreciated.
• If our mission, vision, and values are not only implicit but also explicit, we should put them into practice to meet people where they are and value them.

13:00 — How can we push our team for higher performance?

• Being curious about what people do outside of their work. What influences their decisions?
• Currently, we operate in the game of speed. We are pressured to go to the next level fast, but we all know that growth requires time and patience with the basic foundations.
• How can leaders inspire teams to focus on the basic, foundational work that needs to be done?
• Setting intentional environments to check egos at the door, enabling the sharing and hearing of critical information.
• Resetting to focus on the basics of performing their assigned roles and duties well is what led Joe and his teammate Scott to Olympic Gold.

16:00 — Why do KPIs and annual employee evaluations fail?

• Leading people profoundly is built on communication and setting clear expectations.
• When we recognize people for what they are good at and give them instructions based on their qualities, while also setting clear expectations, we empower teams. By using their working geniuses, we enhance productivity and create a sense of engagement and value.
• Where do we end up when we force everyone to conform and do everything the same way?
• Leaders need to have different types of conversations with different people.
• If an employee does not add value in their current position, can we find a place where they can thrive?

24:00 — How can leaders elevate their teams for higher performance and account for their uniqueness?

• Leaders often incorrectly set goals for their teams. The key is to look for personal and professional fit and alignment.
• Preparing for an incredibly ambitious environment. Bringing attention to what is in our direct control, responsibility, and accountability to build momentum.
• Preparing well for conversations with upper management involves taking charge to set agendas, goals, asking pertinent questions, informing about the realities of the process, and understanding what keeps our leaders up at night.
• Redefining success within new limits and finding support

36:00 — Leadership is not innate; it requires a lot of psychological education. Leadership is not merely a title or a position.

• Understanding ourselves, our biases, and other people is crucial, as well as developing empathy and knowing how to express ourselves to lead in an empowered way.
• Focusing on re-educating ourselves continually
• Having a good plan to move forward through obstacles is essential, but remembering, the plan may need adjustments when faced with unexpected challenges. Being prepared with tactics and the ability to pivot.
• Acknowledging the complexity of leadership responsibility is vital
• Do we have structures in place to handle the unknown?
• Do we know your own and our team’s capacity? What do we do when all members are at 20% of their capacity?

41:00 — What would be most helpful for leaders to elevate their leadership?

• Leaders need to communicate the end game clearly.
• Meeting reality, people, and ourselves where we are
• Leaders are constantly in game-time mode, leaving no space or time for practice.
• Being very intentional about what we will be practicing, mastering the art of distilling what to focus on.
• Committing to the focus
• Creating better practice environments
• Getting a coach and being a coach — prioritizing growth and continuous learning. Receiving coaching; effective learning happens when we have an unbiased guide. If we truly want to be successful athletes or high-level professionals, we have to be open to being led.

51:00 — How can we elevate our team as team members?

• Mastering our basic responsibilities
• Figuring out our working genius
• Looking for underserved parts of our team to apply our genius
• Understanding what is keeping our boss up at night
• Do we really know what success looks like? How will we achieve it? Goals need a process to be achieved. Showing up every day, managing our energy, asking the right questions, and taking responsibility for our own growth. Aiming for a winning experience every day instead of winning just once.
• Recognizing the influence we have on other people and our team. What kind of influence would we like to exert as a leader?

RESOURCES

• Article: At the Top, It’s All About Teamwork, Bain and Company
• Book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• Book: The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team by Patrick M. Lencioni
• Book: Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson
• Book: Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy by Amy C. Edmondson

My favorite teamwork reminders are written by Thelonious Monk, the second-most-recorded jazz composer and pianist.

• Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to keep time.
• Pat your foot and sing the melody in your head when you play.
• Stop playing all that bullshit, those weird notes, play the melody!
• Make the drummer sound good.
• Discrimination is important.
• You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?
• All reet!
• Always know
• It must be always night, otherwise, they wouldn’t need the lights.
• Let’s lift the band stand!!
• I want to avoid the hecklers.
• Don’t play the piano part, I am playing that. Don’t listen to me, I am supposed to be accompanying you!
• The inside of the tune (the bridge) is the part that makes the outside sound good.
• Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music just imagined.
• What you don’t play can be more important than what you do play.
• A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.
• Stay in shape! Sometimes a musician waits for a gig & when it comes, he’s out of shape & can’t make it.
• When you are swinging, swing some more!
• (What should we wear tonight?) Sharp as possible!
• Always leave them wanting more.
• Don’t sound anybody for a gig, just be on the scene.
• Those pieces were written so as to have something to play & to get cats interested enough to come to rehearsal!
• You’ve got it! If you don’t want to play, tell a joke, or dance, but in any case, you got it! (to a drummer who didn’t want to solo).
• Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along & do it. A genius is the one most like himself.
• They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along & spoil it.