FEBRUARY 14 • TRUE LEADERSHIP
How To Build Team Relationships
…and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds…
Hebrews 10:24
How do you build any relationship… it’s the same. As a leader, don’t wait for others to initiate — it’s up to you to build relationships with your team so you can fully understand who they are and how you can help them accomplish more/better everything in their lives. Your job is not only to make money to feed your family, but to help others, build community, accomplish for yourself and your employer, and honor God! You are to benefit society as a whole. To do anything less doesn’t use your time and effort to the fullest.
A relationship consists of doing the things from the articles on character (Jan 16-31) — honesty, trust, authenticity, respect, etc. In general, we don’t have those things with anyone until we earn them. But we can start by getting to know more deeply the other person. Get coffee once a week, do lunch, have them over for dinner. This isn’t a cursory relationship we are talking about — you are going to get to know a lot about them — their struggles, their needs, their hopes, their financial position. Why? Because if you don’t know where they are in life, you cannot help them get to where they need to be — and that’s what leadership is all about — helping people get to where they want/need to go. If you don’t know their hopes, you can’t point them and help them get there. If you don’t know their needs, you cannot help them meet their own needs. If you don’t know their spouse and kids, you don’t know how to help them raise their families the best way (Scrooge anyone?).
Find common ground in your time with them. Learn to like them for their sake, not just your own. Certain personalities take a while to crack the exterior — they have to trust you before they love you. Include them in your life! You don’t have to do it with the whole organization, but you should do it with your direct reports and teach them to do it with theirs. Build a system! Set up a plan on paper (device) to build it with each person and define what it takes for them. The more you know them, and yes, love them, the more you build relationships and the more they are willing to give you permission to lead them. They don’t have to be your BFF, but you do need to understand them well to lead them best.
Pray: Lord, help me build deeper relationships with my team.
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