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For Love of Team™ is THE podcast where Leaders Simplify Teamwork, helping you: SURROUND yourself with others doing work they LOVE. Business mentor and strategist, Winston Faircloth believes that it is your love of TEAM, and not just your love of products and customers that sets you apart in the marketplace.
Welcome to season three of the For Love of Team podcast. This season, we are taking you behind the curtain as Winston Faircloth writes his new book, team love, 28 ways to demonstrate caring at work. Each week, we will share excerpts from a new chapter, including key concepts and takeaways to help you support your team as a visionary leader. In this episode, host Winston Faircloth introduces chapter four, Identify Unique Contributions. Now here is your host, Winston Faircloth.
Winston Faircloth:Chapter four, Identify Unique Contributions. Have you ever been working on a project so interesting or compelling that you completely lost track of time? And before you knew it, hours had passed by. You were so engrossed in the work that it felt effortless. Now, the other hand, are there tasks and projects that you postpone?
Winston Faircloth:Seeking anything else to do until the very last moment prior to the deadline. You get up from your desk. You walk around the block. Perhaps you get a snack. Maybe you want to watch some TV.
Winston Faircloth:Facing this task completely drains you. Yet somehow, someway, this continues to be your project. Well, work life includes both extremes and everything in between. Our team members bring unique perspectives, talents and life experiences to work every day. And yet, our assignments are often limited to our roles.
Winston Faircloth:Pigeonholing projects to roles without respect to gifting can lead to frustration and delay. Sometimes the best person for the how is somebody else on your team. Discovering and developing your team's unique contributions fuels their purpose and passions. Unlocking innovation, helping to bring their effortless energy to the task at hand. And while we all have tasks we don't prefer or enjoy, there are others likely on our team that thrive doing these very tasks or projects.
Winston Faircloth:The goal of discovering unique contributions is to help every team member spend an ever increasing percentage of their work life in their own zone or flow. And as a leader, mentor, coach, this is our mission, matching the right talent to the task. So for further action, invite your team members to take the following journey along with you. Make sure to do this process yourself as well. Take some quiet time to recall recent activities where time just flew by.
Winston Faircloth:Tasks that were easy and effortless to perform. If you want to have a creative way of looking at this, if money were no object, you would do these projects even as a volunteer. Not only are you good at these projects, you'd also willingly teach others how to do this as well. You're always seeking ways to grow in doing this work, curious about new ways of doing things. Capture as many of these examples in as much detail as possible.
Winston Faircloth:And on the other hand, recall those tasks that you ended up procrastinating, pushing these out to the very last minute before the deadline. These projects or tasks are an absolute grind. You can still be very effective and good at these tasks, yet feel a sense of relief when they're finally done. Capture these examples too in as much detail as possible. Now, extra credit, have you ever noticed anyone on your team who thrives at doing things you dread?
Winston Faircloth:What's hard for me seems easy and effortless to them. Sometimes we have the blind spot of believing that the task we dislike, everyone dislikes. Well, that's not true. The greatness of a team rests in having diverse talents, interest in gifting. Finally, armed with your list, be on the lookout for others with gifts you can help unlock, matching the assignment with the gifting, not just the role.
Judith:Thanks, Winston. We invite you to share your feedback and biggest takeaways on our website at 4loveofteam.com/blog and look for today's chapter episode. Thanks for listening. Remember that by loving our people who love our customers, your visionary leadership comes to life. We hope to see you next time on the For Love of Team podcast.