Every musical instrument in an orchestra is crucial in creating a symphony that the composer had envisaged, regardless of how faint or little its contribution. Without that particular instrument, the music would be incomplete and lacking. When google studied outstanding teams globally to understand what makes them great, the last thing that they would have expected is that it all boiled down to making every individual member of the team feel safe.
Safe to be themselves…
Safe to contribute freely…
and
Safe to experience a sense of ownership and worth…
In practice, as leaders of teams, we need to take care of two behaviours during meetings:
- Give every member a chance to speak without judging them Some may speak too soon, some too late, some may speak too little and some may speak too much. Nurture members with patience; over time, everyone will be open and open up.
- Be sensitive to their emotions The beauty of dealing with humans versus machines is that they can discern where to invest their energy and where not to. For a leader to tap into this discretionary effort, they need to care, share and inspire. There is enough research done in positive psychology and several business case studies to second this.
