Being the strong link in the chain
Just because you know each other’s job titles doesn’t mean that you’re connected . Being connected is all about being superbly united in terms of things like purpose, role clarity and mood in the camp so your team has the best chance of achieving its goal.
This tool will help you build the foundation for having great working relationships that will all build up to you having a great quality of connectedness at work.
What will it do?
The tool will help you make sure that you’ve created a great foundation for being connected at work. Use this tool over the next 4 weeks to increase your connectedness in 3 simple steps. It will give you a simple way of working on being connected and taking responsibility for your own motivation levels and that’s got to be a great start.
Three steps to take
Get focused on the things that will make the most impact for you
1.Connect to a purpose.
There are some questions for you to answer and you could always get together with the other people you work with and answer them as a team or group (it would be quite sensible to do it given this is all about being connected!).
| What’s the shared purpose that everyone in your organisation is working towards? | |
| What’s your role in helping the organisation achieve this big picture goal? | |
| What particular skills, knowledge and expertise do you have that you are using to play your part in helping to achieve big picture goal? | |
| Who are the most important people for you to connect with so that you can play your part in helping the organisation achieve its purpose? |
If you can answer the first 4 questions easily, then you’ve probably got a pretty good starting point in place for being connected.
If you find the questions tough to answer, then don’t rush and feel pressured to get them ‘right’. Stick with this first step and take as much time as you need to feel like you’ve really got this essential foundation block in place – go and talk to people to get the answers!
2. Getting stronger, one link at a time.
Getting highest level of connectedness with each important relationship you have at work is key. Taking a person-by-person approach to strengthening your connectedness will pay off in the long run, so it’s worth the effort and time. Do the following for each person you work regularly with.
Key Person:
| What are we working on together that helps the team/business achieve its purpose? | |
| Which skills, knowledge, experience and expertise of theirs do I value and need to make use of the most for us to be successful? | |
| Which of my skills, knowledge, experience and expertise do they most need to make use of for us to be successful? | |
| Is there anything getting in the way of us working really well together at the moment to combine our strengths and if so, what’s my plan for removing the block? | |
| What’s my overall score for the quality of connectedness we have right now (1 = terrible, 10 = couldn’t be better)? |
Repeat the above for each of your key relationships that add up to created your overall sense of being connected.
Add up all of your scores from question 5 to give you a total score for how connected you’re feeling right now.
My total Connectedness score right now =
Make sure you have a chat with each key person, share your scores and focus on making low scores higher, moderate scores strong and strong scores delivering more impact together.
3. How connected are you?
It’s also worthwhile just checking in to see if you’re feeling like a fully connected member of any team that you’re part of, so a couple more questions, all in relation to your role in helping the team achieve its shared purpose:
| How well am I using my skills, knowledge, experience and expertise to deliver great value for the team? | |
| How valued do I feel my role is and how effectively do I feel the team is making use of what I have to contribute? | |
| Am I contributing proactively to the team’s purpose, or am I waiting to be asked? | |
| What improvements can I make so that the team is clear what support I need from everyone to play my role? | |
| What improvements can I make so that I’m totally clear what the team needs me to be doing to support everyone else as effectively as possible? |
Use every opportunity of connecting with your team to ensure that you increase your sense of connectedness by being 100% clear about how you’re playing your role to help the team achieve collective success.
Your plan
Get a plan Stan. The basics you need to have in your plan are set out below.
Plan basics
- What are you going to do? This bit is easy – it’s the 3 steps listed above.
My actions:
- When are you going to start? You don’t have to be great to get going, but you better get going if you want to be great.
My start date:
- How often will I rescore myself on each of the questions? Getting great has a lot to do with making things a habit and this is what the review questions are all about.
Re-Check frequency and dates:
Get serious
The difference between having a plan and making it work is about action. So get this in your diary now. Tell the people who need to know so that they can support you and won’t just think you’re being weird. Do it now.
Remember, it’s progress not perfection. You’re looking for gradual improvement, not for Rome to be built in a day.