The 15 Minute Habit That Will Make Your Team Love You

The love that one shows for another shatters the ill-feelings that you have about yourself and eliminates the negativity that your team has about you, and by extension, their work. It more firmly sets the foundation of trust and respect, creating an atmosphere where people go above and beyond expectations.

Empathy And Compassion

Getting the most out of your team is as simple as showing them how much you care about them beyond the results that they produce. Contributing to this meaningfully for your organization—no matter the size—can be done with one daily fifteen-minute exercise of utilizing empathy and demonstrating compassion.

Compassion requires empathy towards another. Being seen through the lens of love and care is ultimately what every person wants in some way.

You can be a vehicle for that compassion by 1) having it within you and 2) demonstrating it tangibly and regularly. This consistency brings one out of the honeymoon phase as it gets people to trust you and for you to trust yourself.

Dedicate five minutes to put yourself in the shoes of the person for whom you'd like to show some compassion. This process is introspection. Introspection involves bringing into your awareness all that you understand to be true for this person on your team or in your life. To get actual information, this may involve getting to know the person and taking small opportunities to ask questions to learn more about their personal lives. What is their financial situation? What is their relationship with their family? What do they desire to do beyond the work that they are doing in the organization right now? Where do they want to go? What life do they want to create? Then, how can you assist in aligning these things with them such that they are seen for where they are but are having a cocreator in what they would like to experience? DO NOT PROJECT!

Show Don't Tell

Dedicate ten minutes to bringing that compassion out. Bring your compassion out in both public and private ways. For some, it's an ego trip to sit in a meeting and praise the teams and individuals. This is fruitless without the heartfelt one-on-one connection that more fully demonstrates that you do care beyond the checkbox of team meeting appreciation as an agenda item. For others, such as a client that was heading a creative department in an ad agency, it was the public setting that was missing. He was completely present with his team during one-on-one interactions, but would not extend that love into broader communications and did not advance past those individual conversations. This resulted in a lack of trust from many people on the team who saw him as two-faced, saying one thing in person but not demonstrating it with others, even though that was not his intention. He would tell them how aligned they were on their path and how he would help them get further in their career; he meant it. However, he then did not prioritize it in his work, and relationships did not move forward with the team. As a result, culture was bitter towards management at the agency, and turnover was high. People were seeking that follow through and wanting to see advancement in their own lives, as promised.

Make it a point each day to 1) see someone without judgment for where they are and 2) follow through with one actionable thing towards the personal/professional goals of the individual.