Fostering Relationships: Four Resources to Develop Your Team Leadership

The PLI Navigator Introduction Section
Rhett Laubach & Ryan Underwood
PLI website Link

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (and Their Employees)
Patrick Lencioni
Amazon Link

Eight Ways to Win With People (60-minute Audiobook)
John Maxwell
Audible.com Link

Tribes
Seth Godin
Amazon Link

Fostering Relationships: Are you a Team, Group or Troop?

Team - A set of individuals who use their core strengths and a defined decision-making system to accomplish a common goal under the direction of a trusted leader and who create and revisit big memories along the way.

Group - A set of individuals.

Troop - A set of young individuals identified by matching outfits and either selling cookies or setting something on fire McGyver style.

There are five clear characteristics of an actual working team:

1. A trusted leader.


2. An agreed upon goal.


3. An agreed upon decision-making system.


4. The creation and revisiting of big memories.


5. Each individual is engaging their core strength.

Take a look at your "set of individuals" and cross-reference your experience with these five characteristics. The secret to your group becoming an actual team probably lives in this list.

Processing Questions for PLI Curriculum Teachers/Trainers:


1. Which of the three do you consider your members to be classified as?

2. If you were to ask an outside source which of the three you should be classified as, what would their response be?

3. How would you feel about that response?

4. What are some actions steps you can take toward becoming a true team?

5. If you already consider yourself to be a team, then what can you do to ensure your team continues to function accordingly?

6. What “big memories” has your team made over time?

7. What qualities does your leader possess that deems them “trusted?”

8. What core strength do you contribute to a team in your life?

Vision: The Schindler Drive

He started his factory in Nazi-occupied Krakow, Poland to take advantage of slave labor from the Jews (who didn't earn money for their work - the wages went to the Third Reich.)

However, because of key people around him (including his factory accountant Itzhak Stern), his motivation became fueled more by altruism than capitalism.

His 1,200 factory workers were saved from death by being on Schindler's List.

His name was Oscar Schindler and he was a leader driven by a Vision to set as many Jews free as he could from the Nazis.

You are a leader. What Vision drives you?

Skill Assessment: Little or Big Legs?

• Going from the car to Wal-Mart with the two little ones - 4 and 2 (Blue Leader 1 and 2, respectively).


• I am striding easily.


• Blue Leader 1 is in a lope (define: jog or slow pace of running).


• Blue Leader 2 is flat out running.

As a leader, are you aware of how your pace is influencing those around you? Your knowledge, ambition, natural talent and experience has helped you reach a leadership position. Don't let those advantages push down those you are called to lift up.

It was much harder for little Blue Leader 2 to get from the car to the door. However, her struggle had nothing to do with her - it had to do with her in relation to her older sibling and her dad. To help her in her walk, we had to...

1. Be sensitive to her needs


2. Recognize that just because we could do it easily didn't mean she could


3. Adjust our behavior accordingly

Are you doing the same for those around you? Being a leader doesn't always mean setting the pace for people. Sometimes it means adjusting your pace to give those learning from you space and time to catch up.

Processing Questions for PLI Curriculum Teachers/Trainers:

1. Recall a time when you felt inadequate because someone around you was much better at something than you were. How did that make you feel?

2. What is the difference between setting an example of leadership and setting the pace of leadership?

3. What are some practices that you could implement into your leadership role to ensure that the people following you are not getting left behind?

4. Why is it important that we uplift those we lead, rather than make them feel left behind?

5. What are the benefits of considering the skills and talents of all of those around you?

6. How could you encourage someone to “quicken their pace” in a gentle and humble way?