Key takeaways:
- Trust forms the foundation of any successful team and is critical to defining the team’s mission, vision, and individual core goals (i.e., “rocks”).
- Leveraging mentors is a tried-and-true method for combining – and enhancing – a team’s most valuable skills.
- By regularly assessing team members’ roles and working together to define and strengthen each other’s individual goals, teams can change the status quo and move closer to becoming a high-performing team.
As a team coach, I have learned that the best ideas often surface when team members feel trusted to experiment and challenge existing approaches. In this article, Sirra Anderson Crum, CFPTM of TenBridge Partners offers a practical reframing of how to establish individual “Rocks” by inviting peers into the goal-setting process. What follows is her perspective on how shared input can sharpen individual focus while strengthening overall team performance.
-Bryan Powell
A lesson from The Avengers: Trust your team
Why are The Avengers such a stellar team? One reason is they take their differences and unify as one, trusting one another to use their strengths to further the team’s goals.
This year my team began working with a coach to re-establish our goals, create a better way to track our progress, and hold each other accountable. Through this process, I started to see how trust was showing up in our team conversations and how it would propel us forward when journeying into this new process of defining team values, key performance indicators (KPIs), mission and vision statements, and ultimately our Rocks (i.e., individual core goals).
For the Avengers, the stakes were a bit higher. But whether you’re a team of professionals or a squad of super-beings fighting aliens, you need trust.
Trust created an opportunity for my team to challenge the status quo and ask the question: What would happen if you included your team members in establishing your Rocks?
We then set about to create Rocks even The Thing, a superhero with rock-like skin, would be jealous of.
Step 1: Discuss your roles as a team.
In the first Avengers film, Captain America allocates roles to each of his team members based on their strengths. While Hawkeye manned the skies, Hulk smashed.
After my return from maternity leave and gaining a new team member, we used this period of transition as an opportunity to evaluate our current systems and determine whether certain roles or tasks would be best for another team member.
Your turn: Create an opening to discuss who is doing what, where you see roles going, and how your time can be best utilized.
Ask:
- What is my role? What responsibilities does it entail?
- Are there responsibilities better suited for someone else’s skillset/ role?
- Could I cross train another staff member in my role in case I’m absent or otherwise occupied?
Step 2: Continue to brainstorm individually.
Once the Avengers had direction, they went their own ways and attacked their targets the way they knew best.
Brainstorming individually is a great way to get the wheels turning. I began by considering ways I currently serve my team, then began to ponder new ways I could further the team’s goals.
Your turn: Break away from the group and consider what roles and responsibilities help you further the team’s measurements of success.
Ask:
- What am I currently doing to further the team’s goals?
- What other ways can I help my team succeed?
Step 3: Lean on your team to help craft your Rocks.
Some of the best scenes from the Avengers films are when they team up to combine their skills. One of my favorites is in the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Thor strikes his hammer on Captain America’s shield, creating a ricochet of lightning down the line of Hydra soldiers and ultimately turning a tank over.
Leveraging mentors is a tried-and-true method for combining – and enhancing – a team’s most valuable skills. I have an excellent mentor who has a few decades of experience on me and is constantly helping me develop my skills. Through this part of the process, I immediately began thinking of tasks I could relieve him of, freeing his time to work on his own Rocks. He also had great suggestions for me regarding skills to continue developing.
Ultimately, mentors may want to relinquish responsibilities and pass them on to others, freeing their time to be used elsewhere. This also helps mentees learn and gain experience.
Your turn: Reach out to your mentors and team members for feedback on Rocks to add to your list.
Ask:
- Are there responsibilities your mentor is tired of doing or might prohibit them from achieving their Rocks?
- Can your mentor think of skills they’d like to see you develop?
- Should you prioritize certain responsibilities in your current scope?
- Does a team member have ideas for you given your role and responsibilities?
Step 4: Consider what Rocks you might suggest to other team members.
Nick Fury knew what each of the Avengers was capable of, even if they didn’t know it themselves. It took Nick to see the bigger picture and help them see it, too.
Since I began at the firm as an office assistant and worked my way up to a Certified Financial Planner™ professional, I’ve served in many capacities. That experience allows me to provide insights to almost all my team members, regardless of their role.
Furthermore, I’ve seen the value of having a mentor who is in the next phase of career development rather than several phases down the line. This individual has recently made the climb and may be able to provide advice on how to take the next step.
Your turn: Consider what roles and responsibilities you’d like to pass on to others or those that others may benefit from taking on.
Ask:
- What did you wish you would’ve known when you were in your teammates’ varying stages of development?
- What opportunities do you wish you’d had when you were learning?
- Can you pass on a task that would help a team member learn?
Step 5: Come together to provide feedback on each other’s Rocks.
Ant Man, an often-overlooked hero, is responsible for coming up with the idea for the “Time Heist” in Endgame that allowed the heroes to use the quantum realm to go back in time, gather the infinity stones, bring back all those disintegrated in the “snap”, and ultimately defeat Thanos.
Sometimes an unexpected perspective makes the biggest impact. When the team “finished” our Rocks, we met and shared our reasoning for each goal, how we determined our leading and lagging indicators, and how our Rocks connected to the team’s measurements of success. When I shared my Rocks, my team had excellent advice on how to strengthen them and ultimately encouraged me to push myself in ways I hadn’t considered.
Your turn: Come together as a team and review your Rocks together. Critique, adjust, improve.
Ask and share:
- How did I come up with this Rock? What does it mean to me and why is it important?
- Are my leading and lagging indicators meaningful?
- Do my Rocks contribute toward the team’s measurements of success?
- Is there a Rock I should leave behind or make into a project instead?
Trust helped foster an idea to move me and my colleagues closer toward our goal of becoming a high-performing team. How will trust impact your team’s success?
Start by implementing these five steps and witness how your team can change the status quo.
Avengers, assemble!