I left you last year with a ritual that I practiced to welcome the new year and set clear intentions for the year to come. So many people told me how grateful they were for this way of honouring this new year and getting clear in what was important to them. My heart was touched each time I read one of those sharings – thank you!
In this post, I want to share with you a practical intention that I believe is important in creating teams that work well together… but it can be applied to families just as well.
Throughout my years of working with organisations all over Australia, I have discovered that so often, people in organisations share a common pain point: lack of emotional safety.
What does this mean?
It means that if leaders are not leading with a question like this:
“How can I make this company a safe place for self expression, in a way that everyone feels heard and appreciated?”
then it is highly unlikely that that organisation will create a culture with the kind of empathy, support and team connection that is needed for any team to truly flourish in performance.
Some people may think that creating this type of safe environment is time consuming, that it shifts the focus from what we are here to do. But in my experience, and the experience of so many of my clients, but it actually saves enormous amounts of time because everything runs so much more efficiently and with a greater level of joy. Yes joy! It is truly joyful to work in a highly functioning team. It’s joyful to work in an environment where people feel safe. It’s joyful to hear someone speak from congruence and they say is exactly what they mean. And its joyful when each and every member of the team know that they are valued and that others have their back!
And its highly productive.
In contrast, when we are not working in emotionally safe environments, everyone’s attention is diverted from what they are there to do. Confusion is created as you hear things you don’t quite trust. People have resistance to coming to agreement. Agreements are continuously not met. People become disillusioned and withhold their full engagement. And conflicts are not resolved but fester and are avoided. Gossip begins.
In short, there becomes disharmony and chaos within the environment.
And that wastes energy, and is HIGHLY unproductive.
And I’d love to work with your team to help create a safe and supportive environment. Click here to have a chat.
Wishing you a wonderful and magical beginning to 2017.
With love,
Shari