There are thousands of methods to motivating a team. Today’s leaders have been inundated with resources centered on various approaches, doctrines, mantras, etc. advising them on how best to influence and empower. Authoritative, collaborative, transactional, democratic or laisses-faire, it must align with a leader’s working style as well as the working styles that exist within their respective cohorts. The tricky part is that different team members respond differently to different tactics. One might prefer a more hands-off methodology whereas another might need some degree of micro-management. The best leaders are those who operate with agility and adaptability, maintaining a stronghold on their style but also adhering to various needs in the spirit of setting the team and its members up for sustainable success.
At Brooke Team, we’ve found that our team members are particularly inspired by tactics that are rooted in group dialogue, reflection and experience sharing. We’ve created the structure and the space necessary for operating with transparency while breaking down the silos that organically and not-so-organically take form when we’re all so focused on our own clients and books of business.
First things first
Our morning “Pump Up Calls,” are a facet to this strategy that has been designed to align the professional with the personal, to engage hearts knowing that they will lead to engaged minds and ultimately, engaged actions. We start every session with a quick roll call. We ask attendees about their goals, wins and struggles. From there, we lean into a theme, one that feels relevant based on where we’ve been, where we are and where we each hope to be. Facilitators rotate but their objective remains the same: inspire conversation through the sharing of experiences.
Attendance is not a requirement. The turnout ebbs and flows but participation has gained consistent momentum as our agents become increasingly comfortable with sharing. Themes and topics are all over the board. We’ve covered professional development, the importance of attitude and making big leaps, to name a few. We’ve developed a more informed perspective about not just where we are as a team but who we are as a team. We’ve created a direct line of sight into what matters to our agents and in that, a sense of compassion as we all work to navigate both our professional and personal lives as the very best version of ourselves.
While the last thing we wanted to do was take up even more space on our agents’ already stacked schedules, we found that the appetite to share and vent far outweighed the dread that often coincides with yet another meeting taking up precious calendar space. Folks dial in during their morning commutes, pup walks, school drop offs — the intention is to enhance our day-to-days, not to complicate them. We’ve all embraced a “come as you are,” mentality around these sessions, striking a critical chord between structure and authenticity. We want to see and hear it all. Nothing is off limits.
Learning from the pros
We’ve taken a page from “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership” by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman and Kaley Warner Klemp. Great leaders learn to access three centers of intelligence: the head, the heart and the gut. By creating intentional space and sharing across all compartments of our lives, we’ve found that we’re no longer operating as strictly colleagues but instead, as human beings who share opinions, perspectives, hurdles, joys and ambitions. We’ve broken down barriers through conversation and in that, the team members who continue to show up have started to decipher and build upon their own leadership capabilities. They’re learning from their seasoned and green colleagues alike how best to handle business but also how to manage relationships while effectively functioning like true collaborators.
We haven’t necessarily attached any KPIs to these calls. Right now, the focus is simply to hold space as we continue to talk shop and share parts of ourselves that were once upon a time checked at the office door. Perhaps the proof will remain in the new buzz that seems to be permeating our workspace. Perhaps results will forever be gauged by the newly formed synergies that exist between agents. Maybe I can track the effectiveness by keeping tabs on how many members of my team are now taking the initiative to track me down and ask questions. Regardless of how formal these Pump Up Calls become or informal they remain, one thing feels true — we all feel pretty dang motivated by the time we hang up.
