Are your teams producing Shock and Awe or is the mood in your hallways more of resignation? As someone who leads teams to define the game of life worth playing for them, the biggest hindrance I find to success is resignation. To me resignation looks like: Heads down, limited interaction, the absence of caring…waiting…hiding…cynical. It isn’t a pretty sight.
We live in a substantially more connected world now than even a couple of years ago so why is it that we aren’t really connected to people? When I say connected I mean having deeply trusting relationships where we share our concerns and build background together to accomplish great outcomes. Those are the moments worth living. Those are memorable. For me, that defines what Shock and Awe is.
There are two very important missing elements in today’s relationships:
1) Personal connections: Text messages, email messages, and voice messages replaced this thing called real conversation. I say to my teams why not go “old school” and pick up the phone or go visit them?
2) Commitments: When a customer makes requests of us we have a few choices:
- Accept the request and promise to deliver. Then do it. Deliver on that promise the way you and the customer agreed.
- Counter with new thinking and promise to deliver on that outcome, reach agreement with the customer, and then do it.
- Decline to make the commitment. Live with the positive or negative consequences of that decline.
Two things will happen –
- We fulfill on our promise then we share in the success of the outcome. Integrity based relationships. Shock and Awe.
- We fail to deliver and own the consequences of the failure (e.g. lost of trust, lost of future action, higher costs). But, by owning the failure and organizing a new way to deliver, our customer gets to discover our ethics. That’s integrity. That’s Shock and Awe.
Employees, customers and employers who are about creating highly satisfying relationships, ambitiously make and own their commitments. We have a framework we use here. Are you interested in creating Shock and Awe? Let’s go old school. Let’s really talk.