Resilient Servant Leadership: Team Leader
As a society, we have found a way to become resilient with work. Most have figured out a way to shift their operations to become a partially or fully teleworked entity. They still employ people, provide products and services, and keep their organizations afloat. However, our country is in an unprecedented mental health crisis.
A federal emergency hotline for people in emotional distress registered a more than 1,000 percent increase in April 2020 compared with the same time last year. In that same month, roughly 20,000 people texted a hotline run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Oren Frank, CEO of Talkspace, an online therapy company, said “People are really afraid. What is shocking to me is how little leaders are talking about it.”
Leaders aren’t talking about it because leaders are right in the thick of it. Leaders that don’t understand the benefit of vulnerability with their team don’t want to show weakness. In reality, they have no idea how to lead their team because they are in crisis themselves. They lack the resilience needed to help their team move past the stage of survival.
Have you ever poured a bowl of cereal, added the milk, took a bite and realized there was something a bit off? You peek at the milk carton and see that the “best by” date is in the future? Well as a resilient servant team leader, the best thing would have been to prepare your team before hand to deal with adversity. But the spoon is in our proverbial mouths and we are tasting the sour milk, so to speak. The best teams, however, build resilience during and after the adverse event as well. It is up to you, as the team leader, to take advantage by giving your team the ability to hang on to a sense of hope that gives meaning to everything they are currently enduring.
“So you as the servant leader must inspire the team’s ability to believe in each other’s abilities collectively. ”
As a servant leader, you should already know the strengths and weaknesses of your team members and they should be confident in your ability to serve them. In order to make your team resilient, you must inform your team about the strength and weakness of the other teammates. This way, situationally, the entire team can lean on the specific skills and abilities each has as the team journeys through the adversity. So you as the servant leader must inspire the team’s ability to believe in each other’s abilities collectively.
That last sentence holds the key to resilience as your team’s leader. What do they believe in? Perhaps as a servant leader, you don’t want your team to believe in you. That’s debateable, but moot in moments of crisis. Despite the mental health challenges everyone may be facing, they must believe in one another. This is your ultimate task! If you can get your team to believe in your team, you will go from average to resilient as a team!
Put these things in your toolbox to grow your team’s belief in each other:
Create an atmosphere of trust and safety - This is critical for any belief system. Trust and safety are needed for connection and community. These are the soil elements that team belief and cohesion are grown out of.
Set the team’s mental foundation - If we can create the atmosphere for what the team believes in, then the next step is to shape what the team believes in. This is all in the mind. This keeps everyone focused forward, which is resilient action.
Understand who will be most resilient in which situation - In addition to the team knowing the skills and abilities of each other, the team must learn application. You as the servant leader must start teaching that.
Give them the full picture - A resilient team needs to know where they are going, where the finishline is. Withholding information withholds the team.
Streamline the decision-making process - The team will know what to do, but if they are wondering who will make the call, it will distract them from doing what they need to do. Make sure the decision-makers are the most resilient people on the team.
Lyle Tard
LYLE TARD is the Founder and CEO of IMPACT Servant Leadership, started in 2018. He has recently retired from active military service in the U.S. Air Force where he served honorably for more than 20 years. Lyle is currently making a difference as a leadership and career coach and consultant.