I’ve just came back from a wonderful week in South Africa. Love the country, it’s people and although they are facing challenges, the mood is still pretty upbeat.
I spent a couple of days with the leadership team of a large company to discuss how they can energize, inspire and lead teams to achieve their hidden immense potential. The company has a long history in South Africa and its performance has been lagging in recent years. The leadership team was utterly committed to turn it around and were keen to reflect on how they could do an even better job in leading their teams.
One of the most amazing moments came when I asked everybody:
Identify what drives you to want to be part of this company’s journey?
The conversation started with me sharing a short video by Peter Fuda on the “Fire Within”:
Here, Dr Fuda explains that to transform companies not only do you have to create a burning platform but you also have to look inside and identify what is the organisational and personal burning ambition to want to change and be the change.
One by one the group shared what, as their CFO termed it, “floats their boats”. And it was powerful. it gave me goosebumps. A couple of the more moving responses were:
- Being a fourth generation employee at the company, he doesn’t want anything to happen “on his watch”.
- Having a strong desire to be part of a winning team and wanting to contribute to creating a better South Africa – which he could do if the company was successful.
In the end i just asked one question:
How many had shared this story, this personal ambition to drive and grow the company, with their team members?
Considering me, as a relative outsider got goosebumps from their sincere dedication to the success of the company, I expected their team members to “walk over hot coals”, do whatever it took to achieve the team’s goals after such an emotional connect. But, not surprisingly, not many had shared their emotional attachments to team success.
The bottom line of this entire story is, if you want to connect with your team, you first need to connect with your inner-self. Be true to what drives you and then with the same emotion as you feel, share what floats your boat! For me, it’s about connecting with people who have the power to lead their organizations into a very successful future. Help me out and join the Keijzer Community or connect with me on Twitter so that I can share stories of team success with you and help you on your leadership journey.