Leadership Reflections: ...On Building a Solid Team
Kevin G Smith
Experienced Leader! Creative Problem Solver. Project Manager. Maverick Team Player. Mentor. #diversityinstem #scholarship #deileader
Greetings, colleagues, and friends! I'm on a reflective journey of self-discovery. I’m reflecting on life, leadership, impact, lessons learned, the future, and professional and personal joy. I thought I’d bring you with me on my journey. Be reflective with me; perhaps you’ll have your ah-ha moment!
In reading “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle, he speaks about how to build belonging or create a successful team at work. I’ve always attempted to build a family in my work environment. I work to create a sense of belonging, commitment, and passion. And to groom that, I care. I care about the individuals who work with me—no matter their role, position status, or type of stakeholder.
I build community! So that, in the end, everyone involved wants to build community. Cares about the community. Experiences the community's success and pains during the challenges. But know that if we work on it together, we will overcome it. I love that my old and new teams still see me affectionally as “Boss,” “Pops,” “Big Brother,” “Sir,” and “Friend” even when it's uncomfortable, they know I care.
How do you build community on your teams? In your families? In your organizations? I'll ask my great colleagues and friends to join in and share! joy robinson Lisa L. Montgomery Savio Pinto Michelle Adams Lisa Moeller, MHRM, MPSY Elizabeth Jaeger, BS Valerie T. Mabin Professor Shanita Baraka Akintonde MBA, M.Ed., DTM Aisha Lawrey ?? Carolyn Boyd, MSM Ileo Lott, Ed.D., CAMS I Sagirah Wheeler, Ed.D., CISD, HCD
I'd like to hear from you. Join my discourse!
Vice Chancellor of Business and Procurement Services
1 年This is awesome
Finance Specialist at Mclarens
2 年I know it will be great !
Freelance Photographer. Working in Sussex, London, and beyond. Specialising in portraits and classical music photography.
2 年This is such a joyful thing to read. Thanks for sharing, Kevin. I try to be present and listen first. The business, the agenda, the action, they can all wait for a few minutes - they may even need to flex a bit depending on what you hear. Start with the human.
Senior Faculty at Western Governors University
2 年Hey Kevin. Thanks for posting this. Community is so important in all aspect of life— we can’t do it alone we need other people as it is what makes successful, brave, informed, and a whole host of other adjectives in life. One of the ways I build teams is to trust generously. What that means to me is believing my teammates have the team, organization, other teammates best interests in mind. This can be hard to do at first because we are all afraid of being thrown under the bus but if we make it part of the culture of work it can be a team game changer.