You Are Only as Good as Your Team

As of late, I have been thinking about highly effective teams. I currently work in a very large Supply Chain team where our 375 or so staff members are spread between a corporate office, 10 Acute care facilities and 500 or so Non-Acute care facilities. With that said, how do you bring your team of associates together to form ONE Team?

With the silos we all work in today, it is a challenge when team members are spread across an organization. Team members that work at one facility may have to play by the rules and expectations of the leadership team at that facility, while the team members at the corporate office may have to play by the rules and expectations that our supply chain team has created. The teams often have competing priorities, goals & objectives, and strategies. As a larger team like ours in supply chain tries to drive our ONE Team priorities, goals, objectives, and strategies, how do we bring all of the teammates along across all of the facilities without overwhelming them, and burning them out? These teammates may already be buried in what they must perform for their facility, and then asking them to do more for the corporate strategy may push them over the edge!

I believe it is the job of the leadership team (like myself), to clearly outline the strategic initiatives for all of supply chain clearly, but also be the champion at the local facility level to engage facility leaders on our priorities, goals, objectives and strategies. It is also my job to evaluate all priorities locally and corporately to make sure our teams can accomplish ALL of those objectives in the time frame presented. It is key for someone like me to make the case to the local leadership team that our system supply chain goals will help the local facility meet their goals and objectives as well. Maybe even collaborating together on how to achieve a little bit of both views of priorities and objectives to get a win/win scenario is effective. No matter which way you go about it, it is absolutely necessary to drive this strategy.

From there, your teams at the facilities will not only feel supported, but they will feel a sigh of relief that they can help to achieve objectives and goals for both areas of the organization, locally and corporately. They also will feel pressure off their shoulders that they are contributing to ONE team. The corporate employees will see that the facility teammates are working on the strategic initiatives from corporate and feel a sense of teamwork. This will also help break down that wall of "site vs. corporate."

As a leader, this should make you feel good and accomplished. You are only as good as your team. You may be struggling on how to get a global team like this working effectively together - but if you don't do something to lead the entire team to your objectives and goals, no one is winning. Collaboration and partnership with key stakeholders is the key to success. Open and honest communication will help resolve the majority of your challenges in your organization. Make it a place where everyone feels they are achieving what they want and everyone is winning.