What is a True Contributor (Part 4)
Contributors,
In our last post, you learned about the Contributor portion of the Triad. For a quick review, as a contributor, the competency you want to achieve is
PRESENCE - The ability to operate with confidence and courage rather than complacency and fear, especially in the face of change, the unknown, or transformation.**
How do you achieve presence? By equipping yourself with three skills: growth mindset, emotional agility, and the ability to use your voice effectively.
Today, we’re going to examine the second area of the triad - that of TEAM MEMBER. You are, in each and every moment of your personal and professional life, part of a team. That means that your work as a contributor builds into the larger work, and shared objectives, of your team.
The goal of the three trainings in the TEAM MEMBER portion of the Triad is to ensure that you're able to use your individual contributions, and to communicate them, in a manner that boosts the shared goals of the team (and does not detract from them).
Like most things in life, that requires a set of skills and competencies.
(If you'd like to know the difference between a skill and a competency, see the highlighted blue box in last week's post.)
THE COMPETENCY OF A TEAM MEMBER
The overarching competency of a TEAM MEMBER is the ability to FORM TRUST, which we define as:
The ability to engage critical conversations, rooted in confidence, and aimed at cooperation and alignment**
Achieving this competency - or the ability to "form trust" - requires three skills:
Effective listening: the ability to not only hear what someone is saying, but to understand what they mean.
Conducting hard conversations: the ability to not only identify when a hard conversation is needed, but to lead it to a successful outcome.
Co-Owning the Solution: to understand not only how you can contribute to a solution, but to have the ability to execute it alongside your team.
I know this is a lot. So, to illustrate these points, meet The Directors! The Directors are upper level management at Your Company. They were the group intrigued by Samantha's request for a specific service and have called a special meeting to learn what she is seeking.
Samantha is a rising star in her company and has been tasked with a new product launch. She communicates that she wants Your Company to develop and execute a two pronged communication and marketing plan for her company’s New Important Product (NIP).
-Prong one is a customer facing communication and marketing plan to educate and entice the customer to purchase and utilize NIP.
-Prong two is in internal communication and marketing plan meant to educate the company’s team members about NIP, and, most importantly, to get their buy in regarding the importance of NIP.
Samantha has emphasized that the internal communication and marketing plan is a critical part of NIP’s launch - it can not succeed without the buy in of the employees.
The Directors in Your Company call a special meeting with Samantha. They end the meeting, each having heard something different regarding the needs of the Samantha’s company and the ranking of her priorities. The Directors decide to split up the work. Each of the their respective teams works in a silo, developing the portion of the plan that their leads guided them to create. The work is then handed back up the chain to The Directors, who hammer together a plan for Samantha’s company. Unsurprisingly, the plan is awkward and disjointed and has unclear goals and direction.
The Directors meet with Samantha’s company to present the plan. Samantha and her team do not see your company’s vision for NIP, nor how this plan fully accomplishes either of the two prongs that they noted were a priority. Samantha and her team leave the meeting, turn down your proposal politely, and now hold a less than stellar understanding of the capabilities of Your Company.
But what if instead…
The Directors end the meeting with Samantha. They understand that her two pronged approach is an opportunity for Your Company to develop a service not just for Samantha’s NIP but for other clients - which could grow the business significantly. They decide to go back to their teams and brief them on the meeting, highlighting the importance of this opportunity with Samantha’s company as well as her company’s goals.
The Directors brings in their respective team leads for another conversation, so they can hammer out what they believe Samantha’s company is asking for and get clarity on the goals. With the goals made clear, they determine their strategy - specifically, which sections of the plan each team will be working on. The Directors schedule check in meetings with the team leads along the way to ensure that the work is being put together in a way that is coherent and productive.
The Directors regularly check in with one another to ensure that each one of their pieces will fit the total whole of the proposal and they prioritize the common goals of this larger team. A final draft is put together and The Directors ensure that the original objectives have been met and that Samantha’s company’s two pronged approach is realized in the outcomes of the plan.
Samantha and her team meet with the directors, who present the plan. Samantha is excited and sees the vision that Your Company has put together. She has questions and would like some edits to be made, but she’s seen enough to know that the team understands the goals for the NIP launch. Your Company has not only won Samantha’s business but is on its way to developing a new suite of client services.
What's the difference between what happened with The Directors in the first scenario and in the second?
TRUST.
The ability to engage critical conversations, rooted in confidence, and aimed at cooperation and alignment.
The directors understood that each of their respective teams had something to bring to the table. They listened to Samantha's requests - they not only heard what she said but they made sure that they all, collectively, understood what she meant. They came together for several conversations, and negotiated how each team would contribute and ensured that they had clarity. They did not murk up the project by prioritizing the needs of their teams over the goals of the project. And they set up themselves and Samantha for Success!
Now it's your turn.
What parts of this story do you relate to the most?
How strong are you in the three skills of the Team Member portion of the Triad?
Are you an effective listener?
Can you have a hard conversation? Can others around you have them, too?
Do you have clarity on the contributions that you and others can make toward the larger goals of your team?
For extra credit: take this to your boss, your colleagues, to a trusted friend or partner, and ask them to circle where they agree and where they disagree. Ask them for honesty and be ready to receive it with a mindset for growth.
In the next blog post, we’ll go through the skills and competency of the third portion of the Triad: the Organizational Player, so you can examine your capabilities and opportunities in that area in more depth.
See you then,
Dr. Nahed A. Zehr
P.S. Want to share your thoughts with us? Email us at info@truecontributors.com or reach out on any of our social media platforms.
**This is our working definition.
