Our number one Core Value is to Be The Guide. To us that means that no matter what task we’re doing for a client or a teammate, we don’t just do the task on autopilot.
We think through, how that task is serving the person and if there is anything additional that can be done to help accomplish the goal. If there is anything extra we need to explain or perhaps a different strategy that might help them out even more.
For instance, a hotel owner might ask us to take something off the financials. Well in accounting you can’t make something disappear, but we can talk through the circumstances that created the entry and how it might be reclassified.
We can go a step further to follow up with the operations team about the situation and put a process in place in help them classify it differently in the future.
This is something that EVERY single person on the team takes very seriously, and we talk about it constantly.
In this respect, every person on our team is a leader. They think like a leader. They guide their peers and clients every day. And everyone on your team can be a leader too!
Because there is a good chance that they have solutions to problems in your organization that you don’t even know exist yet.
One way we have instilled this into our company culture is to ask questions.
When someone on the team comes to me with a problem, I ask what they think. How do they think the client would be best served? How do they think the team could grow in that situation?
They develop that muscle of critical thinking.
In our stand up huddle, we frequently go around the room and ask the team what extra efforts have they done to offer value to their clients.
They develop the muscle of servant leadership and pursuing ways to serve and lead their clients.
Answers to that question have been “I noticed a client was pulling together numbers in a spreadsheet, so I built a report to do it for them in the accounting system and sent it to them,” I noticed a GM is having trouble coding particular invoices, so I recorded a training video and sent it to them!”
They are constantly coming up with way better ideas than I could!
Your simple tip of the week is to help your team exercise their leadership muscles by asking questions. Then praise them and show appreciation so they feel empowered to lead in the future.
