Connect. Mobilize. Deliver. – A framework for leading a team
Connect. Mobilize. Deliver. These 3 words are the 3 things to focus on to lead a successful team.
These clear and simple terms capture the way I think about leading with kindness and confidence. They give me focus and direction as I lead teams.
If you’re about to stop reading because you don’t consider yourself a leader or you don’t think you’re on a team, hang on.
Take a look at my blog post, How Many Teams are You on? More than You Think. and download the free guide, 5 Simple Ways to Lead when You’re Not the “Leader” and keep reading.
I’m sure you’re a leader even if you don’t realize it. And, this article can help you be more confident and effective in your role.
So, how does “Connect. Mobilize. Deliver.” help me? It gives me a thought framework and the mindset I need to lead others well.
Because it’s the framework for how I approach leadership, it’s incredibly important to me so I am going to create a series of posts on this topic.
This post will introduce the concepts. Then, in other posts, I will dive deeper into each of these terms and provide specific tips and techniques you can apply.
Let’s start with the first and most important step: Connecting.
1. Focus on Connecting
The first step to forming a powerful, cohesive team is to focus on building connections. This isn’t just about you connecting with each person on the team. That’s important. But as a leader in a formal position of authority or as a leader without a title, you can have a bigger impact.
Helping other team members connect with one another is just as, and maybe more, important than you connecting with your teammates.
Why?
You are obviously a person who already thinks about leading with kindness and confidence and connecting with people. You’re reading my blog to build these skills.
But, your teammates may not be. In fact, they probably aren’t. And, they need someone to guide them.
Your teammates need help with connecting and you can help them.
I will elaborate on this topic in other posts and give you specific actions you can take. For now, let’s briefly consider what connecting is and why it is so important.
Being connected can improve your teammates’ mental health
To highlight the importance of our teammates being connected, think about these terms often used to describe someone who is not connected.
- Disconnected
- Isolated
- Cut off
- Separated
- Detached
- Lonely
Those words are painful just to read, let alone experience.
And, that last one, lonely. That one is especially difficult. But, as leaders, we need to talk about loneliness.
The article, Most Americans Are Lonely, And Our Workplace Culture May Not Be Helping, states “More than three in five Americans are lonely, with more and more people reporting feeling like they are left out, poorly understood and lacking companionship, according to a new survey“. The article goes on to say “Workplace culture and conditions may contribute to Americans’ loneliness.”
I completely agree that workplace culture (or the culture of any group) contributes to loneliness, but I am equally convinced organizational culture can have an even more powerful positive influence through connections.
As leaders we have the opportunity to influence our culture and positively impact the mental health of every one of our teammates.
When we focus first on connecting with our teammates and helping them connect with one another, we are helping them avoid and fight against loneliness.
What a privilege it is to help those around us in such a meaningful and lasting way.
If you are a leader who truly cares for your teammates and wants to lead with kindness and confidence, connecting is your first step toward reaching your goal.
Connecting leads to success
Connecting doesn’t just help your teammates feel better and be more mentally healthy.
The empathy produced through connecting can produce interbrain synchrony and team flow. If that sounds like some fancy neuroscience language, it is.
I’m not qualified to talk about the science behind connecting and successful teams, but I am qualified to say connecting works. In my decades of experience, I’ve found teams with people who were the most connected to one another performed at the highest level.
So, focus first on connecting when you’re leading teams. Then, focus on the second critical step, mobilizing.
2. Focus on Mobilizing
The second step to take once a team is formed and connections are being built, is mobilization.
I don’t actually say the word “mobilize” very often, but I do it often. Anyone who is leading a team should be “mobilizing” often too.
The most appropriate definition as it applies to leading teams with kindness and confidence is from dictionary.com.
Mobilize – To marshal, bring together, prepare (power, force, wealth, etc.) for action, especially of a vigorous nature
Dictionary.com
This is such an appropriate description for what leaders must help their team do, prepare for vigorous action.
One of my favorite books is Your Leadership Edge [affiliate link] written by my friends Ed O’Malley and Amanda Cebula. In this outstanding book, Ed uses the term “mobilize” when describing leadership as “mobilizing people to tackle the most pressing, daunting, wicked challenges: the tough stuff”.
Once we get our teammates connected, we have to focus on preparing them for action, getting them ready to do “the tough stuff”.
But being connected and being mobilized and ready isn’t enough. A leader and the team have to actually do something.
We have to deliver results.
3. Focus on Delivering
Focusing on delivering is the third step in being a successful leader.
The main reason leaders and teams have to deliver results is pretty obvious.
If you’re in a job, that’s what you’re paid to do. If you’re on an athletic team, that’s why you’re in the game. Even in a volunteer organization, you and your teammates are investing your time to accomplish a goal. To get something done.
But there’s an even bigger benefit than just getting the stuff done you are supposed to do.
Leading a team to deliver results and share in mutual success gives the leader and each team member a sense of accomplishment.
Producing a meaningful, tangible outcome also builds confidence. That confidence equips every person on the team to do even bigger and better things in their next opportunity.
In contrast, when a leader fails to guide a team to complete the work they set out to do, team members can easily feel like their hard work was futile and wasted. They can easily lose motivation for this project. And, the next.
A kind leader does everything within their power to help their teammates avoid this experience.
They dig deep, they struggle when it’s difficult. They persevere. And, they help their teammates do the same until the job is done and the agreed upon measures of success are achieved.
Consider these 3 things to focus on to lead a successful team
I typically include in my posts several tangible tips and techniques you can apply immediately to have an impact.
With today’s post, I’m intentionally not going to do that. For now, I only want you to take one action.
Before reading my next post in this series, take time to consider each of these words, “Connect”, “Mobilize”, “Deliver”.
Think about how these three steps fit into your view of what it means to lead with kindness and confidence. Ponder each word. Think about it’s meaning.
Reflect and compare your leadership approach with mine as I’ve described it here.
How does my practice of defining Connect, Mobilize, and Deliver as the 3 things to focus on to lead a successful team differ from what you do?
This approach gives me focus and direction to lead well. Do you think this thought framework will work for you? I’m confident it will and encourage you to give it a try.
Please join me as we explore each of these 3 steps to leading with kindness and confidence in more detail in future posts.
Let’s do something great.
Greg
Discussion Questions
- What thought framework do you apply when leading teams with kindness and confidence? How is different or similar to the view I described in this post?
The perspective I described is one way to be successful as a kind and confident leader. There are many others and I would like to hear about them. Please share your experiences in the comments section so we can learn together.
