You Vs Your Team

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You are getting ready to meet with your team. There are big changes to discuss and you are the one informing your team.

How will they react? Will they be excited for the changes? Will they hate them? Or will they be indifferent?

 

It is a stressful situation. It can cause problems in your team if it is not handled properly.

Meetings like this can become heated. Feelings could be hurt. You could lose valuable team members.

Or the meeting could go great. You and your team may feel that your ideas were heard and that they were acted upon.

Let us take a look at three ways that a meeting like this could end.

  1. You go with your original plan
    Ignoring any input from your team, you forge ahead with the plans you introduced at the meeting. This will cause a divide in your team. They will feel you do not value their input. You will lose the respect of your team.

    Though there may be times you need to do this, you need to keep it to a minimum. And you MUST have the trust of your team behind you. If not, your plan becomes a total disaster.

    Most of the time, conducting a meeting in this manner  creates a win-lose situation. You win but your team members feel like they have lost.

  2. You go with only the ideas your team offers
    The team is open to change. However, they decide to give their input and force you to implement every idea they gave during the meeting. This changes the decisions that you had made before the meeting completely. The idea is no longer yours, it is theirs.

    You leave the meeting feeling that your team took over the idea and destroyed it. The meeting feels like a failure.Your team is ecstatic. They made a difference and told you how it was going to be. They feel the meeting was a success.

    This is a lose-win situation. You feel like you lost, your team feels like they won.

  3. You compromise and take your ideas and combine them with your team
    The final situation is that you and your team come to a mutual agreement regarding the changes.

    During the meeting, you introduce the changes that need to be made. You let your team know that you have spent time thinking this through.

    And now you would like their input on the changes. You and your team exchange ideas on what the changes should look like. Your team offers alternate suggestions for the changes. You accept a few of the changes and modify the plans.

    Both you and your team feel they were able to give valuable input during the meeting. You feel you were able to get the changes that needed to be made made. Your team feels their voice was heard and they were able to be a part of the changes.

    You have helped create a win-win situation.

Situations 1 and 2 are acceptable in certain situations.

When the first two situations are acceptable, you must be ready for any resistance or hard feelings that will occur.

More often than not, you should be able to end a meeting with situation 3.

And I think you will agree situation 3 is the best way to handle situations. You and your team are able to walk away happy.

In the end, the choice is up to you. Choose wisely as it will affect the dynamics of your team.

A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece.
— Ludwig Erhard

Question: Are you willing to accept the input from your team? Why or why not? Please share your answers in the comment section below.

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