Do you want to harness the greatest power in your organization? The best assets of your church, business or non-profit never appear on your balance sheet.
The truth is that any organization is only as good as the people within it. Take the greatest idea and put the wrong people behind it and little progress will be realized. With the right people, even average ideas can achieve tremendous results.
Are you taking the advantages of human capital?
Are you relying on the knowledge, insight and experience of everyone on your team to make the organization better?
Here are 5 ways to capitalize on the people value of your team:
- Brainstorm – Have assigned times, periodically, where everyone on the team gets to give input into the organization’s future. I like to provide ways for even the most introverted on our team to share thoughts with me.
- Allow mistakes – Create an environment where team members are willing to take risks without fear of repercussion if things go wrong. This atmosphere will often be created with the leader’s instant reactions to mistakes made, but will be reinforced by how the organization learns from failure.
- Ask questions – Genuinely seek help from those around you. Recognize the fact that others may know more than you know about a particular subject. I like to follow others on the team when they are the expert in a subject.
- Don’t pre-define – If you want help solving a problem or planning for the future, start with a clean slate, without having a pre-determined outcome when addressing an issue. If the leader always has the answer, team members are less likely to share their input.
- Be open to change/new ideas – The leader must genuinely desire the involvement of others. Everyone on the team knows if the leader is really considering other people’s opinions. If team member’s suggestions are never implemented, they eventually will stop sharing them.
