The Morning Leader – Achieving team success on the field or in the office
Date: May 27, 2015
Name: The Morning Leader – Achieving team success on the field or in the office
Presenters: Janet Austin, Donna Wilson, and Jim Murphy
Leaders need the ability to strategize their winning team. Moreover, leaders have the responsibility to effectively manage and address team collaboration and conflicts. Women’s Leadership Circle invites Janet Austin, the Chair of YWCA, Jim Murphy, Donna Wilson, the Senior Vice President of LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services, and Jim Murphy, the former professional baseball player and olympic coach. The panelists will reveal their secret of success in team building. In addition, they will discuss their experience about the qualities and attributes of outstanding leaders should have.
Experience from Janet Austin
When Janet Austin starts her career in YWCA, there were only a few women leaders at the board. She understands the team culture and the diversity of programs are the key to success in the business. The organization has over 410 employees and serves over 41,000 clients. Austin has the vision to achieve women’s equality and make a difference in the business world.
YWCA has conducted an employee satisfaction survey to help the organization understand their culture values. Austin shares the intentional values of YWCA include effective communication, respect, learn form mistake, celebrate success, commitment to improve, and willingness to deal with conflict. YWCA has provided the cultural environment of workspace for employees, such as clearly defined goals, empowerment, creativity, adaptable and development.
Austin believes YWCA commits a strong diversity message to the community. Employees and volunteers reflect the community’s direction. Moreover, the respectfulness of unique culture from individuals and solving problems with different perspectives are examples of the image of YWCA reflect on diversity.
Becoming a part of the community, Austin believes it is important to have social interaction, involvement, and a story. Austin describes leaders in any team require to connect individually. The life outside of work must balance. Advocacy for family is important for leaders and they must treat everyone fair and equal.
Leadership requires leader to share common vision of the future to the team. Leaders need to have role-model values. Moreover, self-awareness and mindfulness will help leaders to strive to success.
“Everyone sees themselves as leaders”
Experience from Donna Wilson
As the Senior Vice Present of LifeLabs, Donna Wilson believes building team must be intentional. The LifeLabs has grown over 300 employees since 2013 and the main vision remains as to analyze the health of individuals. Wilson shares the process that LifeLabs uses to cultivate their values and success.
- Cultural Audit
- Value vision and people strategy
- Implement key cultural levers
With cultural audit, LIfeLabs ensures employees must have the ability to share purpose and collaboration. They must acquire personal accountability. Empower others and client focus will help them execute excellence in their work. Competitive and business focus drive their performance and result. Moreover, innovative and risk taking are supplement towards their vision.
The cultural audit captures caring, customer driven, agile and one team. Wilson believes people must care for communities to drive their standard to excellence. They must listen to customers’ expectation and create values for them. They will take advantage opportunities to act and embrace the change. By working together as one, Wilson emphasizes the trust and respect values for each individuals.
LifeLabs looks at the people strategy and come up with four major categories.
- Build a high performance culture
- Invest in employee experience
- Attract, develop and retain talent
- Build organizational strength
Wilson believes talent must align and support with the current culture. Experience can reflect the value as a whole team. Identify talent to recruit the necessary skills is important. Moreover, by investing the professional development to people, they will create long term recognition.
Wilson believes actions can make the difference. Actions can help people connect with the vision and values. Leaders can follow the right leadership model to create behaviour that can align with the values. Furthermore, leaders must focus on hiring process to screen for values that can potentially improve the organization.
Wilson indicates the two competencies behind people strategy are core and leadership. Core contains teamwork, job knowledge, solution focused, service driven and self-management. As for leadership, it contains building effective teams, business acumen, creative and strategic agility, quality decision making, and excellence with accountability.
“Actions require lead, align and intake”
Experience from Jim Murphy
Jim Murphy believes the philosophy of “material is you and the container is the culture”. With the sports industry experience, Murphy designs the matrix 3 world model that can help leaders understand their values in team.
In the matrix 3 world model, there are 3 kinds of world. The first world is the individual, the second world is how individual lives, and the last world is the life professional.
In the third world, people faces judgement of others. In the second world, people have control. Moreover, in the third world, people are experiencing their inner strength.
In leadership, the first world will allow leaders to identify they are leaders. The second world will acknowledge leaders that they are leading. The third world will describe the world of leadership.
In the world of leadership, leaders will face results, circumstances, goals, success and failures. Murphy believes leaders usually experience ego in this world. When leaders are leading, they are performing their tasks and making daily decisions. When leaders know they are leaders, they will find their inner character, heart, and freedom.
Many leader are trap in the third world. The goals, result, and process in mind will limit leaders’ beliefs. This will influence the way leaders will lead others. They will fear self-conscious, past, and future. Murphy believes the right way is to lead from the heart. Leaders must expand their vision and be fully present.
“Clarity live, feel and become”
Questions and Answers
When a team faces challenges, murphy believes the keys behind rebuilding a team are to redefine team vision, revisit the vision, and clarity the vision. Austin believes there are two kinds of conflicts. The first kind is when people think it is good to disagree ideas, and the second kind is they do not understand. It is important to deal with conflict immediately. Wilson believes conflict is good in right way. Leaders with leadership must ensure people are capable to deal with conflict.
Wilson indicates leaders understand who they are and how they lead. No one is perfect, but they must be aware the problem in front of them. Murphy wants leaders to connect and inspire with their hearts. Austin believes ego might mislead leadership, so they should admit if they are wrong.
“Men will ask promotion when they receive or fulfill 50%, yet girls are 100%”
The roles between men and women can create conflict in teams. Wilson believes in shift of balance. Leaders must learn from each other. Austin emphasizes social condition is everywhere, which means different standard expectation. In any team, leaders must share. With a little change can make a big difference.
Wilson suggests leaders to see the underline bias, identify the assumption and show where they belong. Austin suggests leaders to occupy their space with no hesitance. Leaders should always promote themselves and learn to take credits.
Austin believes there is no difference between leaders and their mentors except a couple of years of experience. Leaders should always believe they have the capability to lead. Murphy believes there is sunshine over every thunder storm. Wilson believes leaders should always watching and always learning. It is important to be intentional of any decision leader make for their leadership. The interests can help leaders to shape their image. Therefore, always be disciple and bold.