90 DAY ACTION PLAN: Gaining Support as a Leader from Your “First Team”
Our work as leader is so important to our organizations. Supporting and guiding our teams is a great privilege and responsibility that can help enhance our employees’ experience, improve patient care, and lead our health system to greater innovation, efficiency, and impact. But, as leaders, we also need to ensure that we are being supported and encouraged in our roles, too.
Without built-in support and community, leadership can become a very lonely experience. We can feel isolated which can lead us to operate within silos, decreasing trust and collaboration with others, stifling creativity, collaboration, and innovation. Our resilience reserves can become depleted and we can begin to feel burned out by the demands and stressors of our work. Performance can suffer, as we’re not leveraging the geniuses of our teams and we become less engaged, and less satisfied with our jobs. And, our organization can see higher leadership turnover as unsupported and disconnected leaders leave the organization altogether.
To do our best work and bring the best out of our teams, we need to build our own sense of community, encouragement, and collaboration. We need mentorship, connection, and support to celebrate and lift us higher during times of strength and buoy us when times are more difficult.
In Triannual II, we learned about the concept of the “First Team” or “Team #1” from Patrick Lencioni that reminds us that, while exist as leaders to serve our direct reports and employees, we need to be plugged into our team of fellow leaders to foster greater growth, impact, and resilience.
Everyone who came together for the Leadership Quest is leading at Trinity Health in some capacity. Even though we may serve in different departments, we have a shared mission and commitment to growing our health system and supporting our teams. We’ll face similar challenges, we’ll get to celebrate bigger wins, and we’re able to communicate and and work together in ways we simply can’t engage with our direct reports and employees.
These first teams are so supportive and encouraging because they offer us:
1. Shared Vision: Leaders from other departments are committed to the same goals and values and scaling toward the same summit. Engaging with fellow leaders can increase our sense of purpose and direction so we feel more energized and motivated by our work.
2. Collaboration: It’s so refreshing to get to work with other leaders who are navigating the same stressors, victories, challenges, and opportunities that we are. When we work together with fellow leaders to solve problems and make decisions, we feel much more deeply connected and inspired by our work, we build relationships that fuel us, and our resilience reserves are filled up.
3: Feedback: Meeting regularly with our first team of fellow leaders can offer us a great opportunity for peer-to-peer feedback. They can help provide insightful perspective and ideas for improvement which can help us overcome difficulties and make positive changes in our departments.
4: Accountability: Regular interactions and touchpoints with our first team can help us achieve our goals faster by providing accountability, a sense of encouragement, and greater support as we work together to achieve shared objectives. As fellow members of the Leadership Quest, our first team can help us stay committed to leadership practices such as coaching and rounding that will help our departments succeed.
5: Professional Development: We can also learn so much from our colleagues who can share the benefit of their experience as a leader, provide cross-departmental insights, and push us to grow stronger as leaders. We can also attend continuing education courses together, share what we’ve learned from the Leadership Quest or from TalentTracks, and help each other apply the lessons to our work.
Even in the flurry of the move to the HCMD, there are plenty of opportunities we can carve out to engage with our First Team and get support from our fellow leaders.
We can schedule lunch together every couple weeks to add in time for extra support and connection, we can make a habit of celebrating our fellow leaders’ successes and sharing gratitude for where they’ve helped us grow, we can plan a monthly or quarterly social event where we can bond with our first team in a more relaxed setting, we could start a group text chain to share encouragement and helpful resources, or we could host a short weekly or monthly virtual huddle to catch up and share our weekly highlights.
However we connect, it’s vital that we build in access to the lifeline that is our fellow leadership team. They will be our biggest source of strength as we climb together toward the summit. They know what challenges we’re navigating, they’ve been there before, and they’re right by our side to offer a hand up as we climb.
Use a few minutes of your 10% Secret time this week to reach out to a fellow leader. Ask them where you can provide support and build in a few touchpoints over the next few months where you can continue the conversation and continue to build your connection.
LEADER-TO-LEADER: Mentorship + Collaboration
Your monthly Leader-to-Leader meeting is another wonderful opportunity to seek support and encouragement from a fellow leader.
Bring any questions, struggles, exciting news, and opportunities to these 1:1s and get coaching and guidance on how to proceed. Your leader will have great insight and experience to offer and can help you see your challenge from a new perspective, make connections to other resources in the organization, and help you achieve your goals faster than trying to go at it alone.
Prepare for your 1:1 with the Leader-to-Leader Update on page 132 of your FY23 Planner and use the Agenda on page 133 to guide your discussion. Be sure to schedule a time for follow-up to track progress on your key projects and ask for help from your leader or other members of your First Team when you hit any roadblocks.
SHARE YOUR WINS! 🎉 🎉
Have you been able to receive support and encouragement from members of your First Team? What activities are most supportive to growing your teamwork and collaboration?
Let us know what tools and resources have been most helpful and where you still need more insights and support to improve your leadership. We’re here to help with anything you’re facing and always ready to cheer you on!