Adapting to Team Needs

The art of responsiveness will never be based on a cookie-cutter approach. If we start with listening, especially when we’re able to apply the DISC Model of Human Behavior to what we hear, we’ll be able to recognize what each individual needs and tailor a response that best serves that need. The art of responsiveness hinges on giving them what they need, not just a reply that’s easy or one that fits our schedule.

In talking with a friend several years ago, he shared that the executive team in his organization had been communicating an expectation that all team members were to respond to any outreach from a client within 48 hours; coincidentally, the same amount of time suggested in a few of the studies I had read. That seemed reasonable, given the service-driven sector that company operated in. However, he went on to share what had grown into a significant frustration - for him and for several of his peers. That same executive team wildly missed the mark in providing anything resembling this kind of responsiveness to their direct customers; the team they set this expectation for.

My friend went on to explain how he had multiple requests into each of the executives that he had any type of reporting relationship with and had barely been acknowledged. His messages weren’t emails to someone in an office thousands of miles away, he interacted with them personally every single day. While each had commented on receiving the specifics he provided in writing, none had bothered to provide a written reply - and certainly no actual response. Think back to what I shared before from Dan Pink’s book: “The longer it takes for a boss to respond to their emails, the less satisfied people are with their leader.” If you were in my friend’s shoes, how satisfied would you have been? While those ducking him were indeed executives in that organization, I refuse to refer to them as leaders. And I’ll bet you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he has since left that organization…

As leaders, there can be a tremendous amount of pressure to walk through fire to serve our clients, responding to them immediately while pushing the needs of our team members to the back burner. In Know What You’re FOR, Jeff Henderson says that “employees who feel cared for, care for their customers.” If we’re not modeling responsiveness for the teams we lead, we’re leading them to be unresponsive to anyone they deal with. And just like each client will have different needs, each of our team members need different responses.

There will be times where we can provide a blanket statement that serves as a response to many needs at once. More often, though, we’ll do well to tailor our response to the specific individual - based on what we’ve learned about their individual communication style blend. As we do that consistently, and develop a reputation for doing so, each of our responses strengthen team trust and increase overall performance. While circumstances may occasionally prevent us from offering a thorough response immediately, an immediate acknowledgement at least shows we’re paying attention. But even then, we can’t consider our job complete. We’ll work through what we can do to build a relationship bank through our responses next, with our teams or anyone else. Before that, think about how you can address a need within your team by providing a tailored response.