One of the most meaningful layers of leadership culture is care. Specifically, caring for those on your team. Oftentimes the simplest efforts go very far. Those we serve on our teams have personal lives, hobbies, interests, and so much more beyond their career. When given an opportunity to steward a team of people, care must be a part of the culture. As leaders, we must care enough for our team that they can feel it and then some.
We can “care beyond them.”
Caring beyond them simply means that we care about them and the other aspects of their lives like family, friends, hobbies, etc.
Caring beyond a team member can look like this. A good friend of mine shared with me that his new supervisor at his new job intentionally made sure his onboarding was smooth and meaningful. Meaningful enough that the supervisor told him to invite his wife to the office to eat lunch with the team, ask questions and understand the new work culture. He cared enough to acknowledge that my friend was entering a new job along with his wife.
Another great example of caring beyond someone is asking the question, “how are you?”, followed by sticking around to actually hear that team member out.
Here are the top 10 ways to care beyond your team:
- Pay attention.
- Be intentional.
- Ask good questions.
- Remember as much as you can.
- Follow up always.
- Celebrate wins.
- Hurt with them.
- Give them space.
- Onboard new team members.
- Get feedback from leaving members.
We can’t forget that our team is made up of people and not robots. Our role as leaders is to steward those that have been entrusted to us. We cannot let our teams go uncared for.
Our role as leaders is to steward those that have been entrusted to us.
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How do you care for your team? What has worked? What hasn’t worked?
Luke McClain is on a mission to help leaders move forward in their development one step at a time. He has been working with student ministry teams for 9 years and currently serves as a youth pastor in Pittsburgh. He is a life colliding with Jesus, husband, and a father of 3 boys. He is all about team culture and leadership development.
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