DL’s 4 point expectation: A RIOT of color!

I’ve been handling teams of different sizes for the last 11 years and I’ve been guided by this 4 point expectation which I usually discuss with my teammates. I’d like to share it with you.

RESPECT – This is something that is earned and usually takes time. This can’t be done overnight and can’t be mandated. We don’t issue a memo and tell everyone that “This person is your new leader so you have no recourse but to respect him asap.” This is probably the most difficult expectation to measure or achieve. You may have a high respect level at one point and drop to a low level just by a word or a phrase that you uttered. While mostly erratic, the key is to maintain the respect level constantly at a high level and quickly rebound from an incident that presents a low level of respect.

INITIATIVE – The dictionary defines this word as “doing the right thing without being told.” About 80% of what we do is done without supervision. Responsible and mature individuals do not need supervisors to tell them what to do as long as the objective is clear. As one of my former supervisors told me, “give me the end objective, monitor my performance, call my attention if get off track and I’ll see you by the end of the year with a performance that will be mutually beneficial for us.”

OPENNESS – Funny, we work in a telecoms company and we have numerous media to communicate (telephone, email, sms, instant messenger, letters or notes) but this is one department that needs improvement in a relationship. The JoHari window model says that personal awareness is represented by four quadrants: open, hidden, blind, and unknown. The interaction progresses as we moved from one window to another. Read about it in the internet or psych books and learn from it.

TEAMWORK – This is probably the most prominent management tool however the most difficult to implement. Every man is unique. Life is an array of perspectives. The key is to find the common denominator and rally this group of individuals to a common cause. The best acronym of TEAM for me is Together, Everyone Achieves More.

Let’s engage in a quiet RIOT.