Feelings: The Team May Be in Harmony, But Is It Honest?
"I'm fine." As leaders, we hear these words from our team more times than we can count. I heard it from a team I led. After the new leadership. After the new direction. After the layoffs that change the number of people but never the amount of work. After each change, I would pull everyone together, share what I knew as clearly and compassionately as I could, tell them to take the time they needed, and remind them I was available if they wanted to talk. And they would tell me they were fine. And because the work did not stop, we kept going. They were a talented, thoughtful team. They cared about the work and they cared about each other. From the outside, we looked okay. People attended the meetings, answered the questions, met the deadlines. But looking back, I now know I was not seeing alignment. I was seeing adaptation. That is something we can miss as leaders. A team can become very good at surviving change without ever feeling safe enough to tell the truth about wh...
