SEDEVI ANGAMI is the director of a hospital in Dimapur in North East India and a member of the North East Cluster. He is passionate about investing in and developing people. In this blog, he shares 10 things he has found useful over the years in building and leading a healthy team
Give people a great vision. A good vision helps your team to be more focused, work beyond the immediate needs, develop a passion for the work, and overcome difficulties when things get rough or monotonous. Your vision needs to be adaptable and focused on the future. Such that, if an earthquake hits and destroys everything you own, your wider work should have created enough legacy to continue and bear fruit.
Set goals together with your team. I have sat with several of my team to work on individual physical, professional, academic, spiritual, recreational, family, and social goals. Each area of your team’s life is important for them to remain productive and meaningful. A great way to set goals is using the SMART method.
Encourage giving and sharing. I try to encourage generous giving of information, knowledge and also material things. Since nothing is original or new under the sun, I have no claim for copyright or monopoly of anything I have. We like to work towards becoming dispensable in the team. This way, even if I am not there, the team can run and manage without me.
We focus on building the kingdom of God rather than our own institution, and this helps us to experience more freedom and hold onto things lightly. Sharing within the team helps people to develop an atmosphere of mutuality rather than competition.
Help people to grow to the potential that God created them to be. My job is to facilitate people to discover and explore their full potential. This goes beyond their normal work and expectations. I encourage some of our staff to aim to become national faculty in certain areas. High expectations and high support is what I was taught by the teacher and author David Wong and it works.
Manage by walking around. Although it can be exhausting, constantly being on the ground helps me to relate with issues much better and more effectively. People feel more understood and relate better. Pace yourself to not become too intrusive and yet be connected with people and the issue at hand.
Share leadership. Apart from professional conferences and workshops, we send a large number of our staff for administrative training, leadership development, communications workshops, trauma and healing courses, etc. This has helped a lot of our staff take ownership for their work. They gain knowledge, they feel secure and confident, and so participate better in the running of the organization. It also gives us a good buffer of leadership material for challenging days ahead. And if most people know what I know, It's easier to communicate in the same language. My hope is that when I leave the hospital, there'll be 10 more people who are much better than me in most areas of leadership, administration, and professional knowledge.
Encourage a sense of wonder. Things can get monotonous or repetitive pretty fast. Trying out new things at a good pace helps people to feel that they're part of an exciting and progressive organization. A lot of our new endeavors fail. However, several more succeed. Not being afraid to fail and willing to try out new things from inexperienced team members helps people gain confidence. We do not start with skepticism or excessive calculation to make sure we've got it all right. Creating mental space for failures helps us accept and anticipate difficulties.
Networking. As a medical institution, we have found that we cannot sort out the health problems of our region alone. Searching, identifying, and working with good people in the region, and God has provided a lot of them, helps us to celebrate a larger spectrum and dimension to health that's beyond our own understanding. We have learned and grown much through the inputs of all our friends.
Inclusiveness. Everyone is different and brings something new. It is important to make extra efforts to ensure that your people feel included and not neglected.
Accommodate each other in the process of growth. As long as non-negotiable values are upheld. This is a learning exercise for everyone. One of my heroes, a Christian doctor from India called Dr. A. K. Tharyan, once mentioned that for a community to thrive, one person has to die every day to himself.
Learn how you can build good relationships in your community here
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