A Secret Weapon For Leaders To Create A Secure Environment On Their Teams

When you think of a "secure environment," what are some of the things you immediately think of?

Positivity?

Open Dialogue?

Ability to Experiment?

These, of course, are all important, but there's another way to create a secure environment that most Leaders don't generally think of.

The Secret Weapon

The one way we don't normally talk about to create secure environments is simply Setting Goals.

That's right, Goals can be used to help you create a secure environment on your team.

Why is this?

Well, by nature humans are Teleological, or Goal Seeking.

When we have Goals that we feel we can achieve, it improves our psychology and our overall sense of security.

Without something we are working toward, we get higher levels of anxiety, depression, and disconnection.

However, not just "any" goals will create security.

There are a few types of different types of Goals you can utilize with your team to create security within the environment.

The Categories

➼ Daily

These types of goals create the fastest secure base for us.

Why?

Because we have to accomplish them EVERY day.

They are a goal we can reliably seek out every day and achieve every day.

By achieving something every day, we feel good about our environment because we are successful at something.

The important aspect of this is that accomplishing this goal needs to have a purpose.

This goal shouldn't just be there to "finish" it.

For instance, having a 0 inbox at the end of the day is a terrible daily goal because it doesn't accomplish anything, it doesn't have a purpose.

You could accomplish this goal just by deleting all your emails, or marking them all as read!

Not only have you "accomplished" the daily goal, but you are also moving backward in actually accomplishing anything of note!

Let me give you an example of a better daily goal - I have a daily goal to write an article in my business (I'm doing it right now!)

Do I write it "just" to write?

No!

It builds my portfolio or articles, it challenges my thinking, it forces me to continually improve my ideas!

There is "purpose" in this daily goal for me.

➼ Improvement

An important aspect of a secure environment is that we have the ability to grow within it.

If we are afraid of becoming better than others, we will always be limited and afraid of the environment.

However, as a Leader, you can direct the growth of your team!

You can see where people will fit best, and how they can improve both for themselves and for the growth of the organization.

If direct your team's growth, you can show them that they have a secure place to grow and improve your organization overall at the same time!

If you don't do this, there is also a downside.

Two things will happen simultaneously.

Your best employees will still desire to grow, and they will do it with or without you.

If you don't guide them directly, they will guide themselves out of your organization.

On top of this, any employees who don't actively seek growth themselves will remain stagnant.

However, stagnant employees are detrimental overall.

They lead to organizations that feel like they aren't going anywhere.

If your organization feels stagnant, it's because it is.

➼ Team Outcome

The final important aspect is that you need to have goals that everyone directly impacts.

It's not enough to just say, "Hey, you matter."

If there is no evidence that someone matters in an organization, they will feel like they don't matter.

As a Leader, you need to show your team how they are directly impacting the goals of the team and organization.

This then makes them feel more secure because they KNOW that they matter, they feel truly useful, and everyone wants to be a part of something important.

Plus, these goals become unifying forces for the entire team.

To accomplish these goals, the entire team needs to work together to get the results.

This creates camaraderie, which in turn creates security.