3 Indicators Your Team Flourishing Has Stalled
Is your team flourishing? You might automatically be thinking: Of course! But wait. IS it? It was when we started! You think to yourself. Oh! Do I STILL have a flourishing team? I haven’t checked in a while! How can I tell?
Like many things in life, when you first notice a problem, it’s likely been going on for quite some time, and you’re only now becoming aware of it because of one symptom or another.
Think about this on an individual level. For example, you can suffer from an illness for a long time before you notice the symptoms and begin to become aware of the entire situation.
The same holds true for team flourishing.
The truth is, your team can go for years holding an even keel. But you don’t have to be sinking for there to be problems with your boat … and therefore, problems with the overall success of your journey.
Read on to discover three important indicators that can alert you that all is not as it maybe should be, when it comes to the overall flourishing of your team.
Alert #1: You’re Okay with Stagnation
Are you okay with being okay?
Never underestimate the seductive power of the status quo.
“One of the leading indicators your team flourishing has stalled is that there is a sort of … it may not feel like a ‘dull’ time, but there hasn’t been anything new in awhile and you’re suspiciously okay with that,” said Gretchen Jameson, Chief Learning Officer and Group President for Social Impact at Kacmarcik Enterprises.
This is not the same as the occasional doldrums. In fact, it’s a different beast entirely. You’re not just sitting still … you’re content and happy to be sitting still. After all, why rock the boat? Why make the extra effort?
“When people say ‘we’re best in class’ … that’s an interesting indicator to me,” Jameson said. “I’d rather hear somebody say, ‘we’re better and better every day.’ You become seduced and satisfied with the status quo. People are usually darn happy about the status quo. You’ll see them celebrate it.”
To avoid stagnation, experts recommend you try the following with your team:
- Schedule check-ins with team members to encourage/gauge engagement
- Reassess mission/goals/progress every 18 to 24 months
- Keep tabs on your competitors
- Ask your customers for their input on how you’re doing
- Check that your mission is still viable
- Encourage healthy conflict
Alert #2: Leading Indicators are Underperforming or Holding the Line
If your leading key performance indicators are holding steady or slightly declining, this is a sign that flourishing might be stagnating at your workplace.
“Some obvious indicators are how your financial bottom line is performing,” Jameson said. “You can tell when a brand is not healthy. You can look at a few things. One is how the business is performing.”
Performance metrics are numerous and depend on your organization, but may include:
- Revenue growth
- Profit margin
- Customer satisfaction
- Return on Investment (ROI)
- Conversion rate
“If those have held the line or are underperforming, you likely have a flourishing problem,” Jameson said.
Alert #3: High Turnover
Job turnover is inevitable, but excessively high turnover is never a good thing. In fact, it’s a bright red warning flag.
To compute your turnover rate, Divide the number of lost employees by the average number of employees and multiply that number by 100. For instance, if you’ve lost 15 employees and you normally have an average of 57 employees, you would do this math: (15/57) x 100 = 26.3%. Your turnover rate is about 26%.
On average, experts generally recommend keeping a turnover rate of 10% or less. A rate that creeps toward 15-18% or higher, is a warning sign of a deeper problem.
Hiring new employees and training them is expensive, time-consuming, and uses up a lot of resources. It also can result in low morale, a shortage of skilled workers and decreased confidence in your remaining employees. It’s a good indicator of the company’s work culture and overall hiring effectiveness.
It’s also an indicator of stalled flourishing.
“If you’re seeing turnover, and especially turnover of your mid-level talent, that’s a warning sign,” Jameson said. “Mid-level talent … they know very quickly if there is no path forward. If there’s no place for them to grow, they go. And they can see it.”
Some organizations even celebrate the fact that their mid-level talent is leaving in droves, because high-level executives wrongly feel they have set these workers up to be successful and “fly the nest,” when in reality, all they have done is fail to provide an environment in which mid-level talent can successfully flourish.
“That to me, is always an indicator,” Jameson said. “They have nowhere to go and nowhere to grow. And they’ll find somewhere they can.”
We can Help if You’ve Stalled Out
If your team is experiencing any of these indicators of stalled flourishing, the Kacmarcik Center for Human Performance offers many opportunities to get your potential back on track.
And if you’re still not sure if your “check engine light” is on, take our Gap Analysis Inventory to find out where you are at in your journey to reach your possible.
