I'm building a team from scratch: what I've learned thus far

Recently I've stood up a culture team for my company. Not going to lie, it's pretty cool, I'm pretty proud of myself, and easily one of the most fulfilling things I've ever worked on, but more on that another time.

I've been learning a ton from this leadership experience. Again, more on that another time. For now it seemed timely to share something that I've come to realize over my years in a corporate setting and this experience has validated: How important sometimes seemingly insignificant things really are.

What do I mean?

Well in the past I've seen some fallout, or at the very least missed opportunities, due to coworkers, leaders, business partners, whatever, assuming that sharing some info or taking some action was trivial, insignificant, or unnecessary. I've seen team leaders not hold regular meetings since they thought it wasn't important. Wrong. I've also seen leaders not offer regular updates because not everything was declared or "figured out" yet. Wrong.

It's easy to think that things are just not all that important, or get bogged down in our day-to-day and not offer regular, meaningful updates. But this creates distance, confusion, and ultimately disinterest and resentment.

So what's gone on in my culture team that has got me thinking about this? Well probably the one thing that I thought was the most insignificant and redundant to explain was the lexicon I was using with the group. I mean the names of the team, sub-teams, things of that nature.

I felt like I was constantly saying the same thing but really each time I would re-articulate something I could see -- or hear over the phone -- the light switches turn in a team-member's brain. It's funny, it really has seemed like these little things end up being the most helpful and important to understand.

So what should you do? When do you do this? And who should do this?

What: Rather than assuming that your team, peers, anyone really already knows something, opt to over-communicate. Sure you don't want to flood inboxes with emails but try offering a quick caveat acknowledging that you *might* be at risk of telling them something they already know.

When: Anytime you think you have information someone else needs. Or when you are concerned that a group not understanding something will impact a project, deadline, etc.

Who: Anyone who has information that is not, but should be, well-known. But how can you tell? I'd think that if this post resonates with you, you probably fall into this camp.

Happy leading, happy communicating, and more to come about what else I'm learning from this experience!