Anton Guinea
Entrepreneur, Speaker, bestselling author, and founder of The Guinea Group of Companies. For over 15 years, Anton has helped leaders move their teams to become psychologically safe, physically safe and overall better versions of themselves.
So, I was working with a Leader recently, who was quite put out by one of his team members – for all the right reasons …
Here’s the thing …
My leadership consulting work involved discussions with both the individual team members, as well as the leader.
As I was talking with one of the team members, it turned out that she was having challenges with some physical pain and she needed an operation, and needed to take some time off, fairly urgently, to get the problem addressed, medically.
She was obviously in pain, and it appeared that the pain was not new, it seemed to be a long-term injury, and this team member seemed to have been struggling with it for months.
Of course, I asked if her leader was supporting her, and she said that he wasn’t … which seemed strange, given that her leader has always appeared to me to totally and completely support his team.
I asked why she was not being supported … and it was because she hadn’t told him about her pain and her condition …
WTF – why not, girl … how can he support, if he doesn’t know.
“I didn’t tell many people, as I didn’t want to be a burden”.
The Leader’s Response
When I asked the team leader about it, I asked about the situation, and he was visibly annoyed … which I hadn’t seen in him before …
“Anton, how can I help my team, if I don’t know what is going on … I really would love to be able to help”.
And, he would have helped; I have known this guy for many years, have been working with him for over a year, and could feel the sincerity in his words.
“Why wouldn’t she just say something?”
Me – Mate, she didn’t want to worry you, so she had all of the right intentions, and so do you, so all good – just maybe let you team know that you need to know what is happening, so you can support them.
What I observed (and what I love)
So, what is great in my line of work is:
- Finding Leaders that care
- Finding team members that care
- Working with teams that just give a shit about each other
And, on reflection, this blog appears to be just another blog post … but, what I really want to point out is the fact that a leader was quite put out, and upset, that he was not able to support his team.
And, he has a great team, and a great relationship with those in it. There was no reason for the team member not to ask for support …
Key Message
For Team Members – Let your leader care, and let them help you, when you need it.
For Leaders – Keep caring. Care factor high should be your strategy!
And please click the image below if you’d like to chat about what leadership means to you.
If you would like to learn more about Anton or The Guinea Group, please click here to book into Anton’s calendar, to:
UPGRADE your Mindset
UPSKILL your Leadership
UPLIFT your Teams