Connection and engagement within a team don’t have to mean knowing every detail about your coworkers’ personal lives. Real team connection happens when trust is at the centre—when everyone feels valued and supported. That’s what the past three weeks have been about:
- Week 1: Exploring your values and aligning your behaviours to model what you want to see.
- Week 2: Building trust through accountability and improving how we give and receive feedback.
- Week 3: Clarifying our team’s role in the organization’s mission and aligning our goals to drive collaboration.
Looking ahead, we want to use this week to focus on how to continue building on this foundation of trust, connection, and accountability.
In the past three weeks, your team has likely experienced both wins and setbacks. Some of us naturally focus on emphasizing wins to fuel present efforts, while others focus on analyzing setbacks to ensure future security. Both perspectives are important—and both need each other. To move forward effectively, we must celebrate progress, learn from setbacks, and establish ongoing feedback loops that allow us to adapt and grow together.
It feels good to win together. Contributing to a norm where there is steady progress and a collaborative culture requires intentionality. This requires each of us to own our responsibility to:
- Look for each other’s contributions to wins.
- Look for our own contributions to setbacks.
- Initiate conversations where feedback can flow regularly and safely.
- Take action on that feedback.
By addressing setbacks with an accountability mindset and openness to feedback, we strengthen trust and resilience within the team.
Two weeks ago, we talked about giving and receiving feedback. And during the last three weeks you’ve been working with a peer to have discussions.
Winning as a team requires more than just individual effort—it requires mutual investment. When we give feedback, it’s easy to do so from a place of self-protection, focusing on how someone else’s behavior impacts us. But what if we gave feedback from a place of valuing that person and wanting to help them grow? Similarly, receiving feedback with openness and gratitude creates a cycle of trust and improvement.
“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” – Ken Blanchard
When we invest in each other as equals—not as flatterers or competitors—we create a team dynamic where growth and trust thrive. Imagine that one year from now, your team’s improvement is so noticeable that others—whether it’s the board, other teams, or even the industry—recognize your success. That recognition doesn’t come from individual wins but from a culture where team members have each other’s backs, share their wins, and learn together from their setbacks.