Achieving a state of “Being” is a lofty but rather achievable goal for your team members. The important thing to consider is your role in that goal. Without you, and your vision, direction, support, and inspiration, your team must work exponentially harder to achieve it, if at all.
“Being” is the highest level of engagement around connecting to an individual’s work, and it is one that involves all elements of a person’s heart, mind, and body. It means that they move beyond simply “Knowing” how to do something or even “Doing” it. It means they are connecting deeply to it and will work extraordinarily hard to achieve it; it becomes part of who they are.
We use a scale of 0-10 to measure the engagement level of teams for Knowing-Doing-Being. The range from 0-3 would be levels of Knowing, 4-7 would be Doing, and 8-10 would be Being. Each level needs to be carefully chosen, and the movement between levels needs to be verifiable with evidence of impact. Listing your team can be very eye-opening regarding your contribution to their placement.
This exercise is not something that is published for the team, it is for your use only. You, as the leader, own the level. Your impact to close all of the necessary Performance Gaps will create a response from the team that will determine their engagement and effectiveness. You must remember this. Your role as a leader is to connect with your team to help them see their own individual purpose, expectations, and objectives and connect them with their role and the organization’s overall purpose.
Gapology provides a clear framework to help you do this, but they require considerable effort, focus, and hard work. But it can be done. Below are some steps you can follow:
Close the Knowledge Gaps. Ensure that you connect with their learning process by looking at how they build their talent level by acquiring knowledge and skills through training, teaching, coaching, and mentorship.
Close the Importance Gaps. Ensure they understand and believe in your expectations through clear behaviors and results laid out with a set of priorities they agree to.
Close the Action Gaps. Ensure that you regularly follow up with agreed-upon status updates where you create accountability and commitment through recognition and feedback.
It takes an incredible amount of work to move someone from simply Knowing how to do something to actually Doing it, and it should be celebrated when they get there. It also takes work to move them through the Doing range, and when they reach a high level of Doing, you should be grateful that they are performing exceptionally well. Moving them to Being is a massive step, and those reaching that range should be considered outliers on your team where you look to them for inspiration and representation of what is possible.
The state of “Being” can be absolutely achieved in many areas of your business, and it is important to determine which areas are the most important and establish your leadership rhythm to close the Performance Gaps described above around them. Choose the things that “Being” should be an expectation for you and your team and put the process in motion to get there. Without your guidance, it will be a hit-or-miss effort, and only those internally motivated to succeed will rise to the top, but with it, you will dramatically increase the number of those who will get there and stay there.
*Listen to our full podcast discussion on this topic here: https://www.gapology.org/podcast/episode/1f2fd50f/knowing-doing-being-connection-series