Every person in your team wants to feel KNOWN, VALUED and BELONG. It’s your job as their leader to bring these feelings to life in every member of your team and your highway to success is in Term 1. I wrote about this in last week’s Monday Motivation (if you missed it you can find it on my website HERE).
We lead by influence, through showing people what we value. They will see this through our conversations, our actions and our decisions.


The first term of any new team is when the norms are set, processes and systems are laid down and importantly when relationships form.
Maya Angelou famously said
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
It is your role as the leader of your team to ensure every team member feels like they are KNOWN, VALUED and BELONG.
This happens through conversation. (Not through email!)
A great approach is to sit down with every member of your team ( plan it across the term) and get to know them by asking a few questions. Not too many as this can be overwhelming. Too many questions makes people feel suspicion rather than involved. Perhaps choose no more than 5 questions that will provide you with insights about each person that will help you to know more about them, to allow you to identify their value to you, the team and therefore the organisation, and for them to feel part of the team, so they feel they belong.
Of course a trusted team leader is also willing to share a little about themselves. You will need to be comfortable with a little vulnerability about you, perhaps what’s important to you, what you love about your work and your genuine desire to help them in their role or career ( it needs to be genuine – don’t go here if this is not true for you, or they will see through you in only a matter of weeks).
As I was coaching a leader, perhaps 2 years ago, we devised some great questions to ask. Here they are. Feel free to alter them to suit your needs. Choose just 5 questions. Alter the style to better suit you but keep the questions open.
Getting to Know your Team Members.
- What initially brought you to teaching as your profession?
- What is it about your job that you particularly enjoy?
- What is something you are particularly proud of in your career so far?
- Share with me something about home for you. If you feel like this is too personal and you prefer not to respond, I understand. Just say ‘Pass’*.
- What is/are your favourite teaching topic/s?
- What is working well in the department and what isn’t?
- What are some improvement suggestions for the year ahead?
- What are you worried about for the year ahead (work related)?
- Where would you like to be support or what help do you need?
- How do you want me to support you this year?
- In what areas would you like to grow professionally?
* My mother always said ‘Pass’ when she didn’t have, or want to provide, an answer. I’ve adopted this approach too. She loved game shows and probably picked it up from there.
What are you going to do this week to get to know your team members so they feel known, valued and belong? Have a good week.
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Thank you to those who have shared with me their appreciation of the Monday Motivation from last week. It is always important for me to know that my work is making a difference in your life and leadership. Please keep them coming.
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I have been doing work on my website and there are some new pages that you will enjoy.
1. Events – we have mapped out the whole year for you so you can match your calendar with which programs are available at that time.
2. Shop – all of our products are now listed on one page. If they have multiple dates, you can see them once you click the icon.
3. Monday Motivation – I have been gradually uploading the Monday Motivations from last year onto the Blog page. This page will continue to grow.
4. Podcasts – Recently I had a great conversation with Julia Padgett, on her podcast, Launch Into Teaching for early career teachers. We talk about managing the adult-adult interactions; an area not covered through the university teacher -training programs.