As individuals we understand what it’s like to live everyday inside what is known as a body. We nurture, strengthen, and train our bodies to have longevity and provide value to not only ourselves, but to the environments in which we live and work. An ideology that holds true and very similar to the perspective of maintaining our own bodies, is comparing the body to a collective group of individuals sharing a common goal and commitment – a Team 🤝🏻.

As it relates to a Team, I’d like for this to be a call to all members and leaders of teams, especially Leaders. It’s time we start to really acknowledge what a team truly is, which is a body consisting of other bodies (members) working together to maintain structure and quality and produce value for a much greater purpose. Just as we like to self-evaluate within our individual lives, we should also as a team – treating it no different as a body. But this ideology must start and be embraced by executive leadership and upper management in order to improve organizations. Today’s modern work culture demands that companies get this right or threaten to leave in search of support and appreciation elsewhere.

How can a team reflect that of a body exactly? Let’s break it down a bit.

😀 The Face (The Value/Reputation)

The face of a team is its reputation and perceived value externally. It’s easy to take an inside look at how things are functioning and feel to have accurately identified a team’s overall condition, but it leaves a one-sided view. The same goes for only looking at external responses. Leaders must be aware of how the team is being impacted on both sides to maintain balance and success. Here’s how to assess:

• Internal Pulse – On a weekly or bi-weekly basis, leaders should monitor and review where the team stands regarding goals and operations for consistent insights on any issues that may need high-level support and approval for progress. This prevents losing control and connection with teams.
• External Pulse – On a bi-weekly or monthly basis, in order to keep face in good image, leaders should do check-ins with other teams in which it supports and cross-functionally works with. This is vital to understanding dependencies, strengthening communication and building trust between teams. A prime example would be monitoring Marketing and Sales alignment to ensure revenue goals are obtained for overall company success.

💪 The Arms & Hands 🖐️ (The Work)

Figuratively speaking, when it comes to heavy lifting and keeping tight grips on things, we all know what hands and arms can do. They’re able to handle growing capacities, reaching more people, and with greater quality, producing great work; which is multiplied significantly with a team. Let’s get into it a bit more:

• Arms (Reach) – A team’s ability to reach its greatest potential, impacting both internal organizations and external audiences in which it serves through its work, depends greatly on how well it manages and optimizes its resources. Marketing has access to powerful data and tools able to engage the right audiences with the right content. This is crucial but requires training and collective buy-in on visions and efforts. To ensure this, there must be clarity on roles and how each will contribute to overall goals.
• Hands (Quality) – Quality control is important and can easily get lost in the high volumes and/or urgency of requests. The right hand must know what the left is doing in order to maintain coordination. Teams with no coordination can easily miss opportunities if there is no alignment between members. Marketing leaders will need to corral members to collectively map out strategy and ownership, establish deadlines, and understand how expected quality can be achieved.

🏃 The Legs & Feet 👟 (The Processes)

Successful teams can sustain longer when they have a solid framework and well-defined, iterative processes to work within. Processes are like the legs and feet enabling support, structure, and balance, and must be scalable to the growth of both a team’s size and volume over time. But let’s dig deeper here:

• Legs (Momentum) – Knowing when and how to move regarding target deadlines are vital team skills to keep momentum and maneuver quickly within processes. Marketing team members must be flexible and agile, mindful of SLAs, and continuously monitoring efficiency to modify processes where necessary. Without this, teams will lose steam and burnout due to inefficient structure.
• Feet (Stability) – For a team to remain stable on its feet, processes must be clearly defined, easy to follow, and continuously improved upon to ensure buy-in and avoid members from clashing and overlapping. This happens quite frequently among Marketing teams, which is why process owners must be receptive to feedback for improvements that keeps the team standing firm.

💓 The Heart (The People)

The members of a team are its core, and without nurturing their growth and health, no organization can thrive. They aren’t wired machines, but rather complex beings with real feelings, emotions, and unique qualities. Leaders must forge close relationships with their teams and invest in creating a culture that enables growth. Because really, teams are extensions of their leaders. But let’s dig deeper into the beat of this piece:

• Heart – A team’s morale can fluctuate unpredictably, and there’s no one remedy that fixes all simply because each day comes with a new set of challenges for the team, in addition to each member bringing their own set of personal dealings to the table. But what team members and ultimately Marketing leaders must do is empathize and be receptive to the needs of their people. Continuously innovating ways to expose the team’s greatest qualities is vital to the rhythmic pattern of its beat. Each member is a stakeholder, which makes them part owner and owners desire value in what they have. If there is no enjoyment, respect, and ultimately no trust, then there is no value – and that’s when the heartbeat stops.

Each of these bodily features produce greatness when in sync with one another, ultimately reflecting outward, what lies within. Growth must start at the heart, then all else organically responds, enabling healthy relationships and quality work. Although, Marketing leaders should be the ones owning this approach, team members must also be proactive in maintaining synergy. Then, together evaluate the most and least admirable characteristics, and strengthen the team’s body from its core, enhancing its image and quality externally. Ya see, it’s all a matter of perspective, which impacts our approach, and our approach impacts our growth.

Have you examined the body of your team lately? 🔎