I’ve written before about my belief that everyone is doing and trying their best. You can see those here and here.

Today on LinkedIn, I came across a response to the following question…

A team member keeps missing crucial deadlines. How should you offer constructive feedback?

Among the valuable pieces of advice from Edwina Pike, was this nugget, which I’m declaring my quote of the day:

Our teams don’t come to work to do bad work. They want to be a valued member of their team. It is rarely them, it is normally us, as their leader.

• Edwina Pike, Irrational Change

As a leader, perhaps the most important piece of the job is to enable your team members.

Being clear about purpose, direction and desired outcomes.

Empowering people to think for themselves as they complete assignments.

Allowing them to own the creation of solutions to the problems you’re asking them to tackle.

And supporting them, with your knowledge, an open mind, a mentor’s ear, and a helping hand.

They want to do good work.

They’re saying what Jerry Maguire said,

Help me, help you!

So? Help them.

As a supervisor, team leader, manager, or executive, embrace the mindset that your people are actually trying to do good work, even if the results aren’t there yet.

If you can do that, you’ll be on your way to being more effective at helping them to get the most out of themselves.

And when that happens, good things will follow.

And if you’re an aspiring leader, take note. This is another piece of your learning. Adopt this into your way of working, as you continue to build your future leader toolkit.

Have a great weekend!