In an interview with Linda Jacobs, recently retired Executive Director of Good Samaritan Ministries, she shared the benefits of working with PSG.
MAKE EVERY TEAM YOU ARE ON…BETTER. When I think about what that means, a person, more than a description comes to mind. That person is Linda Jacobs. To make every team she is on better, Linda uses what she has learned about herself through her Kolbe A™ result of 6681. This is her guidepost to recognize how she will convene, communicate, establish trust, create clear options, and synthesize. Linda recently retired as the Executive Director of Good Samaritan Ministries, but will continue working on faith-based and community collaborations in her free time.
PSG Improved Collaboration for Linda’s Team
PSG began working with Good Sam (as most of us know it) in 2002 when Linda was the Director of Finance. She served in the finance role for ten years and then felt called into the Executive Director role for ten years. Good Sam operates a variety of programs to end poverty and homelessness. They collaborate with community partners, launch projects, promote community development, and meet the immediate needs of individuals and families right where they are.
In a recent interview, Linda confided, “working at Good Sam has taught me how to collaborate. Working with you and understanding our organization’s strengths and capabilities through the Kolbe indexes has taught me to ask, ‘who do I need on this team, now?’ I have learned so much about how teams work, think and get results together. This language has given me insight to read people quickly and then realize how they need to receive information from me. It is a quick way to translate what is going on with our dialog.
Through our work together you introduced our team to a Project Cycles concept. It starts with ideation, then moves through evaluation, logistics management, all the way to execution. This approach validates others for their contribution during different cycles of the project. It helps to determine who needs to be in the room, and at what point they need to be there. We have a process now for shortcutting our communication with each other. Each team member knows exactly what I mean when I say, ‘I need your green/red/blue or yellow energy on this right now.’”
PSG has helped Good Samaritan Ministries with a common language to enhance and shortcut communication, build team chemistry, accelerate trust among team members, and get the right people engaged at the right time throughout the full lifecycle of projects.
Linda’s Advice for Improving Your Own Team
Over the years, Linda has worked with both her internal team and on many external collaborative community efforts. Some have worked well together, and others not so well. Linda has seen that her role to improve outcomes is to serve as Chief Communicator. Here is her advice to make every team you are on better:
- Show up bringing the full complement of your talents and energy to solve the problem
- Be self-aware; recognize your own blind spots and reactions
- Invest in things that are relational
- Be open to altering the course when obstacles surface
- Suspend your need to get the credit; share credit generously with others
- Ask people, “what’s your Kolbe?” It is clearly an advantage to get where you want to go quicker
- Be humble
What are the needs your team has and how can we help you?
One of our Core Values is: Make Every Team You are on Better. We want you and your team to experience the team spirit, productivity gains and communication shortcuts that can be attained when everyone works together with this principle in mind.
The Kolbe A™ Index and Kolbe System™ are the trademarks of Kathy Kolbe and Kolbe Corp. All rights reserved.