Know What You’re FORSample

FOR the Team

My favorite definition of the word FOR is “to be in favor of.”

One of the best ways to live out your purpose and be FOR your customer is to be FOR your team. It’s impossible to consistently be in favor of your customer when you’re consistently at odds with the team.

Here’s why: how the team is treated is eventually how the customer is treated.

For example, when I walk into a business, I can tell within thirty seconds how the team is being treated because it flows to me, the customer. When the business is FOR the person behind the counter, I can see it on their face. I can hear it in our conversation. I feel it in how I’m being treated. And I’m not the only one. Every single customer experiences the team culture of the organization because, good or bad, what happens behind the counter flows to those of us in front of it. 

Your culture is created by default or by design.

There is no middle ground. We’re either moving forward or backward.

A team culture that’s in decline will be hard-pressed to create a sales force for free—positive word-of-mouth advertising.

Knowing this, I want to give you a pathway based on my observations and experiences working for thriving organizations, as well as being around incredible leaders I’ve had the opportunity to meet. This, I believe, will help you design a FOR culture for the team. It’s a simple, five-step, continuous process that elevates the soft skills and emotional intelligence of any group. Here’s what it looks like:

1. Believe abundantly.


2. Appreciate consistently.


3. Develop intentionally.


4. Listen actively.


5. Live repeatedly.

By following this pattern, I believe you can create a team culture that will eventually flow well beyond the borders of the office. From my observations and experience, this is the heartbeat of thriving organizations. We all know the difference it made in our lives to have someone believe in us, appreciate us, develop us, and listen to us, all while offering an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than us.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. It’s not a new idea, but it’s a mostly forgotten one: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31).

That’s how to be FOR the team.