Five Steps to Lead A Team Effectively
Five Steps to Lead A Team Effectively
These harsh prescriptions have long served as models for running an effective business. These days, though, the prevailing wisdom is changing. Some of the new watchwords and key phrases are "collaboration," "shared ownership" and "common values." Why the shift? Increasingly, businesses are finding that the old ways of doing business are not sustaining them in today's fast-changing marketplace. As the watchwords change, so do the methods of effective leadership. Here are five basic keys to leading successfully in this new world of teamwork.
Lead Yourself Before You Try to Lead Others.
"If I don't have a good handle on me, I won't have a good handle on you," explains Jim Jose, an organizational effectiveness strategist and leadership coach based in Tucson. In other words, model for your staff members the sorts of behavior you expect from them. If you expect them to treat each other with respect, make sure you don't fly off the handle at every little problem. If you expect honesty from them, make an effort to own up to your own mistakes. The bottom line, says Jose, is "if you take care of yourself, you know the kind of value to place on another person." Because it isn't always easy to know how to make changes, or even what changes need to be made, leaders might consider hiring the services of an executive coach.
Give Team Members a Sense of Ownership in the Process.
"If I'm a leader, I have to find out what makes you tick," says Jose. "If I don't know what motivates you, why would you follow me?" For one team member, this might mean an excellent salary. For another, it might mean a flexible work schedule. For yet another, it might mean the excitement of challenging work. Once you've determined your staff's individual needs and have done your best to meet those requirements, the next step is to create a sense of shared purpose. An effective team leader defines the mission but then allows team members to have a broad voice in how the goal is reached. "That way, in the end, we can say this is a 'we' product, not an 'I' product," Jose says.
Build an Atmosphere of Trust.
This means fostering collaboration rather than competition. It also means approaching your employees with empathy instead of anger. One of the worst among several bad elements of the traditional management model is that, in a strictly hierarchical setting, leaders become isolated from the problems that threaten the organization. But if you foster an environment in which employees feel free to offer constructive criticism without fear of retribution, the organization will grow stronger.
Help Your Staff Build Capacity.
The paradoxical goal of a good leader is to become replaceable. John Maxwell, author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, explains the paradox this way: "The only way to make yourself indispensable is to make yourself dispensable. In other words, if you are able to continually empower others and help them develop so that they become capable of taking over your job, you will become so valuable to the organization that you become indispensable."
Foster Inclusion.
The more inclusive the team, the greater the number of talents and viewpoints will be on hand to tackle problems. This extends beyond ethnicity and gender, to include a diversity of attitudes, values and ways of thinking. Here is, perhaps, one of the most compelling arguments for teamwork. "In a team-based organization, you tend to draw out the gifts that everyone can bring to bear on business strategies," explains Jose. "In a high command-and-control organization, those gifts remain lost."
Five Steps to Lead A Team Effectively - To learn more about this author, visit Bob Corcoran's Website.
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“Survival of the fittest.” “Kill or be killed.” “It's my way or the highway.”
These harsh prescriptions have long served as models for running an effective business. These days, though, the prevailing wisdom is changing. Some of the new watchwords and key phrases are "collaboration," "shared ownership" and "common values." Why the shift? Increasingly, businesses are finding that the old ways of doing business are not sustaining them in today's fast-changing marketplace. As the watchwords change, so do the methods of effective leadership. Here are five basic keys to leading successfully in this new world of teamwork.
Lead Yourself Before You Try to Lead Others.
"If I don't have a good handle on me, I won't have a good handle on you," explains Jim Jose, an organizational effectiveness strategist and leadership coach based in Tucson. In other words, model for your staff members the sorts of behavior you expect from them. If you expect them to treat each other with respect, make sure you don't fly off the handle at every little problem. If you expect honesty from them, make an effort to own up to your own mistakes. The bottom line, says Jose, is "if you take care of yourself, you know the kind of value to place on another person." Because it isn't always easy to know how to make changes, or even what changes need to be made, leaders might consider hiring the services of an executive coach.
Give Team Members a Sense of Ownership in the Process.
"If I'm a leader, I have to find out what makes you tick," says Jose. "If I don't know what motivates you, why would you follow me?" For one team member, this might mean an excellent salary. For another, it might mean a flexible work schedule. For yet another, it might mean the excitement of challenging work. Once you've determined your staff's individual needs and have done your best to meet those requirements, the next step is to create a sense of shared purpose. An effective team leader defines the mission but then allows team members to have a broad voice in how the goal is reached. "That way, in the end, we can say this is a 'we' product, not an 'I' product," Jose says.
Build an Atmosphere of Trust.
This means fostering collaboration rather than competition. It also means approaching your employees with empathy instead of anger. One of the worst among several bad elements of the traditional management model is that, in a strictly hierarchical setting, leaders become isolated from the problems that threaten the organization. But if you foster an environment in which employees feel free to offer constructive criticism without fear of retribution, the organization will grow stronger.
Help Your Staff Build Capacity.
The paradoxical goal of a good leader is to become replaceable. John Maxwell, author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, explains the paradox this way: "The only way to make yourself indispensable is to make yourself dispensable. In other words, if you are able to continually empower others and help them develop so that they become capable of taking over your job, you will become so valuable to the organization that you become indispensable."
Foster Inclusion.
The more inclusive the team, the greater the number of talents and viewpoints will be on hand to tackle problems. This extends beyond ethnicity and gender, to include a diversity of attitudes, values and ways of thinking. Here is, perhaps, one of the most compelling arguments for teamwork. "In a team-based organization, you tend to draw out the gifts that everyone can bring to bear on business strategies," explains Jose. "In a high command-and-control organization, those gifts remain lost."
Five Steps to Lead A Team Effectively - To learn more about this author, visit Bob Corcoran's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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