For those thinking leadership is about sitting on the main desk and setting out orders, it’s not.
It’s not about using your team’s expertise to represent the company. Instead, leadership is about focusing on one goal and working together to achieve it.
It is about trusting your members, empowering them, and enabling them to work for themselves. You will need to take many actions to help build your team.
We are here to show you how:
11 Ways Highly Successful Leaders Support Their Team
- Foster Honest Environment:
When working with teams, it is often seen that people are reluctant to talk to each other and would rather face situations alone than ask for help. You need to help them break the ice. Create an open environment and encourage communication between them.
Allowing people to share their questions, stories, feedback, and journey in the organization will open new doors for members to communicate.
In an honest environment, your members will feel more comfortable to get along with you and the team.
- Create a Collaborative Vision:
Your entire team has to move in one direction and work towards one goal – The company goal. Working without visualizing the goal can decrease motivation among members and make them reluctant to work.
Try to set some clear goals for them. For them to dive into this vision, you can plan these goals together with them.
You can determine their required KPI to give meaning to this vision. Personalizing the vision with benefits and incentives will help them connect.
This will align everyone to one path as they gain more meaning. Once they start the process, you can support them with the necessary guidelines if needed.
- Be Fair:
Human interaction makes it natural for people to be close to some people. When you have to assign tasks, you may feel inclined to set tasks for those more near to you.
This preference is a moment of weakness. As a leader, you have to be fair and firm. If you are not, this may result in complaints from the team.
To be able to work firmly without troubles, you can delegate tasks that involve interacting closely with the team.
A manager comes in handy as they can look over tasks without hesitation. You or your manager can come up with a plan to assign tasks interchangeably at regular intervals.
- Celebrating Milestones:
Tedious tasks don’t seem that boring once they are appreciated.
During brainstorming sessions, or achieving targets, there will be members who appear to share valuable ideas or sales. If these members receive a pat on the back or are treated like champions, then they and their team members will obtain a driving force pushing them to work better.
While small wins can allow for applause or praise, big wins can be claimed for a pizza party or more formally, dinner.
The achievements of the firm can be claimed as the success of the team! This is a great way for leaders to boost the productivity of a company.
- Throw in Challenges:
Once you are communicative with your team, they will come up to you with queries and for assistance in completing tasks.
That’s not what leaders should go for. You must invest in your team, but you also have to let them work by themselves.
You cannot micromanage them. Instead, throw in tasks and challenges that they can perform for them to become skilled without help.
Problem-solving sessions give them opportunities to assist you and learn themselves.
They are open to creative thinking, boosting self-confidence, and communication. So, when future clients handover tasks, you know whom to count on.
- Encourage Teamwork:
Your team may be great in their respective tasks, but being unable to communicate properly during assignments can take a toll on the entire project. Two members of the team can easily perform the same task twice.
Then again, it can be seen that many tasks have been missed out due to the absence of teamwork. The idea of working in teams can make goals more obvious and overall expectations and goals more discernible.
As a leader, you have the power to examine your team members. Those trying to work by themselves without communicating can be put back on track through one-on-one conversations.
Encouragement of the team to work in groups can be ensured through feedback, conversations, recognitions, and rewards.
- Handling Difficulties:
When working for an organization as an employee, there are tasks that you may have dreaded. As a leader, these are the same you have to perform all the more.
You may have had the opportunity to try skipping them before.
Now, your team will look up to you for showing them how to perform the task properly or just to see if you will excuse yourself.
For instance, if there is a dreaded office tool the team hardly knows about, it’s your responsibility to present the tool to everyone and show how it is used.
Then again, if your team is appointed somewhere unpleasant like cleaning customer restrooms, jot down your name along with the others. Your team will respect you even more.
- Providing Training:
No one has the ultimate goal of sticking to a team. Most employees stick around listening to bosses for low pay because of the experience.
The faster you realize that, the better you will understand your team.
As a leader, it is your responsibility to stick to your team members and provide as much training as you can. You can be a firm hand who directs them towards the educational path.
Since you are the one who examines their tasks, you have the opportunity to correct their mistakes and create rooms for progress and skill development. You can teach them about the new tools and software that can be the level up they need.
- Follow the Law:
It is seen nowadays that companies are reluctant to give employees all the opportunities as stated by the law.
For example, a woman taking an FMLA approved pregnancy leave is often not guaranteed payment or is overburdened with tasks.
This form of retaliation can become a reason she will sue you.
Men and women coming back from pregnancy leaves should be treated like they never left.
As a leader, your job is to make sure that all your employees are treated right.
You cannot simply make someone work off the clock just because the work is not done.
Record and remind every hour of overtime, be it your manager or your staff.
- Tough Decisions:
Depending on your position in the company, there will be cases where you will be given certain advantages.
Your opinion will be taken when recruiting and promoting members. Or you will be the one taking job interviews in the first place.
It is your place to turn a blind eye to the benefits of nepotism.
If you stop the termination of a member just because he or she is your friend, you are not the right leader. The same goes when taking disciplinary actions. You have been given authority.
Now, you have to start taking a stand and making all those tough decisions justly.
- Be the Leader:
The biggest flaw a leader can have is slacking off. When people move to a higher position, they start to remain aloof and come back just to receive tasks.
These are the leaders who receive no respect from their team.
To become a successful leader, you need to work hard and led by example.
Every member of your team is a pillar. Strengthen these pillars by working alongside them instead of patronizing them behind their backs.
There will be instances when someone comes to you with complaints. While you will try to be understanding, there can always be chances of these complaints being false accusations.
That is when you need to work from the grass-root level. Your intelligence will prove how successful a leader you are.
Conclusion:
Great leaders around the world treat their team with respect and receive respect in return. They build in their hearts compassion, empathy, and trust. The first rule of leadership is teamwork. You cannot claim a person to be an effective leader unless you have the confidence to support a team and make them succeed.
Reference:
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/tips-for-success-as-a-team-leader-1919252
https://gc4women.org/2019/02/15/six-ways-leaders-can-support-team-success/
https://www.teamwork.com/blog/10-ways-leaders-teams/
