Every organization and project needs leaders. The role of leadership is to coordinate the efforts of a group or team, facilitate goal-setting and problem-solving, motivate others to work towards a common vision, and provide support for team members so they can be more effective in their contributions. Leadership is a critical role that requires skill, perseverance, and a strong bias for action.
When leadership is absent in a team or organization, the results can be immediate and drastic. For example, research shows that the loss of even one leader can have ripple effects throughout an entire organization. In fact, organizational change often begins with a single leader who must be able to convince others of the need for change and provide the tools and processes necessary to get the group moving in a new direction.
How to Build Strong Teams
Any organization that wants to be competitive, innovative, and productive must focus on developing strong teams. So, how do you build a strong team?
Here are a few tips:
1) Hire or Promote the Right People
Any team-building effort will fail if you have the wrong people in place. Unfortunately, identifying the right candidate is difficult to do. A person’s resume may indicate they are qualified but it’s hard to tell if they will perform well on your team until they’ve started working for you. An important part of the employee experience is to communicate promotion opportunities widely. Click here to learn more.
2) Keep Your Team Focused
If you’ve hired the right people, then the next step is to help them align their effort with organizational goals. It may sound obvious, but it’s tough for people to move forward when their efforts don’t seem to be making an impact. Building trust between team members will make it easier for everyone to commit to achieving a shared goal.
3) Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Keeping a project moving forward depends on solid communication between team members. It’s important to let people know if they are doing well and offer feedback if they aren’t hitting their targets. Communication is also critical at the team level. For example, teams must hold regular meetings to decide how to handle problems, who is responsible for what deliverables, and how the work of various teams needs to be coordinated to keep projects on track.
4) Give People a Chance to Grow and Improve
Ask your new hire to provide you with feedback on how they are handling their role and ask them to recommend a way they can improve. The result is that more people will feel comfortable giving honest feedback, which improves communication among team members.
5) Provide Ongoing Coaching and Development Opportunities
Supporting a team member’s growth is critical to building a great team. This can be as simple as distributing new ideas or having periodic meetings where people share their progress as they’re working on a project. It’s also important to make sure team members have the right resources and information necessary to succeed in their roles.
6) Practice Acknowledging Others’ Contributions
Team members need to know that others are valued for the contributions they make to the organization, whether through their ideas or through the way they work with other team members.
You will also need effective leaders. These tips will help:
1) Hire Leaders Who Have Experience in the Area Where They Are Needed
If you have a team that needs a leader, look for a proven performer who has already been successful in the function where you need their expertise. Hiring a proven leader will ensure your team gets the right guidance and direction to get the job done.
2) Make Sure Leaders Can Speak Up
Research shows that formal leadership roles provide no guarantee that people will speak up in meetings and offer their opinions freely. This is even more true when teams are working on complex problems that surface emotions and uncertainty — especially if team members don’t know one another well enough to feel comfortable disagreeing with one another or challenging other peoples’ ideas.
3) Provide the Resources a Leader Needs
The need for leaders with greater skills and experience is growing as organizations become more complex and as products and services offer more choices. In addition, many companies face regulatory requirements that make it harder for people to do their jobs effectively. When this happens, teams need leaders who can communicate with senior managers about the increasing challenges employees are facing and what needs to be done to help them get the job done. Look for leaders who have connections that will help you nurture your team throughout their time spent in the industry.
4) Assign Projects That Let People Prove Their Skills
If you are trying to identify high-potential employees and give them more responsibility, invest time in finding tasks that will allow them to develop the skills they need. For example, if you have a new manager who you think has the potential to move up in the organization, ask them to work on projects with your best people and let you know how things are going. The result is that people will naturally start taking on bigger challenges and leading larger groups of people.
5) Sponsor Promising Employees
Sponsors are senior people inside or outside the organization who offer advice and guidance to employees who are trying to develop their career goals. This can be done formally or informally — a senior person might invite a junior employee to lunch, for example, and share what is going on at the company and how he or she rose through the ranks. Sponsors can be given “medal” assignments, such as developing training modules for new managers on topics such as how best to use their time or how to communicate with senior leaders about challenges an employee is facing.
The recipe for success is not to be hired or promoted, but to have a happy work environment with clear, concise direction. The most important element is creating an environment within the workplace that allows employees to feel comfortable taking risks and making mistakes.
If your employees are creative and work collaboratively, they will engage in more innovative thinking. If they are feeling supported and encouraged, they will want to give their best effort every day. If you can help your team members do better in each of these areas—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness (this means relating well to others and being aware of how one’s behavior affects others), and relationship management, you’ll be well on your way towards creating a truly productive organization.