You know you’ve attained success when you have everyone collaborating and working towards one common objective: your company mission and values.
Everyone is on the same page and working together as one team. But how do leaders get there? Let’s picture this.
Imagine you are returning from a 2 week vacation, you are walking into your office and the atmosphere is buzzing with excitement, your team is collaborating, eager to help your customers, they are wearing the most valuable attire: their smiles. They are excited to see you and are running towards you. They can’t wait to tell you about the success they had while you were away. “We passed the audit, “our customer service scores are off the charts,” and “we are number one in the region.” But you knew this was expected because you built this team. Bravo!
But, wait, how did you get here? Before I tell you, I have seen many managers without cohesive teams: not communicating with each other, having conflict and tension, low morale, high turnover, need I say more! Oh, let’s not forget a poor performance!
Oftentimes when managers feel as though their team is not growing, they get stressed and frustrated, which causes the team to stop collaborating and creates a hostile atmosphere. No one wants to work in a toxic environment, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Become a leader and take charge. Step into a Leader role today. In order to be a great leader and build your cohesive team you want to ensure that you, as a leader, are not lacking leadership skills and behaviours. Your team will look up to you and your job is to bring them from point A to their desired destination.
Here are some must-have leadership skills necessary to build a cohesive high performance team:
1. Always lead by example
Always do what you say and follow through on your actions. Lead with integrity and sincerity to gain trust from your team. Inspire and empower them to follow you, mirror your words to your actions and offer them growth opportunities. Remember your vision needs to be greater than theirs.
2. Communication and listening skills
How you communicate with your team will dictate your level of success in your role. Communicate to your team while smiling, show enthusiasm, and ensure you listen when they are speaking to you. Listening to their perspective and understanding their worldviews will make them feel like valuable members of the team and want to work hard for the company’s mission.
3. Creating a positive atmosphere
Change your negative thoughts to positive ones and if you start today you will see an amazing change. Positive behaviour is key to ensure team members feel safe enough to bring their unique talents and perspectives. Hire diverse talent with character, people who exhibit respect, compassion, responsibility, and integrity. Teach the weak skills after. People of good character shine and ooze kindness and they will learn the necessary skills.
4. Provide continuous training and development initiatives
Ensure you assign S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals for each team member based on the organizational objectives and involve them in collaborative goal setting. Coaching and providing ongoing feedback during one-on-one meetings is crucial for team development and their progress. Ensure consistency in your monthly meetings and create team building activities for all to participate, add storytelling as it can be a powerful tool for learning. Make it fun, people relate to storytelling, get inspired, and connect. Coaching and development needs to be scheduled weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly and is ongoing until you bring your team members to their desired destination.
6. Celebrating Their Achievements
Celebrate your employees on their small and big accomplishments. It’s a great skill that can be learned and teams perform better when celebrated often than others. Ensure their efforts are appreciated and you can recognize them by giving them handwritten cards, sending e-cards, during meetings, team parties, trips, and more. Make recognition your daily task, even as small as greeting their customer with a warm smile. Your team will thrive working for you!
Once you exhibit the aforementioned skills and behaviours, success will have built your cohesive high performing team. Develop your team and ensure everyone is a top performer by motivating and inspiring, ensuring that everyone feels heard, and respected and cared for. Bring your love into the workplace, I am rooting for you!