Introduction
Leaders at every level make a significant impact on every metric in your business: employee productivity and engagement, customer satisfaction and loyalty, innovation, and financial performance. Leaders are the “Difference-Makers” in your business.
From new and emerging leaders to those in the executive suites, the role of a leader has always been tough – and today’s realities make it even tougher. People skills typically account for 80 percent of success in this role. Yet many people are promoted into leadership because of their technical capabilities, without mastering the skills of managing and motivating others. Without these basic skills, leaders at every level can struggle with leading teams in today’s workplace.
The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team™ is a special collection of relevant, practical resources that provide leaders with the mindsets, skillsets and toolsets needed to excel in their critical roles of leading others effectively.
- Develop a Leader’s Mindset
When someone transitions from an individual contributor to a leader, their definition of results needs to change. They need to see results differently. When they were an individual contributor, their results were the work they did. But now they’re a leader, so they own the results of everybody their team.
The first job of the leader is not to get results alone, but with and through others. Leaders are still responsible for personal deliverables, but they take a back seat to ensuring that their direct reports hit theirs, while the people on their team grow, learn, and even become leaders themselves. In other words: your people are your results.
To be an effective leader, individuals must shift from thinking ‘I am responsible for my results’ to ‘I am responsible for delivering results through other people.’
The Power of Mindsets
The results we GET in our lives depend on what we DO. What we DO depends on how we SEE the world around us. If you want to change your results, begin by changing your mindsets.
If leaders have the common mindset of achieving results on their own, it’s critical to accept once and for all that their work isn’t just about them anymore; it’s about their team. It’s time to let go of your past successes. They earned the leadership position because they performed at a superior level. It’s time to let it all that go and focus on the job ahead.
2. Hold Regular 1-on-1s
In our experience, people rarely quit their jobs based on compensation; rather, they quit their manager. Or they quit the culture. So, it’s imperative leaders consider the conditions they are creating for a compelling work environment. Do they make it easy, engaging, and actually enjoyable to get work done, or are there too many processes making it difficult and unrewarding?
1-on-1 interactions are one of the best tools to build and reinforce the type of culture every team member deserves. Strategically planned and executed, 1-on-1s are arguably the best way to create the conditions for high engagement and ensure team members are connected to their leader.
To be an effective leader, individuals must shift from thinking ‘I hold 1-on-1s to monitor people’s progress’ to ‘I hold regular 1-on-1s to help people get—and stay—engaged.’
Levels of Engagement
How leaders interact with others significantly impacts engagement levels. Every interaction they have with team members affects how those members choose to volunteer their efforts and energies. Regular 1-on-1s, when done well, can help release the highest talents and contributions of each individual.
3. Set up Your Team to Get Results
It’s tempting for leaders to fall into the habit of telling people what to do and how to do it. It can seem faster, more controllable, and guaranteed to succeed, but it shuts down team creativity and ownership, places a huge burden on the leader, and destroys trust.
Effective leaders are clear about the value and contribution of their team’s work to the organization because they align it to the organizational priorities. Effective leaders define and communicate the team’s goals and desired results. They clarify the significant outcomes that represent fulfillment and success for their team. And they ultimately delegate the work while providing the right level of support.
To be an effective leader, individuals must shift from thinking ‘I tell team members what to do and how to do it’ to ‘I help team members get clear about the “why” behind the “what” and support them in the “how.”’
Scalable Engagement
If people are doing their jobs solely because their boss told them to, team engagement becomes diminished. If leaders tell their teams exactly how to debug the code, write the grant application, or achieve a goal—they’ll be doing the same thing a year from now. It’s not scalable.
In contrast, the effective mindset helps teams become invested in decisions and understand the big picture behind the daily grind. Great leaders plan goals with their teams rather than for them, and delegate tasks without abandoning or micromanaging.
4. Create a Culture of Feedback
When it comes to giving feedback, there are two extremes:
- Too much courage. This type of leader has no problem telling anybody what they think. They often give too much feedback, too harshly, and too often.
- Too much consideration. For this other type of leader, the thought of giving someone tough feedback makes them want to throw up. So, they avoid it entirely, and the problems not only persist, but grow.
Both extremes of the spectrum do their teams a disservice. With too much courage and not enough consideration, self-esteem or confidence can be destroyed. But just as damaging is too much consideration and no courage, where the leader unintentionally abandons their team. By not giving feedback at all or being too vague, they’re reinforcing employees’ weaknesses. The team members keep falling into the same traps that hinder their performance and growth.
Failing to give feedback also damages the team’s perception of the leader. If they seem to be ignoring a challenging or difficult issue, the team may see weak as weak and lose confidence in their abilities.
Clarify Intent
Giving feedback comes down to motives. The team must know and believe that their leader’s intent is to help them develop their skills and talents.
The ineffective leader mindset is to think of themselves as “the fixer”: their team has problems, so they think it’s their job to point out what the team is doing wrong through feedback. In contrast, the effective mindset is all about unleashing the potential in others—including the leader themselves, when they seek feedback.
People regard feedback differently based on their individual experiences, but some universal principles apply to almost everyone. Feedback matters just as much to a young employee working her first job out of college as it does to the thirty-year veteran starting to think about retirement.
As leaders master giving and receiving feedback through practice, they’ll get to a place where they can use their natural instincts to grow a culture in which constructive, well-intended thoughts flow freely in both directions. Everyone feels heard and respected, and performance and productivity blossom.
5. Lead Your Team Through Change
Great leaders must lead change, even when it originates from the corporate office, outside consultants, customer demands, economic turmoil, or competitors. And as a leader, most of the change they face will be someone else’s idea.
Plenty of leaders can succeed during good times, but the true mettle of a leader emerges during times of uncertainty. When change comes their way (and it will), it is arguably one of the strongest tests of their leadership capability. Those leaders who show patience, stamina, emotional stability, resilience, and confidence are the most valuable to an organization and their team.
To effectively lead through change, leaders need to shift their mindset from ‘I control and contain change for my team’ to ‘I champion change with my team.’
6. Manage Your Time and Energy
As individuals progress on their leadership track, the must decide how they’re going to work, balance their life, and renew themselves. By establishing effective patterns now, it will serve them in the long term. Effective leaders resist the natural temptation to neglect their health, professional development, or personal life. Great leaders identify their needs, make time for their priorities, and model this behavior for their team.
To effectively manage their time and energy, leaders need to shift their mindset from ‘I am too busy to take time for myself’ to ‘I must manage my time and energy to be an effective leader.’
The 5 Energy Drivers
There are 5 drivers to generating energy: moving, eating, sleeping, relaxing, and connecting. When leaders make regular investments into those 5 drivers, they create a pattern that is self-sustaining. Below are the 5 drivers, along with some practical tips to leverage the driver to generate energy.
Sleep
- Understand how vital sleep is to your overall health, specifically your brain health.
- Create space between your active, full-on day and your bedtime. Find a routine that works for you.
- Relaxing activities and routines, such as evening yoga and meditation, can also aid sleep.
Relax
- Don’t confuse relaxation with numbness.
- Take mental mini-breaks throughout the day.
- Be proactive about scheduling a longer mental break.
Connect
- Volunteer by giving back to your community or to those in need.
- Invest in your social network or reach out to someone in need.
- Create special moments to celebrate with friends, family, or peers.
Move
- Treat exercise as a luxury—it is something you get to do as opposed to have to do.
- Think outside the gym exercise doesn’t always require equipment.
- Find your people, like a training partner or accountability buddy to increase the likelihood you will exercise.
Eat
- Remember the main purpose of eating is to fuel yourself with energy, not just to satisfy hunger.
- Inventory your food choices last week. Tracking choices will help you make better ones.
- Prepare for your post work hunger. When you have healthy snacks ready, they are easier to choose.