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My approach to team leadership is to build a collaborative and creative environment that builds knowledge and connects the team through shared successes.

Specifically:

  • Transparent communication builds trust

  • Cross-training builds skills, knowledge, and empathy within a team

  • All members bring unique views that add value to the team

  • Professional development opportunities always strengthen a team

  • Mistakes create pathways to knowledge if we are encouraged to learn by them

  • Complacency and indifference are destructive to teams

Leadership circle that links sales, marketing, administrative, technical and creative functions.
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COMMUNICATION

Having the tough conversations can be the most difficult part of leadership, but neglecting to have those conversations can have devastating results.  For example, allowing poor performance, bad behavior, or isolation to continue sends a message to the rest of the team that these actions are acceptable. Soon, star performers fall to the new norm of completing "just enough," inevitably lowering product quality standards, disregarding procedures, and hurting the overall morale of the team.
 

Transparent communication builds trust in a team.  It is never easy to share difficult news such as reorganization or downsizing, but keeping that information from those who would be affected by it can destroy trust in the organization as a whole.  Similarly, being open to hearing difficult feedback from a team can lead to evolution of more effective processes and ownership of of the overall team's success.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Creating a culture of recognition results in the reinforcement of positive work performances, increased efforts towards goals, employment longevity, and loyalty to the organization. Tying achievements to the organization's mission also reinforces the importance of how performers' efforts contribute to the overall success of the organization.  For example, a technology service department that successfully maintains equipment and efficiently responds to technical problems facilitates learning without interruption.  This, in turn, contributes to the mission of the institution to graduate doctors, and ultimately to contribute needed medical professionals to society. 

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In contrast, disregarding accomplishments or acknowledging individuals perceived as being elevated for performing below standards or at the expected job requirement can have the opposite effect on team morale.  

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Cheering woman after taking steps to a goal.

GOALS AND FEEDBACK

Both goals and feedback are essential to professional development and have a direct affect on motivation.  Feedback alone can set an individual up for failure if goals have not been communicated, and similarly, it becomes extremely difficult for an individual to reach a goal without feedback along the way. In a study conducted by Badura and Cermone (1983), the combination of goals and feedback resulted in significantly more motivated participants than those with only feedback or goals. 

 

In my experience, goals created collaboratively between the leader and team have proven more successful than those created solely by the leader.  The exercise of goal-setting as a team builds communication skills, clarifies goals with tangible measurements, and in turn, creates value, ownership, and accountability within the team to reach the developed goals.

References:

Deckers, L. (2018). 11/Progress toward Goal Achievement. In Motivation: Biological, psychological, and environmental (pp. 359–360). essay, Routledge.

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