Behind every great leader is a cohesively working team; each cannot exist without the other.
There has been so much written about what makes a great leader, and it always comes back to the same principles – that great leaders achieve success by working with the team, rather than leading from an authoritarian approach.
It is every leader’s responsibility to ensure that they build and maintain excellent relationships with their team, focusing on transparency, trust and support. And these values are more crucial now than they have ever been.
Today, we look at the ways successful leaders prioritise team support, and strategies to implement to enhance the team’s foundation.
Your Team’s Covid Reset
An essential undertaking for you to complete is to take stock of where your team is both personally and professionally.
This means taking an audit of how your team has changed over the last six months.
There will have been changes to your sector, or changes to your team’s personal lives – it would be more unusual at this point if your team is exactly the same as before Covid.
Understanding your team means appreciating the changes they have gone through individually, no matter how or what they are, and supporting them in any way you can.
For many teams, they are becoming stronger and more resilient – so appreciating their resilience and determination should be something you can factor into your leadership priorities as you move forward.
Delivering What Your Team Needs Now
2020 has been the year of acting fast to accommodate a continually changing world, and you can deliver this in your leadership by providing your team with what they now need.
The following suggestions are excellent ways to provide great leadership support to your team:
- Focus on developing your relationship with each team member. With everything that’s been going on, it is understandable that the close one-on-one relationships you have with your team might have slipped. Your team will all be at different stages in their professional and personal lives. Remember to check in with each team member periodically and be empathetic to each individuals’ situation.
- Be the leader you want to see in your team. It has never been more essential to be the role model you want to see mirrored in your team. Exude positivity, and keep focused, and your team will follow suit.
- Be a good coach. Actively take part in developing your team – do they need extra training? Provide mentoring opportunities or arrange external training to help your team grow.
Championing Teamwork
One of the positives we can take from 2020 is that the limits of what is possible when teams pull together can be far greater than what most of us would have imagined.
The key here is to not only encourage teamwork, but to expect it, and have it as a common theme among everything you do.
You can encourage teamwork daily in conversations you have with employees when you give feedback and in your reward and recognition process.
It is much easier for team members to naturally work together when they know it is a definitive expectation of their role.
Prioritising team support is all about providing strong leadership for your team during this uncertain time, so let’s look at some key ways you can support and empower your team now.
Empowering Your Team
The organisations that are coming out stronger during the pandemic are those where the team are able to work with authority, often in unfamiliar situations such as with new products and services, or in a remote working situation.
The teams that have managed to flex like this successfully are those in which the team have been given authority and empowerment from their leader.
As the future of working still looks uncertain as we continue to live under Covid restrictions, empowering your team is an excellent way to support them to bring their best every day, even in challenging situations.
The following are ways you can empower your team in new-Covid world:
- Ask your team for their input; incorporate their ideas into tasks and projects.
- Reinforce your organisation’s identity and purpose by revisiting your company mission and employee roles. They might not have changed drastically, but continually keeping check of where the business and your team’s functions are going will help them to feel empowered and instil meaning into their roles.
- Keep a strong focus on learning and development. You might not be making redundancies in your business, but redundancies and upskilling are certainly on the minds of the nation. Your team will appreciate feeling assured that you are invested in their skills and their future.
Unlocking Your Leadership Potential
Ultimately, the success of your team will come down to your leadership skills, which will have no doubt been put to the test in recent months.
Whilst weathering the storm of Covid, is it time you unlocked your leadership potential?
We offer a range of courses to help develop your leadership skills, including managing virtual teams and Insights Discovery team development – plus many other programmes to help develop yourself and your team.
Click here to read more of our blog articles, where we cover all aspects of leadership, and to find out more about the range of leadership courses we offer, click here.
Until next time,
Julia
About Zestfor
Zestfor specialises in developing Training programmes and resources scientifically tailored for technical markets – including Pharmaceutical, IT, and Life Sciences.
Our blend of in-classroom, online, and virtual live-stream delivery methods will engage and assure even the most introverted team members from the first meeting – whether face-to-face or virtually. To have a brief chat, call us on 0845 548 0833. Alternatively, please email our team here.
