Team Leadership Failures

Avoid the items below to move your team towards success:

1.   Making a distinction between work and life.

You are one person and have one life.  Work is part of life.  Team members experience in the workplace does impact them outside of the workplace and vice versa.  It is exhausting being one person in the workplace and another outside of the workplace.  I suggest learning to prioritize, having great stress relieving routines, and be yourself.

2.   Assuming

If there is any doubt, get clear.  Doubt is like a fog.  If you are unable to see where you are going, the risk of taking a more treacherous path is high.  Make a habit of setting clear expectations up front and this will keep the "assuming" fog away.

3.   Putting the team’s needs after theirs

You lead people and manage process. Leaders are responsible for bringing out the best in their team members.  When the team does well, this reflects on the leader.  The best leaders empower team members while ensuring the best processes are in place to ensure the team succeeds.  Believe me, if you have your team’s back, they will have yours.  A great book that discusses this in depth is “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek.

4.   Trying

Please get rid of this word from your vocabulary.  If you “try”, you fail to commit.  If someone tells me “I will try to .....”, I immediately ask him or her to commit.  The process is to “commit and succeed” or “commit, fail, learn, and do again”.

5.   Berating team members for their failures

All humans will make mistakes or fail.  One of the best ways to learn is to fail.  Encourage team members to own the failure (with any consequences) and take responsibility for coming up with a plan to correct the failure.  One thing I have learned is that people are very forgiving when you own the mistake rather than covering it up or playing the blame game.

The Ant Philosophy by Jim Rohn

Over the years I've been teaching kids about a simple but powerful concept—the ant philosophy. I think everybodyshould study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That's a good philosophy. If they're headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they'll look for another way. They'll climb over, they'll climb under, they'll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you're supposed to go.

Second, ants think winter all summer. That's an important perspective. You can't be so naive as to think summer will last forever. So ants gather their winter food in the middle of summer.

An ancient story says, “Don't build your house on the sand in the summer.” Why do we need that advice? Because it is important to think ahead. In the summer, you've got to think storm. You've got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun.

The third part of the ant philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, “This won't last long; we'll soon be out of here.” And the first warm day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they'll dive back down, but then they come out the first warm day. They can't wait to get out.

And here's the last part of the ant philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter? All he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the “all–you–possibly–can” philosophy.

Wow, what a great philosophy to have—the ant philosophy. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.

More about Jim Rohn at http://www.jimrohn.com/

5 Unconventional Ways To Increase Your Business

If you want your company to remain competitive and stay around for a long time, then the old school “leadership” style of fear, manipulation, and secrets must be tossed aside.

It is time to work from the inside out and make your team members inside the company top priority so the company and your clients outside the company reap the rewards. 

1.    Focus On Strengths

People, in general, love working on things they are naturally good at and enjoy perfecting it.  Knowing the strengths of each of your team members will allow you to place them on assignments that they will enjoy.  Productivity and quality increases when team members actually enjoy their work.  Happy team members mean you will have happy clients.  Happy clients will do more business with you and will recommend you to other businesses.

2.    Invest In Education

Continuous education is the key to keep the edge in business.  If team members work in a continuous learning environment they will always be looking at ways to improve themselves and the business.  Learning is contagious.  The more team members learn, the more they want to learn and share with others.  Everyone benefits from an educated workplace and the money spent on education will more than pay for itself in additional business.  Educated team members mean you will have happy team members and clients.  Happy clients will do more business with you and will recommend you to other businesses.

3.    Communicate

Inform team members of the company vision, mission, and goals.  Post the goals and provide updates on all goals on a regular basis.  Discuss how team members play a role in the vision, mission, and achieving goals.  Admit when something goes wrong, discuss the lessons learned, and move on.  Also, celebrate the wins.  This type of open communication will create an environment of trust and will have team members taking care of each other like family.  This creates a loyal team that will stick around to take care of the company as well as your new and existing clients.

4.    Say Thank You

A simple “thank you” goes a long way and creates a great feeling with team members.  Make it a habit to tell at least one person “thank you” every day.  Does the good deed deserve more than a few kind words?  Then give a $25 Starbucks gift card, take them to lunch, give them a day off, etc.  It doesn’t really matter, just recognize it.  Recognition for a good deed creates a very positive environment and encourages others to do the same.  This infectious environment will improve performance and positively impact your clients who will want your team around more often.  This will lead to more business.

5.    Accountability

Hold you team (and yourself) accountable for their actions and responsibilities.  Encourage all team members to help each other and discourage team members to take on someone else’s challenges.  Be crystal clear on expectations and goals as well as consequences.  This encourages all team members to see something to the end.  This instills self-respect, improves confidence, and adds to the learning environment.  Confident team members with self-respect will aim high and everyone wins.