Influential Team Leadership Through the Power of Self Discovery

Let’s start with some questions…When is the last time you sat back and reflected on what kind of leader you are and what impact you’re having within your organization and team? Have you seized the opportunity to deeply evaluate the health of your team’s culture or prioritized ways to get valuable feedback from team members? Have you questioned whether those you support trust you? Do you ask yourself if you’ve built a team that can’t be matched elsewhere and do those on the team feel the same way? These are a few of the questions I never stop asking myself and doing so has made all the difference.

In reflecting on my thought processes over the years, I have learned that the more I focus on building and supporting a strong team, the greater they become. No, this is not rocket science or magic, but it does require diligent effort. Oh the places they can and will go if you, as their leader, are actually thinking about these things and taking action — not just today but all the time, as a part of your overall approach to leadership.

Teams can thrive, for example, even if I am not the one making all of the decisions. In reality, I make very few decisions for them. Instead I focus on setting a strategy which everyone helps develop while also ensuring alignment across the team. I make certain goals are clear, but only after we have collaborated and come to consensus. When we fail, we learn together and do so blamelessly. We hold ourselves accountable but do so in a way which facilitates positive outcomes versus reprimand. I make it my mission to own my mistakes and remain transparent in doing so. How can we expect those we support to do the same if we ourselves don’t lead by example? I seek team feedback to better understand what I am doing that is valuable and impactful to them in conjunction with how I can improve. We continuously strive to take ourselves to the next level. Building such a culture does not happen unless we leaders decide to shift our focus from “managing” to leading. If I had to try and articulate the most impactful things I have done to build such a culture, I’d summarize it in this way:

• Empower teams and the people on them! Remain focused on enabling their contributions and trust them to make decisions.
• Build a partnership, define a strategy, set clear goals, and be ready to iterate!
• Ensure bi-directional feedback loops are in place and remember that performance management should be revisited continuously, not just when it’s time to do annual performance reviews.
• Facilitate a shared learning environment and make it a regular part of what you do together. Learn from failure and embrace it!
• Keep collaboration safe, remembering that healthy conflict can result in some fantastic outcomes.
• Pay close attention to employee engagement and work tirelessly to provide team members with new challenges and opportunities.
• Hire top talent with an emphasis on cultural fit and alignment with your organization’s values; provide fantastic people to work and grow with as a team.

Much determination is required to build and strengthen a healthy empowered team, and I have only touched the surface on how best to approach making this a reality. As leaders, we must be open to unceasingly operating in a heightened state of self-awareness and contemplation to achieve success. Self-evaluation is almost certainly never easy, yet it is imperative if your goal is to enable the success of those around you. Leaders willing to embrace change and growth themselves will have positive, lasting impact at an organization.

Is self-discovery a regular practice for you currently? If not, no worries — it is never too late to get started. Begin by setting aside some regular intervals of quiet time daily to reflect, to ask yourself a series of valuable questions that will enable you to critically examine your strengths, weaknesses, mistakes you’ve made and successes you’ve helped to foster. Most importantly, be open and honest with yourself throughout the process. Reflection requires effort and an eagerness to improve, learn and grow. Are you ready and willing to put yourself to the test?