7 Ways To Lead a Well-Built And Successful Team
Let’s not forget that your team is the quintessential part of your well-established business
I’ve always wondered why there are businessmen and entrepreneurs who frequently tend to forget or diminish the absolute importance of their team.
I mean, let’s be realistic for a moment. Let’s say you have a great business idea that will most certainly bring you lots of customers and financial success. Let’s say that you’ve come up with a smart business plan that guarantees your future endeavor will hit it off. Let’s even say that you own office space and have managed to gather a team of professionals, dedicated to your initial business idea.
Well, lucky you!
What’s important from now on is to never take your employees for granted and to always aim at taking care of their well-being and mental health. Why you may ask?
Simply put, your business’s success to a great extent depends on how your employees perform their tasks.
Professional endeavors require a well-built and successful team to thrive.
In today’s article, I’d love to share some thoughts on taking care of your employees. As a CEO, I’m happy to be a leader of a great team of interesting individuals who add to an amazing work atmosphere.
Why is it important to keep your employees happy and fulfilled at the workplace?
Whether you maintain an actual office or a remote one, your employees must always feel great when it comes to executing their daily duties and tasks. Expecting people to be fulfilled only because of pay raise is a naive approach towards leading a team. That’s old news — nowadays employees tend to cherish relationships, attention, and the feeling of being worthy to a much greater extent.
An essential difference between being a boss and being a leader lies in this exact trifecta. In order to establish a well-built and successful team, you should consider creating meaningful relationships, paying attention to their wants and needs, and frequently showing them you value their presence in the company.
A happy and fulfilled team simply means your employees will show at work energized and ready to present the best of their skills and abilities. Essentially, this will largely benefit both you and the company. People will not be eager to leave their jobs and go straight to your competitors. Presumably, they will love their job and this, as we all know, is a successful formula for establishing a great work environment.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways that will help you achieve just that. The most important thing is to part ways with the idea of being ‘the scary yelling boss’; things simply don’t work this way. Instead, establish yourself as a friendly leader that’s always there for the team. Let’s take a closer look at how you can achieve this.
Here are my top 7 ways that guarantee the establishment of a great team at the office
- frequently schedule 1:1 meetings;
- give trust to earn trust;
- be flexible and encourage your team to be so too;
- give praise when deserved;
- be willing to educate your staff;
- ask for their opinion;
- engage in fun activities with your employees;
Frequently schedule 1:1 meetings
I view 1:1 meetings to be the golden standard when it comes to establishing proper communication at work.
But make no mistake — 1:1 meetings are not only supposed to be built around work subjects and tasks questions. By all means, you should discuss some professional topics as well, but make sure you’ll spare the half time of your 1:1 just engaging in a conversation. Ask how does your employee feel, how do they find their work agendas, what goals do they want to achieve, do they struggle with problems of any sort. That’s a great way to establish a meaningful relationship with your people and they would most certainly appreciate your friendly and caring approach.
This article by Edward Huang right here can give you some great perspective on what 1:1 should be all about:
Give trust to earn the trust
As hard as it can be, giving trust is an essential part of the excellent work-based relationship you are about to establish with your team.
Surely you would want to work with people who you can trust. But so is your team. The thing with trust is that it can be easily persevered when it’s mutual. The best way to create a trustworthy team is to show trust in them and in their abilities first. Encourage their endeavors and share your own struggles as well. Let them lead their own tasks and to-dos. In no time you’ll feel the gap between you closing which will be beneficial for all of you in the long run.
Be flexible and encourage your team to be so too
In today’s hybrid offices being flexible is a great advantage. Flexibility can be shown in allowing your team to work remotely when needed, to adjust their working hours, to communicate online.
Being flexible can do wonders when it comes to working as well. Encourage your team and yourself to always be up to date with what’s new work-wise.
Encourage individuality and diversity— treasure each of your team member’s own uniqueness and praise them for it. Surely everyone will appreciate the effort.
Give praise when deserved
Probably you’ve already heard the expression that some people thrive on criticism and it boosts their willingness to prove you wrong.
While this can be truthful for some people, it is most certainly not when it comes to others.
Truth is, you must know your team well in order to choose the proper approach.
By all means, we all like and appreciate praise, especially when we are happy with what we have achieved. It can be incredibly discouraging not to hear a word of praise when you think you deserve it — as a leader, make sure to appreciate your team’s work and praise their efforts. This will certainly ignite their desire to do even better the next time around.
Be willing to educate your staff
We’ve mentioned it’s important to encourage your employees to stay up to date with what’s new, but this doesn’t mean it’s ok for you to deny them any further education.
Employees greatly appreciate it when their leaders educate them on various work and company-related topics. The best way to do that is to schedule workshops and seminars. Give them the time to take notes and engage in Q&A sessions afterward.
Ask for their opinion
Being a leader doesn’t mean you are some kind of a powerful entity that never makes mistakes, never stumbles upon difficulties, never feels intense emotions, and never has the need to share.
Part of being human is the ability to talk about our struggles, fears, worries, doubts, triumphs, risks, interests, hopes, etc. It’s a good idea to be able to talk to your employees on whatever subject and to seek their opinion on things. Whether it’s just small talk or a full-blown conversation, asking for opinions is a great way for people to become closer and to establish relationships based on trust, friendship, and support.
Engage in fun activities with your employees
I once brought my team to a bowling game during lunch hour. It was a fun, heart-warming experience filled with laughter and positive energy.
Team-building is essentially based on the idea of mutual fun experiences in a non-work atmosphere. This approach also helps establish friendly relationships and predisposes everyone to feel like a part of a big family. Plus, looking at funny photos after is priceless!
In a nutshell
It’s not easy balancing between the roles of a boss and a friend but this is how I view leadership and establishing a well-built and successful team. While expecting great working results, always offer understanding, compassion, and communication. This is certainly the proper path to creating a dazzling atmosphere at the office.
Hi, guys, I’m Ivan and I’m here to share with all of you my passion for words, great content, entrepreneurship, personal development, management, hobbies, and everything in between.
I serve as a CEO for my WordPress Development Agency @ Vipe Studio where I have the pleasure to lead a diverse, wonderful and energetic team of experts. Feel free to contact me anytime — I would love to exchange new ideas and inspire each other!