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“Creating Successful Leaders”

Category Archives: Teamwork

June 19, 2024 5 Ways to Banish Laziness and Energize Your Team

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Let me establish right away that I am fully supportive of a healthy balance between life and work. If you wear yourself too thin, you’ll eventually become exhausted, resentful, and unable to operate at full capacity. This doesn’t serve you or your workplace. However, there is a big difference between striving for balance and refusing to work or rise to the challenge.

Encouraging your team to embrace productivity and creativity doesn’t mean you expect them to work nonstop. Instead, it’s about fostering a culture where everyone feels motivated to contribute their best. As a leader, you can help to motivate and empower your team, while also banishing laziness and procrastination.

Here are 5 strategies to energize your team:

Set Clear Expectations

If a team does not know where they are heading or unsure of their responsibilities, they might start to feel directionless and frustrated. This can lead to uncertainty and a decrease in productivity. By setting clear expectations for your team, you provide them with a roadmap for success. Make sure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities, as well as the team’s goals and objectives. Clear communication and transparency are key to keeping everyone on track and motivated. When team members know what is expected of them, they are more likely to stay focused and engaged in their work.

Provide Support

As a leader, it is crucial to offer your team members the support, encouragement, and resources they need. This might mean guiding them through challenges, offering training opportunities, or simply being there to listen when they need advice. It could also mean connecting them with mentoring opportunities. A supported team is often a productive team.

Create a Culture of Accountability

If too many deadlines slide, or too many projects are allowed to be subpar, this can send a signal that mediocrity is acceptable. On the other hand, when team members are held accountable for their work and deadlines, it fosters a culture of responsibility and excellence. Encouraging a sense of ownership for individual and team outcomes can drive motivation and productivity. By setting clear standards and expectations, and regularly reviewing progress, you empower your team to take ownership of their work and strive for continuous improvement.

Check In

Regularly checking in with your team members will ensure they have what they need to excel in their roles and feel supported in their work environment. It also allows you a chance to find out what’s working, what’s not, and what they might need to overcome any obstacles. By checking in regularly, you demonstrate your commitment to their success and well-being. This practice also fosters open communication and trust within the team. Furthermore, it allows for adjustments to be made promptly if necessary, ensuring that the team stays on track towards achieving its goals.

Genuinely Care

Seeing the human side of people is an essential way to foster a positive work environment. Show genuine care for your team members by acknowledging their efforts, celebrating their successes, and supporting them during challenging times. Building strong relationships based on care and empathy can significantly boost morale and motivation within the team. Be mindful of their well-being and always be ready to offer a listening ear or lend a helping hand. Your team will appreciate your genuine concern and reciprocate it with increased dedication and loyalty.

As a leader, it’s essential to set clear expectations, provide support, and recognize efforts. By banishing laziness and energizing your team, you create a positive environment that fuels growth and success. And remember to lead by example by demonstrating a strong work ethic to inspire your team to perform at their best.

MARGARET SMITH IS A CAREER COACH, AUTHOR, INSIGHTS® DISCOVERY (AND DEEPER DISCOVERY) LICENSED PRACTITIONER, AND FOUNDER OF UXL. SHE HOSTS WORKSHOPS FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED CAREER OR PERSONAL GUIDANCE. 
CHECK OUT MARGARET’S ONLINE LEADERSHIP COURSE. 

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May 29, 2024 15 Questions to Build Trust in Your Leadership

It may seem surprising, but asking questions can actually make you a more trustworthy leader. Questions do not diminish your authority or make you appear weak. Rather, by asking the right questions, you can gain valuable insight, open the floor for more meaningful conversations, and demonstrate that you respect your team.

Which questions are the “right questions?” The simple answer is: open-ended questions that stimulate conversation and do not presuppose an answer. A question such as “Don’t you think Client X would benefit from our new product?” is not open-ended and not productive. It is only searching for agreement, not a true dialogue.

Instead, try asking questions that begin with words like How, What, or Why. These question words typically allow for a wide range of answers, not just a yes or no response.

The other half of asking good questions is practicing active listening. Leaders build trust by seeking their team’s thoughts, opinions, and ideas, and listening closely to the answers they give. This show of respect is integral to building trust

Next time you’re in a meeting (either with your entire team or a single individual) try asking some trust-building questions. Here are 10 to get you started—choose ones that are applicable to your team and situation.

  1. What resources do you need to complete your task?
  2. What is holding you/us back from success?
  3. How can I help?
  4. What are some possible solutions you envision?
  5. Who/what are we lacking to achieve success?
  6. What can I do to help foster more creativity?
  7. Why do you think                            is happening?
  8. What are your current frustrations?
  9. What is our biggest risk in this endeavor? What is the Plan B?
  10. Is this assignment a good fit for your talents? (Why or why not?)
  11. How does this add value to our mission?
  12. What effects will this decision have?
  13. How can we improve                     ?
  14. What opportunities can bolster our business?
  15. What else would you like me to know?

This is just a sampling of the questions you can ask your team. Get curious. Involve them in decision-making. Ask good questions and build trust.

MARGARET SMITH IS A CAREER COACH, AUTHOR, INSIGHTS® DISCOVERY (AND DEEPER DISCOVERY) LICENSED PRACTITIONER, AND FOUNDER OF UXL. SHE HOSTS WORKSHOPS FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED CAREER OR PERSONAL GUIDANCE. 
CHECK OUT MARGARET’S ONLINE LEADERSHIP COURSE. 

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February 14, 2024 Improve Team Dynamics with Insights

You know it when you’re a part of it. A team with a great working relationship communicates well, respects each other, and has a great balance of creativity and strategy. This type of team has excellent rapport, and everyone feels as though they have a voice and their perspectives are respected. When you partner with a team like this, the work seems effortless and you tend to be highly productive.

How do you achieve such a “dream team”?

What can you, as a leader, do to foster the type of environment that produces great teams?

Excellent teams can be built in a number of ways, but in my experience, the very foundation of creating a great team involves getting to know your people at a deep level, and figuring out how they mesh with one another. This may seem like a daunting task, but there is actually a relatively simple tool you can use to develop this type of deep understanding of your team members: Insights® Discovery.

Insights® is a science-based program that helps people gain an intimate understanding of their personal thought patterns, behavioral tendencies, communication preferences, strengths, and more. The data gathered through assessments is analyzed and explained using a very approachable methodology: four colors. The main idea of Insights® is that we all have the capability to embrace all four colors (i.e., personality types), but we tend to prefer one or two colors over the others.

The colors are:

  • Cool Blue (analytical, thoughtful, data and strategy driven)
  • Sunshine Yellow (social, creative, idea and relationship driven)
  • Fiery Red (confident, commanding/natural leader, to-the-point)
  • Earth Green (empathetic, inclusive, pensive)

Though this is an oversimplification of the program, this gives you a general idea of the four colors and how they are associated with personalities (read more about Insights® and communication in this past blog post).

How does Insights® relate to team dynamics?

A person’s Insights® profile not only provides information and insights about how that individual functions (and their ideal environment), but also tells us how individuals relate to others. For example, we might learn that one person tends to embody many “Sunshine Yellow” qualities—they are gregarious, social, and more enthusiastic about idea generation than analytics or strategy. This person might work with someone who leans toward “Cool Blue” and is fairly quiet and reserved, likes to fully analyze the numbers, and wants to explore many options before making a decision.

If these two people do not understand A) how they, personally, tend to operate or B) how their teammate operates, they might start to clash or become frustrated with each other. On the other hand, if these individuals are fully aware of how each person tends to think, behave, and communicate, they can lean into each other’s strengths instead of clashing. Different people can be assigned different roles within the team (don’t put the Sunshine Yellow person behind a desk, crunching numbers all day; and don’t make the Cool Blue person lead a creative brainstorming session!), so everyone can shine.

I have been a Licensed Practitioner of Insights® for about a decade, and I can attest to its effectiveness. Communication and understanding improve, and suddenly teams are talking to each other using the Insights® color language (“My ‘red’ side is really anxious to get this done, but I think we should hear what the ‘blues’ have to say” or “I know this is very ‘green’ of me, but I think we should bring Becky into the conversation and see what she has to say”).

By acknowledging your own tendencies and understanding the thought patterns and preferences of others, you can begin to build a harmonious team that capitalizes on each other’s strengths and recognizes potential trouble spots. If your work team needs to improve its dynamics, consider taking a closer look at Insights®.

MARGARET SMITH IS A CAREER COACH, AUTHOR, INSIGHTS® DISCOVERY (AND DEEPER DISCOVERY) LICENSED PRACTITIONER, AND FOUNDER OF UXL. SHE HOSTS WORKSHOPS FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED CAREER OR PERSONAL GUIDANCE. 
CHECK OUT MARGARET’S ONLINE LEADERSHIP COURSE. 

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