What every Leader ought to know about Building Teams to Deliver Results
Your business is growing or changing. You know that to move forward you must invest in people.
If you’re a strong leader, you’ll understand that means more than paying them a salary/fee and that you also must invest in them as people.
Once upon a time, employees were not mobile, jobs were static, and few felt free to make choices that offered the work-life balance or lifestyle they wanted.
No more.
Good employees expect to receive good pay and to be treated well. Which means keeping them engaged as well as making them feel empowered.
What’s the difference?
Engagement pertains to the level of interest your employees have in the work they do. Are they excited to come to work each day, knowing that they’ll be learning something new or face a different challenge? Do they feel valued and respected? Do they enjoy working in this environment?
It’s essential for staff to be engaged. Research shows that engaged employees outperform their non-engaged counterparts by 202%
Empowerment, on the other hand, is about whether your employees feel that they can make a difference in their workplace. Are they authorised to think, behave, take action and control work and decision-making in an autonomous/independent/self-directed way?
Empowerment is the flip side of the coin to engagement in my opinion. You attract good people based on the level of engagement you can offer. You retain good people based on how empowered they feel in your business and whether they see a clear development and growth plan in place for them.
And note I said, GOOD PEOPLE. Those you want to have in your business because they deliver results. Employees that neither care about engagement or empowerment are coasters and will not help you build your vision.
A couple of things to watch out for. If you notice any of these, it’s time to shake things up if you want to keep your employee:
1. You notice they’ve become solitary and want to work alone. This is an indication that they may feel withdrawn from the rest of the team. If you all work remotely, this might present in them not being as communicative as they usually are, checking in to inform the rest of the team of their progress or prompt actions.
2. The flow of ideas starts to slow down. Following on from point one above, if your people stop communicating their needs or ideas they have, then you can assume that they are mentally checking out. And once they check out mentally, it’s not long before they check out physically.
My FOUR TIPS for building teams that deliver results are directed at leadership as well as employees. As I said above, communication is key and ought to be a foundational pillar of your company’s culture. Ensuring that both sides play their part.
1. Barriers and Boundaries – Establish them and respect them.
a. As leaders, it is essential that you remove the barriers that limit action. By showing your people that you value actions that lead to powerful, positive results, you build teams that understand the value of doing things that matter for the benefit of the business.
b. Conversely, your staff should respect the boundaries of their decision-making and actions. Playing outside those boundaries can expose the company to huge risks.
2. Goals, Targets, and Strategic Frameworks – Be clear. Set these and stand by them.
a. Leadership bears the burden of clearly defining and communicating the business’ overarching goals, setting targets and providing a strategic framework that their people should work towards. No point asking people to deliver results where uncertainty and a lack of clarity underpins everything.
b. At the same time employees must take ownership and responsibility to meet the targets and goals set and make no excuses if they do not. Rather, the gift of empowerment comes with course correcting when things do not go as planned.
3. Support – Be a Leader who seeks to support their people.
a. Leadership must lead. That means providing the support, feedback, tools, and resources required by your people and then placing your trust in them to deliver.
b. Employees, in turn, should bring their curiosity, creativity, and innovation to the business to maximise all that is provided to them. No point having tools you never learn how to use.
4. Recognition and Reward – Reward results.
a. Praise, Praise, Praise. I cannot stress this enough. No one cares if you think they are good at what they do for you. They want to hear about it! So, go all out. Have celebration days. Give out awards. Send them off to a day spa or concert. Showcase their work to others in the company and even your clients. Don’t be shy about praise.
b. For you great employees out there, remember to pay it forward. Use your talents for good in the business. Coach, mentor, motivate others. Share your best practices, be a servant leader. It makes the work you do more meaningful and where you do it happier!
Are you in the process of building a team? Having trouble engaging and empowering them? Why not hire us to deliver a seminar that will shift the existing culture and embed the changes you want to achieve.
Get in touch with us at uzo.ijewere@augmentresults.com
Till then, live your purpose with passion and align your vision with strategy
Uzo x
Uzo Ijewere is a Business and Mindset Coach. She works with and supports female entrepreneurs to align their vision with a strategy to achieve intentional, and intelligent, results.
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