New to leadership? Read this to quickly scale up your team.
As a new leader, one of the most important things you can do to multiply the effort of your team is to prioritize communication, clarity, and purpose. By fostering open communication, setting clear expectations, and aligning your team’s efforts with a shared purpose, you can create a cohesive and motivated team that is capable of achieving great things.
Here are some specific examples and action steps you can take to improve communication, clarity, and purpose on your team, based on the advice of well-known authors:
Hold regular team meetings where everyone has the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas, as suggested by Patrick Lencioni in “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” These meetings can be a weekly check-in to discuss progress and challenges, or a daily stand-up meeting to quickly touch base and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Encourage open communication and transparency by being approachable and responsive to your team’s questions and concerns, as recommended by Jim Collins in “Good to Great.” This can mean regularly soliciting feedback and input from your team members, and being open and transparent about your own plans and decisions.
Clearly define your team’s goals and objectives, and provide the necessary resources and support to help your team achieve them, as suggested by Stephen Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” This can mean creating a clear project plan with specific tasks and deadlines, and providing the tools and support your team needs to complete those tasks.
Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your team to work towards, as recommended by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles in “Raving Fans.” This can help to ensure that your team’s efforts are focused and aligned, and that everyone knows what is expected of them.
Regularly check in with your team members to provide feedback, guidance, and support, as suggested by Daniel Pink in “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” This can mean having one-on-one meetings with each team member to discuss their progress and challenges, and providing regular feedback and support to help them succeed.
Align your team’s efforts with a shared purpose by clearly communicating your organization’s mission and vision, and making sure everyone understands how their work contributes to that purpose, as recommended by Simon Sinek in “Start with Why.” This can mean sharing your organization’s values and goals with your team, and helping them to see how their work fits into the bigger picture.
Recognize and celebrate your team’s achievements to help reinforce their sense of purpose and motivation, as suggested by Tony Hsieh in “Delivering Happiness.” This can mean publicly acknowledging your team’s successes.
By following these principles, you can improve communication, clarity, and purpose on your team, and help to multiply the effort of your team members. This can lead to increased productivity, collaboration, and success.
