Mastering Synergy Towards a Purpose
Good teams start with effective leaders, managers who earn the trust of their employees so that they work well even when the boss isn’t around.
The Basics
- Ideally, you want to pull together between five and 10 individuals with complementary skills and areas of expertise into clearly defined roles around a common objective.
- Foster open communication.
- While you want everyone to share core values, you also want to encourage the diversity of your team members’ strengths and their independence.
- Recognize your team members for their accomplishments and reward them when they meet their goals.
Fundamental to a high-functioning team is an understanding of how they fit in with the overall organization.
Within a team, different people have different functions, but they know how their skills relate to a shared purpose.
Team processes that are clear, allow for continuous improvement through feedback and move the team forward towards completing goals are crucial. When communication is honest and respectful, based on trust, team members are on the same page when it comes to the game plan, and there are processes and space for differing viewpoints, the team will function creatively to meet challenges.
Next Steps
- Make sure you have a clear agenda set for meetings.
- Relate the assignments you hand out to larger team targets as well.
- If you’re just getting updates, keep meetings brief. Planning or problem-solving meetings will be longer.
- Do what you can to elicit feedback from all team members.
- Trust, camaraderie and confidence will build your team members up.
Encourage team members to be unafraid to throw out even half-baked solutions, and refrain from judgement while your team is brainstorming.
Avoid Micromanagement
Micromanagers are overly critical and expect constant updates about assignments. Often they are frustrated by the way an employee is doing a task and decide to just do it themselves. This is a destructive habit that erodes the confidence and trust of your team; avoid it.
- If you’re a manager, your job is to oversee employees and workflow, not do the work yourself.
- If you’re not happy with someone’s work, mentor them.
- If you must be critical, be diplomatic and constructive.
- Failures happen.
When they do, help your employees get up and try again. Here is how:
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