Part 2 of 3
2. They learn to work as a part of a team.
Everyone on the team understands and plays with the knowledge that every
player has a clear role on the team, and yet when needed for team success,
anyone steps in and does what is needed to win.
Team leaders in business must
clarify roles & responsibilities in such a way to engage every team member
to perform at their best in their individual role and to inspire
collective responsibility for success. Today's high-performing teams benefit
from leaders with enhanced communication skills, social and emotional
intelligence (EQ), as well as practiced use of intuitive intelligence (IntQ).
Valuing and cultivating these skills on teams leads to collaborative, creative
effort and team-wide wins. Unfortunately most current office environments value
IQ and competition far more-- which accidentally rewards behaviors such
as manipulation, politicking, defensiveness, arrogance, and hoarding of
information. The first step out of this limited performance zone is to reward
action that enhances the entire team's or department's effectiveness in
alignment with the business vision. Leaders playing to win long-term encourage
and reward team success behaviors and recognize that this may take training,
mentoring, and/or coaching to overcome conditioning toward unwanted behavior.
Today's leaders with raving fans from all sides recognize that building
rapport, respect, and even compassion among team members is critical for
fostering trust, which is required for truly amazing performance.
Leaders looking to make positive changes in team culture and
performance enhance their own leadership skills as well as their team members'
communication and collaboration skills. They may consider as an easy and
effective starting point Communication Style Profiles and 360 Degree
Assessments, such as through Extended-DISC(R).
*I was asked recently what I think today's business leaders need to be doing differently than those of 4-5 years ago, in consideration of the economic "dip," as I like to call it. I came up with a three-part model and used the ever-popular sports analogy for my answer. Upon reflection, I decided to share it out to the blogosphere in hopes that it is helpful for leaders at all levels in terms of creating more personal and professional success for themselves and others. Part 1