Leading A Team In 6 Steps
A long time ago, when I used to travel all across the province for work, I had some sales training CDs from Zig Ziglar. Two of the stories on the CDs really sum up leadership to me.
The first story was about coming across three bricklayers and asking them what they were doing. One bricklayer would respond that he was laying bricks, another that he was building a wall, and the final bricklayer stated that he was building a cathedral.
The second story was about a couple of railroad workers. Two railroad workers were working in the heat on the tracks when the president of the railroad came by, recognized one of them and brought him into a private, air-conditioned railway car for a few hours. Later, the employee who was left outside in the heat asked “how do you know the president of the railroad?” It turned out that they were both hired 25 years ago to do the same job. The difference between the now-president and the person who was still working on the tracks was that the person who had not advanced in the organization had gone to work for $2.30 per hour, while the now-president had “gone to work for the railroad.”
It occurs to me that the job of a leader is to make sure that all of the people on your team need to understand that they aren’t laying bricks - they are building a cathedral. And it also occurs to me, that you want to make sure that you’re hiring employees that really, really want to build that cathedral with you, and not people that are just looking for their $2.30 an hour.
With that, here are 6 steps that I think every leader or aspiring leader should follow. You probably won’t do each one of them perfectly (I certainly don’t), but I do try every single day.
6 Steps To Lead Your Team
1. Share the Organization’s Mission and Vision Statement
It’s important that every organization has a clear mission and vision statement and that the staff are aware of it. Developing mission and vision statements are a key part of the strategic planning process, and most organizations do complete this exercise on a regular basis. Unfortunately, so many organizations also have absolutely terrible mission and vision statements.
Most managers aren’t a part of this process, and frankly, a lot of mission and vision statements aren’t very good. Still, these statements are supposed to be a compass for what the company is doing. Sharing these statements with your team is the way that you get them to understand that you are not looking for an accountant - you are looking for someone to help you build a cathedral.
2. Create Atoms of Success For Your Team
You can think of this as a mission/vision statement for a team that you lead. Or perhaps guiding principles for a department. This is something that you DO get to be a part of - and something that your team should be a part of developing.
This is your chance to help them understand the impact they have on the organization as a whole, and how the work that they are doing helps achieve those goals. It needs to be meaningful to the 2,6, 8, 10, or 50 people that you’re leading.
It might outline some of the team’s KPIs - or at least mention that these exist - but ultimately the goal here is to help them understand that their work matters in the big picture.
3. Have Clear Job Descriptions For Your Employees
It’s awesome when employees go above and beyond what they’re expected to do in order to finish a project or deliver outstanding customer service. However, what we often see in organizations these days is that people are expected to “go above and beyond” every day, with every project, with every deliverable. News flash: if your team truly has to deliver 110% every day - they aren’t going ‘above and beyond’, they’re overworked.
A job description does help the employees know what they should be focussing on, but another real value here is to make sure that the manager knows what their employees are actually doing, including the amount of work you’re expecting them to do.
If you have a lot of people on your team doing a lot of stuff “off the side of their desk”, then your team is probably not as efficient as you think they are.
I do think that you should have a rough idea of how to actually do the job of every person on your team. Not to be able to do it better than them, of course, but so that you actually understand what they face when they come to work.
4. Have Regular Communication & Support
Most managers will be aware of the 1:1 meeting, where they and a direct report meet and talk about their work from the past week and going into the future. Hopefully, this meeting is led by the employee and they view it as a place to get help and guidance on their projects. However, some managers view it as an opportunity to dole out additional work like free Pokemon cards.
A great 1:1 should include a check-in on the employee’s personal life (the details are none of your business, of course - but are things going well? Do they need help with anything? Time off for important family events? More flexible hours during a rough time? EFAP support?).
It should include a check-in on their work life: how are their projects going? Do they need more or less feedback from you? Are their teammates all working well together?
And finally, there should be an opportunity to talk about their projects and how you can support them and what they might expect in the coming days/weeks/months. It’s worth noting here that you CAN have other meetings with your team - there are plenty of other opportunities for the manager to be heard, but this meeting is their time.
5. Use And Teach Consistent Coaching and Progressive Discipline
Most managers will have been exposed to ‘progressive discipline’ or be told that their company follows the ‘progressive discipline’ model, but often they have no idea what that really means. Believe it or not, it’s actually a well-defined thing. Here are the Cole’s notes:
1. Have clear expectations.
2. Raise and deal with issues quickly.
3. Don’t make a big deal about problems at the start - give the employee the opportunity to fix the problem on their own.
4. If people don’t improve, increase your involvement.
5. Write everything down.
The government of Canada has an AMAZING outline of this available on their website, and as a PDF, here.
6. Be Decisive And Do What You Said You Would
If you lead people, then people will come to you for answers on their projects. If you constantly delay making decisions, you are letting your team down. If you let people get away with lazy work without raising the issue, you are letting your team down. If you say you are going to do something, but you don’t do it, then you are letting your team down.
If you take too long to make decisions and you make promises that you never fulfil, then your team will have a very hard time feeling fulfilled with their jobs. Help them out.
Final Thoughts
Be friendly, but keep your goals in mind. Be clear about expectations, but don’t be rigid. Be understanding, but not a doormat. If you are focused on the goals of your team and organization and achieving your mission, your team will be as well. Everyone on your team will know what to expect, and they will enjoy doing the work in the way that they do it.
I’m certainly not a perfect leader. What tips would you add to this list?