You’re brand new to a management role. It doesn’t feel comfortable yet so you’re trying to fake it until you make it. Or, you’ve been in a leadership role for decades, but you’ve become complacent and are no longer striving to be better. On the other hand, perhaps you feel satisfied in your current role and aren’t looking to advance up the corporate ladder. But if being happier in your role is important to you, now more than ever is the perfect time to take additional management facilitation training to improve your leadership skills to better lead your team. No matter where you are in your leadership journey, there are successful team building strategies to implement to become better at your current role. And if you’re brand new to the role, you’ll want to learn as much as you can as quickly as you can to best lead your team to success.
Team building strategies for stronger leadership
By implementing one or all of these four team building strategies, you can become a better leader and experience a stronger and more successful team.
Assess the current department behavior climate.
You can’t make improvements to yourself or others if you don’t know where you currently stand. That’s where TIGERS® six principles comes in. The six principles of trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success are essential for producing a cooperative and engaged workforce. When your team is suffering in one, some or all of these areas, team success will suffer. With the research-based TIGERS 360 Team Behavior Survey, leaders are given the tools they need to assess their current climate in all six areas, and they are given the strategies and suggestions they need to help their team members improve. Long-term surveys, like this TIGERS 3 surveys in one approach for assessing progress over time, allow you to target specific areas for development, implement proven-strategies for improvement and track your progress through two additional surveys.
Let go of perfect.
The reality of life is that you can always be better. Iff you’re constantly overlooking what’s good for what can be better, however, you won’t get very far. Nothing can truly be perfect: a newly-released product could be missing some desirable capabilities; a beautifully-written manuscript could have a typo; or a yearly review could forget to include valuable information for improvement. No matter the situation, things, products and ideas could all be better. If you’re delaying implementation for fear of the better version, you’re going to miss out on a lot of good. To improve yourself as a leader, let go of your pursuit of perfection, and instead focus on the good and make improvements as necessary.
Embrace the Power Pose.
The idea of power posing is that non-verbal body language sets the tone for all interactions you experience. According to Amy Cuddy, a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School, the victory pose (standing tall with your arms above your head in a V-shape and your chin slightly pointed up) can actually increase your confidence in just two minutes. The research behind the stretch shows that when performed, it increases positive hormones while decreasing negative hormones. This can improve your performance in stressful situations, such as interviews or important meetings. When our bodies and minds are in line and pointed toward success, we will change our behaviors which can change a situation’s outcome. Take two minutes and try the power pose to increase your confidence, behavior and success.
Know when to say no.
As a leader, you likely have several people who need something from you, and they likely see their needs as urgent. The problem is that not all of these situations are actually urgent. When you see these situations as urgent, you are more likely to react quickly rather than think about the situation at hand. When you are presented with these needs, take a minute to reflect on the true urgency of the situation and determine if the person asking has a true need or simply a want or need that can wait. Say no when you can. Saying no can be hard sometimes, but your time is valuable. As a leader you need to be engaging in activities that only you can do to make the most of your time. Give a timeline for the things you can complete and delegate the rest to maximize your productivity and become a stronger leader.
You might be a brand new leader, a seasoned professional or someone in between, but all have one thing in common: the ability to improve. No matter if you’re eager to learn or complacent in your role, you can become a stronger leader, and simple team building strategies can be implemented immediately to quickly improve your performance. Some strategies include: assessing your team’s current climate and identifying areas for improvement; letting go of the idea of perfect and embracing the good; embracing the power pose and aligning your mind with your body language; and knowing when to say no and when to delegate tasks. With these strategies, you can become a strong leader for your team, no matter your current level of experience.
Want to take the conversation deeper?
Consider the following resources for more ideas:
- Team Culture Assessment For Your Business
- How Business Leaders Can “Lean In” to Disruption
- Power Boosting Your Confidence in Two Minutes
- You Have 53 Mondays in a Year. Here’s How Top Entrepreneurs Use Them
Copyright TIGERS Success Series, Inc. by Dianne Crampton
About TIGERS Success Series, Inc.
TIGERS® Success Series provides a comprehensive and robust system for improving both your work environment and profitability. We specialize in workplace enrichment and employee re-invigoration management facilitation methods that builds workforce cooperation and high performance team dynamics. Scaled to grow as your organization and leadership performance grows, our proprietary Team Behavior Profile and leadership training workshops are based on the six principles we have found to be the right mix to make this happen. The six principles are Trust, Interdependence, Genuineness, Empathy, Risk and Success. Born from our many years of business, psychology, and educational group dynamic research, and subsequent four years of independent evaluation, we instill and sustain behaviors that improve work group performance and talent retention for measurable ROI.
Since 1987, TIGERS has served committed leaders who desire enhanced cooperation among departments, teams, managers and individual employees. This heightened level of cooperation leads to improved revenue, purpose, commitment and impact. Employees quit companies because they don’t get along with leaders and co-workers. Work culture refinement and behaviors that build strong relationships erase this trend remarkably fast. For more information call 1+541-385-7465 or visit https://corevalues.com .
