Finding a sense of meaning behind our work can help us stay calm, think creatively, and work smarter. This means learning how to be a great coach within your workplace. This requires plugging into your team and setting the right environment for your team to become successful.
Building a self-improving team provides value in stepping back and assessing your team from a new perspective — being the coach. To be a great coach, you must understand that everyone has different needs and that there isn’t a one size fits all solution. Learn how your team members work best, and tailor your coaching to match their work style.
A team is an organizational group of people who are members and depend on one another. They work together through interchangeable achievements and strive to share common attainments. A team work as a whole to achieve certain measures and goals.
In order to find a sense of meaning behind the work that is complete, a team must be structured to self-improve. In doing so, regular check-ins should be administered. The day-to-day conversations or formal annual reviews are nice, but they do not add consistent feedback that is necessary to support continuous and quality improvement.
If you want your team to be self-sufficient, setting initial goals, and then giving consistent feedback is key. There also needs to be a culture of accountability. Research shows that in the absence of feedback and accountability, self-improving teams lack clarity as to what the organization wants them to do, and perform worse. By giving regular feedback without hovering, teams can work more seamlessly and independently over time, and feel confident about the work they’re producing.
What’s the best way to lead a team?
1. Create a self-maintaining team while protecting your own stress levels. You have to think of yourself as the coach of the team. This means you may be in the trenches with your team; while advising from the sidelines. You have to lead by example.
2. Know your people. A good leader knows his or her team better than anyone else — their strengths, their weaknesses, what makes them tick and what motivates them. Your team is only as good as its weakest link.
3. Learn the ability to delegate tasks. Often, leaders are perfectionists: they have a particular vision and they want to drive their staff, and their company, to reach that vision. Learn how to let go and trust your team members to fulfill their roles. The difference between being a good leader and a great one is in the relationships you build with your team.
4. Be fluid. Great leaders are prepared for change to happen at any time. You have to think and make decisions quickly, and most importantly, motivate teams to ensure the outcomes are fulfilled.
5. Respect. Leaders must allow their employees to take risks and accept that they will fail sometimes. If you can’t trust your employees, they won’t trust you. A sure sign of a respected and trusted leader is when employees are comfortable coming to them with questions.
To become a successful communicator, you have to practice. The six key communication factors are — listening, advising, directing, motivating, teaching, and coaching. Each one has its own place and time to be used, and are most effective when combined. Being adept in your communication methods is absolutely necessary. By becoming a master communicator, you’re able to clearly express yourself, and therefore lead with greater clarity. No matter what your position, you can become a leader. Practice these skills, and you’ll be on the path to great leadership.