Leading a team can be tough, but leading a disengaged team is tougher.
Your team, aligned and invested, are the frontline of your business; the ones who everyday champion your product, your brand or your cause. If they don’t believe in you and what your business stands for, they’re not going to advocate for you or your company.
Lack of belief and advocacy can filter toxicity into other areas of your business; such as customer service, sales and work performance; which inevitably leads to bad reviews and reputation.
The word culture is often thrown around a little when talking about team and vision alignment. It is the very thing that can help keep a team engaged, committed, passionate, and excited about the work they do and about their contribution to the bigger picture.
A few questions to ask yourself as a leader in your business are:
- Are your team members happy to come through your door each day?
- Are your team members aligned with your vision? Do they feel encouraged to make contributions to the business?
- Is your team culture one filled with passion, commitment to the cause, excitement, camaraderie, unity, and just a general sense of “feel good?”
I’ve heard one too many times the comment of “I pay them to do a job, that should be enough to motivate them to do the job!” Wrong! The difference between doing the job and doing a “great job” is team and how valued that team feel by the business.
1. GRATITUDE
As a leader, the word gratitude should be top of your vocabulary! Don’t think for a minute that paying someone a wage is enough for them to feel valued, included or appreciated. You need to show up in other areas of their life, not just their bank account.
About a year ago I came across Hot Jar’s careers section of their website. What impressed me was they had an entire section dedicated to “culture”. Words such as respect, transparency and collaboration featured in their write up when describing their team culture. They also clearly define what they don’t support; noting things like disrespect, office politics, and discrimination of any kind. You can read more about their culture by heading to https://careers.hotjar.com/.
Gratitude costs you nothing to express, but could cost you so much more if you choose not to express it. A simple text, email, phone call or even a face-to-face interaction expressing your gratitude for a team members work and commitment to championing your business brand or product can go a long way to breeding a positive, feel good culture in your company.
2. REWARD
When I say reward, many of you may think commission, bonuses, pay-rises, days off etc. Sure, they’re all great things and definitely fall into the bucket of recognition. But, there are other ways for you to reward, express gratitude and show a personal understanding of your team.
Again, Hot Jar takes the cake here with what they call their “perks”. Here are a few things they have listed as perks for working with Hot Jar.
- Company Retreats x 2 Year
- €2,000/year Holiday Budget
- €1,000/year Personal Development Budget
- €200/month Wellbeing Allowance
- 16 Weeks Paid Parental Leave
- Track Your Steps with a Fitbit, on Us
- Free Kindle Paperwhite
Hot Jar is a company who gets it 100%. They see the value their team bring to their company and consequently, their success is reflected in the value their team create for their customers.
Think about what you can do in your business right now to start acknowledging the value your team bring.
3. LEADERSHIP
Your team look to you to lead them, but, more importantly, to inspire them and to equip them to make their daily contribution to the business, as in, “do the work”. Because of this, you are ALWAYS in the spotlight. It’s important that you control your mouth and your actions. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes, but it’s when your team know that you care about them that they’re more forgiving…especially when you apologise.
Effective and consistent communication comes bundled with leadership and you need to deliver on this constantly. Your team wants to know what’s happening in the business. They want to understand how it affects them. They want to know the plans of the business and how they fit or can fit into the bigger picture and, most importantly, how they too can contribute.
Here’s a great video from the Jack Welch Management Institute. Sums it up quite well I think. I especially like his reference to a leader being the Chief Meaning Officer.
4. BIGGER PICTURE STUFF
A lot of the businesses I work with and have worked with in a consultative capacity often don’t have a mission statement, let alone core values and a vision for the organisation.
A mission statement is incredibly important for you as a leader to know what track to run on and to recognise when you’re off-track. Furthermore, your team needs to know why they do what they do for your business and how they can further contribute to achieving the mission and realising the vision.
Having a mission statement and a values framework helps you and your team make effective decisions.
Picture this: you and your team out to sea and the lighthouse is your guiding light to make quality decisions to bring you ashore safe and sound.
Here are a few mission statements from some brands you may know:
LinkedIn – “To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”
Twitter – “To give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.”
Tesla – “Our goal when we created Tesla a decade ago was the same as it is today: to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible.”
The Walt Disney Company – “To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of brands to differentiate its content, services and consumer products.”
Coca-Cola – “To refresh the world…To inspire moments of optimism and happiness…To create value and make a difference.”
5. EMPOWER
The sure way to get your team to be 100% invested in the business is to empower them to make the tough decisions and make them feel that you as a leader have their back no matter what. It’s about believing in your team to do the right thing by you and in the best interests of the business and the consumers it serves.
All too often I have seen leaders employ team members to carry out specific tasks within the business, only to stifle their ability to conduct their role efficiently because of process and policy; especially where reporting and decision-making is concerned.
Process should never get in the way of progress.
Give your team members the ability to make decisions without having to check, double-check and triple check everything with you first. They should be confident to make decisions and be confident you will back them regardless. It’s all about establishing trust. I know it’s your business, but you need to trust others to champion your brand without you in their way.
Set clear and concise guidelines and parameters. If they fall outside of those parameters, then they can come to you, otherwise, give them the freedom to go about their day-to-day, contributing to the success of the business the best way they see fit based on their experience, expertise and knowledge. That’s why you employed them right?
There you have it. Five sure ways to unite, align & inspire your team. Trust me when I say, your whole world will change if you start creating, maintaining and nurturing a positive and engaging team culture. YOU won’t only notice the difference, so too will your customers and your suppliers. Good luck!
