11 leadership practices your team will appreciate

I once worked with a talented leader. This leader was smart and had a wealth of experience, and yet they consistently struggled to gain traction with their team. One day, a colleague asked, “How can we move forward with a leader that doesn’t understand how to lead?”

Unfortunately, this is a scenario I’ve experienced more often than not. Breakdowns between leaders and teams create gaps. These gaps can result in a lack of trust and long-term disengagement. If left unaddressed, they can also hinder a team’s ability to work together and effectively deliver on commitments.

At some point, all leaders were individual contributors. You don’t have to dig deep to remember the leadership qualities that were meaningful to you as you evolved in your career. Here are a few that have stuck with me along the way.

Be accessible 

In the surveys conducted throughout my career, face-to-face communication consistently rates highest when it comes to preferred methods of communication. If you’re a people manager, it’s particularly important to make yourself regularly available. If you commit to holding weekly team meetings, stick to them. If you need to cancel, reschedule. Frequent cancellations and no shows can make team members feel ignored, undervalued, and unappreciated. Ensure you are available to answer questions, provide direction as needed, and enable decision making to keep projects moving forward.

Be clear 

If you have an expectation, make it clear. There’s nothing worse than sharing a vision with no clear direction. If there is a vision for a project, clearly articulate the outcome that needs to be achieved. Set expectations early and work with your team to ensure they have a clear line of sight into what needs to be delivered and any potential risks they might face. Encourage questions along the way and be open to new perspectives and ideas. This fosters inclusivity and promotes co-creation and ownership throughout the project delivery process.

Listen 

Leaders typically have a big picture view and are often exposed to broader insights than the individuals on their team. For this reason, it’s important to know your team and to understand the experiences and challenges they face day-to-day.  Particularly during times of transition, change or process improvement. Be sure to ask questions and understand how your team’s experiences might influence the bigger picture.

I once worked with an organization that invested a significant amount of money to understand gaps in the customer experience. While the money invested produced some useful evaluation models and frameworks, not once did the leaders include their front-line associates in their quest to gain perspective. This would have offered a wealth of insights and cost nothing more than time and a good ear. Listen to your team, they have valuable insights, can offer perspective, and support problem solving.

Communicate 

This might seem obvious, but many leaders falter in this area. Remember, regardless of leadership level, leaders set the tone for their team. Don’t let lack of communication feed ambiguity and hinder progress. Regular communication helps your team stay connected and ensures everyone remains aligned to the overarching vision and goals of the organization. It also provides opportunities to address questions and challenges sooner rather than later and is a great way to receive and provide feedback.

Provide context 

Context is important. This is a lesson I have carried throughout my career. Providing context around a specific decision or change removes ambiguity and helps to prevent false information from flowing through the rumor mill. Employees can manage hard news, what they can’t stomach is a sugar-coated response. Be authentic and transparent when communicating. Even if you don’t have all the answers, it’s ok to say so. Your team will understand and appreciate the context and information you do share. You can always commit to sharing additional information when it becomes available.

Create opportunity

When we don’t exercise, we lose muscle; similarly, when we don’t use our skills at work, they lose impact, particularly if we don’t strengthen them over time. When employees are not given opportunities to hone and exercise their skills, it limits their ability to grow professionally. When leading your team, it’s important to be a steward of equal and equitable opportunity for growth and development. This fosters inclusivity across the team and shows your commitment to the team’s success through the lens of diverse skills, perspectives, and experiences.

Lead with empathy

Empathy is not a weakness. It is strength. It tells people that you value humanity and are genuinely invested in their wellbeing. Today’s leaders must be empathetic or risk losing the favor of their team. In a recent LinkedIn post, Empathy from Leaders Drives Productivity, virtual assistant services company, Prialto, shared the findings of an Ernst and Young survey. The survey found out of more than 1,000 employees, 54 percent said they left their jobs because of an unempathetic boss. Practicing empathy provides a safe and healthy environment for employees to collaborate, innovate, and problem solve. These elements further lend themselves to cultivating trust, acceptance, and productivity in the workplace. If you don’t demonstrate empathy with your team, how can you demonstrate empathy with your customers? It’s important to do both.

Be authentic 

When you come to work, be yourself. Your team wants to know who they’re dealing with. What type of leader are you? What are your values? How can you relate to your team’s joys and struggles? If you are true to your authentic self, your team will feel free to be their authentic self. No fake news. Your integrity as a leader is at stake.

Demonstrate trust

Trust your team. As a leader, you provide guidance, advance decisions, motivate and ensure everyone is delivering against the vision and goals of the organization. Trust in the ideas and skills of your team. Take the time to understand each member’s strengths and delegate according to expertise and performance. You can’t be an effective leader if you’re in the weeds of day-to-day operations. Leverage the strengths of your top performers and develop those who need to upskill. Ask questions and promote discussion to help team members gain the answers they seek. This promotes inclusivity and encourages a sense of unity.

Inspire 

In the book Choosing Greatness, author Christina Curtis encourages readers to ask “Was I a producer of positive energy today or did I consume the energy of others?” Teams thrive when they are given the freedom to ideate, innovate and create. To do this, leaders need to create space to envision pathways to success. Great leaders inspire. If you exude negativity and doubt your team will likely adopt your sentiment or eventually come to resent it. Your words matter. Be mindful of what you say and how you say it. Become a producer of positive energy. Perception is everything. Teams thrive when operating in an environment of positivity and inspiration.

Recognize results

Do remember a time when your contributions resulted in the achievement of a significant milestone? How did you feel when your name was among those acknowledged for a job well done? Recognition is a great motivator and a true sign of leadership. Be sure to recognize those who contributed to success along the way. When employees know their work is valued, it has meaning and creates an emotional connection and deep pride in the work. The recognition will be returned with a renewed sense of motivation and energy toward the next project and will spread a feeling of positivity and motivation across the team.

In the book, Leaders Eat Last, author Simon Sinek says, “When leaders inspire those they lead, people dream of a better future, invest time and effort in learning more and doing more for their organization and along the way become leaders themselves.” Many of us remember our favorite teacher growing up; similarly, we remember the leaders who demonstrated great leadership.

Thank you to the leaders who inspired and supported us along the way.