Working with a team of talented individuals is a privilege. They’re intelligent, capable, eager and hungry for success. That makes your work as a leader and manager all the more rewarding and challenging – both at the same time. It’s rewarding because you’re helping them tap into their full potential and fulfill their dreams and aspirations. It’s challenging because these individuals are restless, curious and always questioning if their contributions are being noticed, appreciated and adding value to the organization. That’s where you need to play an even more important role to charge up your team and embrace future challenges.
As you step into the New Year you’re starting off with a clean slate. Everything up to today is a thing of the past. All successes, failures, mistakes and learnings can now be archived. It’s time to look ahead, be prepared, be aware and immerse yourself with everything that’s yet to come.
The start of a New Year is the perfect time to sit with your team and go over a new game plan. A plan that’s going to cover all actions and strategies for the next 365 days that you and your team will strive and work for. It’s best you take this opportunity to charge up your team. Here’s how:
1. Reason with Them
If you’re the type of leader who persistently tells their team to perform better, stop. Instead of this, try explaining to them why and how their contributions are helping the organization’s advancement. When employees understand the impact of their actions they’ll up their game and work more diligently knowing that everything they do is adding value to the overall goal of the organization. Irrespective of what role your team members are in, everyone’s input matters. Make them feel special and appreciated. Reason with them, don’t just tell them what they’re supposed to do or what you expect from them. Gain their trust and admiration through respect and recognition. By helping your team feel important, respected and valued you’ll enhance the reasoning that whatever they do is adding up to something big – bigger than their individual performance.
2. Rope Them into the Purpose
Numbers aren’t everything. Today’s organizations know that to really succeed and ensure business continuity they need to look beyond profitability. That’s precisely what your team needs as well. Focusing on profitability will only get them to achieve what’s expected, mindlessly and with minimal effort. If you want your team to really be aligned with you, as their leader, you need to rope them in with a purpose. Employees will follow leaders who’ve made it their mission to serve their communities. That’s what you need to pitch to your team when you start the year off. Sell them the idea of a purpose that you all can collectively work towards and watch how willingly and proactively they’ll drive themselves to achieve it. The idea behind working towards a purpose also validates your philosophy of creating more ownership within your team. More than holding your team members accountable for their actions, support them to take control of their own fate and success. Guide them to enjoy their wins and mentor them when they fail.
3. Keep Communication Open
When you’re sitting with your team and carving the path of 2018, avoid making it a one-way session. The last thing you want to do is go on, lecturing and relentlessly talking about what you want, what they should do, how you want them to behave and so on. That’s perfectly the fastest way to lose your team’s interest and morale. Make the session about them. Ask what they want to achieve in 2018? What do they want to gain, learn and look back and remember? Next, ask them how you can support and facilitate their aspirations and goals. In your conversation, tie in their goals with that of the department’s and organization’s. In essence, what you’ll achieve is a common ground with which a win-win situation will arise. Everyone goes home happy and content with the notion that goals will be met by all parties. Communication and engagement is pivotal to charge up your team, especially when you’ve made it more about them than just the organization’s or your leadership success.
In these early days of the New Year, leaders must play their cards right to win their team’s support. If you can successfully charge up your team at the start of the year you can rest assured that half the work that a leader should do is complete. Though it’s not over. From here on your role is to keep them on track, keep inspiring and motivating them, and constantly supporting them to achieve even more than they did last year.
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