How leaders can inspire a team synergy?

“Synergy - the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously.” Mark Twain

Some teams are basically a collection of individuals; other teams are synergized. 

Whether you are a leader, a manager, a president or vice president, a coach, a parent-your most important resource is your people.

A strong company culture brings cohesiveness to the team. It is the team’s strength to carry on a winning culture that creates a competitive advantage in the market. A shared culture can provide a source of pride in being unique and exceptional from other companies undefined team culture.

The leader unifies the team members through an awareness of their common culture to uplift everyone to a higher performance.

So how can leaders create synergetic teams in their culture?

The best teams have a mutual vision

Teams need a shared vision in order to drive a shared winning culture. Each person on the team must share the same vision and be passionate about where the team is going. The culture flows from the team’s vision toward a better future. Without a collective vision, the team is going no-where or it will focus on personal agendas which will hinder the team culture and progress.

The best teams face challenges together

The best teams are not frustrated by setbacks. They are determined to come up with a common objective to tackle the issues together. It does not mean everyone on the team shares the same point of view but everyone understands the sacrifice they need to make in order to be a team player. The team agrees on the challenge and set forth the energy to deal with the setbacks together.

The best teams raise the bar together

The best teams continue to challenge themselves as they build momentum toward success. A team must have a learning mindset to make a commitment to stretch beyond their current realities. The best teams look at yesterday’s success as part of the journey to tomorrow’s better performance. Success is never final. The best teams build on everyone success and opportunities to improve.

The best teams focus on what’s right with each other

The best teams recognize every person’s added value to the company culture. Everyone plays a role and can make a contribution. We just have to focus and build on the strengths of each other. The best teams are not a collection of the best people or the best talent but the best roles that can make a group of people succeed.

Leadership Conversations

“Share what you care about and stop telling people why they should change. Start talking about what is important to you and your team. Be honest; speak from your heart.” Richard H. Axelrod

Enormous amount of money is spent every year by companies on leadership development. Many companies and managers assume these programs will “fix’ their leadership challenges without a strong implementation on a daily basis.  I believe that daily leadership communication is at the core of what needs changing in leadership development.

We can add value to leaders by showing the value of teamwork through leadership conversations. As leaders, if we want a culture of collaboration and partnership, we need to experience our dialogue with one another on a daily basis.

What are the benefits of Leadership Conversations?

Trust

A great way to increase and foster more trusting relationships with others is through daily leadership conversations. These conversations are open, honest and constructive to help people find a two-way feedback loop.

Every leadership conversation cannot be a monologue. Too often leaders assume they have the right perspective and by being open and honest, they forget there is another person in front of them that can be as open and honest and share great things.

Growth

Leadership conversations should be about what’s going right and how can we grow better from our experiences. 

Often times, leaders underestimate the power of positive and encouraging communication with their teams. People need more hope and more than anything else; people want to hear the music of positive language in their life.

Many people are hungry for encouragement and a pad on the back. We sometimes thrive on negative news that we really need to try to fulfill people’ lives with positive news and a fresh perspective for their future.

Accountability

Leadership conversations are not always warm and fuzzy. However, they are completing a full circle when we share accountability for our actions.  Leadership is about responsibility as much as growth and development of our team. We cannot lead effectively without taking personal accountability for our results and actions. These conversations reveal the inside victories we all need to become a better person and a better leader. It helps everyone take a better perspective to evolve as a leader and become someone that is open to learning.

The future

Often times we like to dwell on the past and the current situation in almost everything we do. Leaders can lead better discussions and engage through a meaningful dialogue about the future with their teams.

You will be amazed as a leader as you will begin to understand and listen to your team perspectives. The leadership conversation is all about taking the collective journey to shape the future together with other people.

Create a better future not only for yourself and the company but also for your people.

The Three Levels of Developing Leaders

“Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.”  Tom Peters

A great leader is someone who develops the next generation of leaders. Do you discover the potential leaders on your team? 

Ralph Nader said, “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”

The purpose of leadership today is to help unlock the abilities of everyone who can make a positive difference in the lives of others.

How can we as leaders help people grow and develop to the next level? Development helps to nurture the garden of people in our organization.

As leaders we have to ask ourselves, “Is anyone better because of the value we added to their potential?” That’s the question that every leader needs to reflect upon at the end of the day. 

The joy of dedicating your time and efforts to help another person succeed is the leader foremost responsibility.

Let’s think of the three levels of developing the potential leaders on our team:

Create partnerships

Remember as a leader who wants to foster a motivating environment, you have to create an environment of partnership and shared leadership. People like to be part of a big cause that rallies everyone on the team. The days of one person navigating the ship are long gone.

Everyone plays a role in the organization success. It’s up to the leader to find the true partnerships to accelerate the growth of the people on their team. When a group of people work together to achieve a common goal, the journey is worthwhile for everyone. Invite people to the journey of better leadership.

Embrace Dialogue on challenging issues

As we develop leaders, we need to confront the truth together with others. We must have an intense dialogue to confront and seek answers together as a team of leaders. We don’t always have the best answer and we need to look for ways to involve others to share their point of view. The whole is always better than its parts as the saying goes.

Challenge the status quo together

Once we have the partnership and the dialogue, we are ready to tackle the issues of the day. Why is challenging the status quo part of the leadership development? Many leaders today are frustrated because they find themselves alone at the top without realizing how to develop people to join them in wrestling with the big issues of the day.

As a leader, we need to embrace and expose potential leaders to the same issues and headaches we face on a daily basis. Some will argue that not everyone can man up to the task, but we learned from our experience that we needed to step into the fire without knowing or having the answers to every problem. we developed through those experiences that made us better leaders.