Are you the leader your work team needs?

March 1, 2021 4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Being the leader of a work team is not only about distributing or assigning activities and waiting for progress to be reported, it goes much further than that. Today more than ever, being a leader represents a great challenge for the people who perform this role.

Why? Because the generations that today occupy a higher percentage of the labor market are more volatile, they jump from one job to another and when they do not like something, they do not hesitate to show their discontent, and many times, they do not do it in a professional way.

And definitely, we must not drop everything on our team. As leaders we must understand that our work goes beyond directing them.

For that reason, I want to share with you three strategies that you can implement to improve your leadership and the relationship with your team:

1. Reinforce the mission

^{Image: Markus Spiske via Unsplash}

Your team must be aligned with the reason for the company’s existence, that is, the mission. This will help generate resonance and identity with the organization. When you carry out the reinforcement of the mission, you will find in the team people who are passionate about the reason for existing and they will be the ones who will collaborate with you to build a better future. And you will also find people who do not care about the company and are only interested in employing themselves by exchanging their time for money. The sooner you identify them the better because they will know who you really have.

2. Meaning

^{Image: Randy Fath via Unsplash}

After reinforcing the mission of the company it is important to delve into the meaning. A company operates like a machine. Each function is a gear and the results of the company are the result of the joint operation of the gears. That means that if one of them fails, the machine could not work. Something important in leadership is showing your work team what role it plays within the organization and how significant its function is for generating the final result. Make sure they understand the meaning.

3. Do not impose, better help

^{Image: Brooke Lark via Unsplash}

The leadership style has been changing over time. Before it was a military type leadership where activities were imposed and now it is a more collaborative leadership where together we generate the result. Every time you request an activity to be carried out, make sure that the person who is going to implement it understands well what they have to do and the delivery expectations in terms of form, substance, quality and time. And once everything is clear, monitor the execution of the activity and be open to consultation and support.

It is never too late to improve your leadership and your relationship with your team. Remember that a good leader must be a guide, he must know how to listen and take into account the rest of the team members, he must worry about their continuous improvement and seek to generate a better environment so that his collaborators feel motivated when carrying out their work. .