Last week, we introduced the concept of the eight keys for engaging your team through effective leadership, and we discussed four great ways that you can offer better leadership and get better results with others.

Now, let’s take a look at four more keys for engaging your team through effective leadership.

The fifth key is to enrich work roles and your work environment.  You need to find out what’s important to each individual in his or her work.  What’s missing from their role, in terms of actual work or fulfillment?  If the individual likes creative and innovative work,  you should give them more tasks that require skills for problem solving, leading projects, making decisions, and brainstorming, just to name a few.

You should help the people on your team make their roles more strategic.  One way you can achieve this is by cross-training them on other key functions in the organization, in turn making them more valuable to the company.  Another way is by delegating more interesting work to your team, rather than keeping it to yourself.  Many leaders make the mistake of keeping the most important or interesting projects for themselves, delegating only those tasks or larger jobs they find less interesting—it’s only human nature to fall into this trap, but don’t do it!

The sixth key for engaging your team through effective leadership is personalizing your approach. We’re all unique, so what drives and motivates you definitely isn’t the same for your team.  What do your employees value?  What are their needs, wants, emotions, and motivational drivers?  If you don’t know, then how are you going to lead, influence, and motivate?

Similarly, how you like to lead is how you yourself like to be led.  This concept also applies to your team. If you are oriented to production, results, and performance as a leader, some of your team members may respond well to this style.  But you should prepare yourself for others who are more collaborative and team oriented in their personal styles—you, as the leader, must make adjustments in how you lead, influence and motivate. It’s one of your biggest responsibilities.

You must recognize that no one leadership style is better than another. There’s no room for a “my way or the highway” type of attitude.  Leading isn’t about being right—it’s about doing right. The key is making slight adjustments on interpersonal and cultural context. Leaders adapt.

Another big element to personalizing your approach is how you deal with sensitivities and hot button issues for your individual team members.  A good leader knows when to address these issues head on, and he or she also knows when to avoid these things and stay in tune with the important issues that need to be addressed for getting the work done.

The seventh key to engaging your team through effective leadership is creating a high performance environment.  You must ensure the focus of the team is clear.  A group needs a common purpose—we all have traits or characteristics that we like and dislike about each other; however, with common purpose, these common likes and dislikes shrink into irrelevance in high performance professional environments.

Make sure that the work you give to your team is challenging and rewarding, structured and delegated in such a way that they can support and help each other, rather than compete for your favor.  Each team member needs to be able to trust and understand each of the others, and, by extension of these values, appreciate the contributions of others on the team. 

You should acknowledge and leverage the strengths and weaknesses of the collective group, while also acknowledging weaknesses and closing the group’s performance gaps.

The eighth and final key to engaging your team through effective leadership is empowering others to achieve.  This is a lofty goal, but you must set your sights on it and make it happen. Let us empower you with some ways to do so

Empowering others to achieve means that you’re also empowering them to fail.  Failure is the best teacher, so allow it to happen and then see how an empowered employee reacts next time—odds are that not only will they not make the same mistake twice, that they will achieve exponentially greater results on the next attempt. 

As an impetus for your team to take risks and learn from them, you should reward effort four times as much as you reward for results.  This conditions people to embrace challenges and take chances based on what they think are their best ideas and efforts, versus acting in an overly careful and cautious framework that grips most teams in mediocrity.  People shouldn’t fear the consequences of their work—they should be able to embrace failure as a teacher.

Involve others in shaping plans for the group.  When people believe they are collaborating on a professional roadmap that will shape their immediate future, the buy-in is unbelievable.

Encourage groups or individuals to resolve problems on their own—avoid prescribing a solution for your team when you know they could probably reach one on their own.  Again, this is about empowerment and seizing every opportunity you have to transfer power to them.

Don’t micromanage your team. Stay out of their hair and let them work, flourishing under as little pressure from your end as possible.  Minimize the need for continual updates on progress.  Instead of an update based on some arbitrary notion of time—such as a weekly conference call—tailor your updates to actual milestones dictated by the work.  That way, when you do engage, there will actually be something to talk about and measure, versus simply micromanaging to a calendar.

Finally, develop your replacement.  This shows more than a little fearlessness on your part!  High performing teams have a majority of people on them that could replace the leader immediately, or, they could at least collectively band together to mitigate the loss of the leader.  Funny, that—the notion that the best leaders are the ones who actually make themselves expendable.

In the past, leadership was straightforward and simple. Leaders could demand performance, and they motivated their teams with across-the-board rewards or punishment.  Today’s leaders face a more informed and diverse workforce, creating both opportunity and challenge for leaders and organizations. 

As a result, leaders need to be more creative and resourceful in how they lead and engage their teams.  What worked in the past will not likely work today.  Leadership is not about authority, position or status.  Leadership is more about channeling the contributions of others and understanding the human context. 

From our years of research and assessing the talents, skills, and experience of thousands of employees, managers, and executives, we have seen many ways that people can engage their teams at work through effective leadership.  Based on our findings, we have identified eight keys for engaging your team.  Today we’ll discuss the first four, and we’ll write about the other four in a post next week.

First, you have to look to yourself and set the example for behaviors and attitudes you wish to see in your team.  Be a role model. 

This is easier said than done, as with much in life.  In order to set the example, you must first have confidence in your own abilities.  From this base of confidence, be enthusiastic and engaged in the business, showing your commitment at every turn.  Confidence and a positive attitude are infectious, and being a role model is perhaps one of the purest forms of leadership.

Just as great attitudes are infectious, so, too are negative ones.  As a leader, be purposeful in providing constructive feedback about the organization and its leaders, be optimistic and positive about the future, but never be negative – that unproductive and relentless complaining about the current or future state of the organization and its people.  Organizations and people benefit from constructive criticism.  Organizations innovate and people grow. 

If you can’t always project positivity in your leadership role, then perhaps you should consider leaving it—for your own good and for the health of the business.  People need to be able to look up to others within the framework of their professional lives, as they do in their everyday personal experience. Staying positive and “above the fray” will make you a go-to person for others—this is another subtle form of leadership.

Think about all of these concepts in terms of your “leadership brand.”  What’s a leadership brand? Your brand consists of your preferences, strengths, and weaknesses.  You should be transparent in all of these areas, so that people have clarity and understanding of ways to use your leadership for their betterment.  You should be predictable and consistent.  Your team and peers should know what to expect from you, in both good and bad times. 

Also, display the proper sense of urgency.  While not everything that happens at work is important, you must gauge when issues are mission critical and/or deadline-sensitive and which ones are not.  For those issues that are mission critical to the organization and team, show more urgency and initiative, and be focused on getting the results you need.  For all other issues, you should show others ways to relax and calmly go about your work.

For issues that are important to you, drive hard and take a stand.  Be courageous when the concepts and positions you value are on the line.  Don’t be afraid to be wrong, take a position, and share your vision with vigor—people respect clarity and vision, whether they ultimately agree with you or not.

The second key for engaging your team through effective leadership is building trust and understanding.  We wrote about this in great detail in a previous post, so here are some of the highlights:

¨       Have faith in the ability of others.

¨       Make sure that feedback with those on your team is a two-way street.

¨       Be proactive and open in seeking feedback on your own leadership performance, as well as other aspects of your role, from others.

¨       Take a personal interest in others, what’s important to them, what they want and need from you.

¨       Be predictable and follow-through on commitments.

¨       Be willing to say no to others, when situations call for it.

¨       Have the best interests of both your team and the individual members of your team when making decisions.

The third key for engaging your team through effective leadership is valuing the contributions of others.  This will be difficult for some of you reading this, because this requires a heavy dose of humility—if you don’t have it, get it, because when you have humility, you realize that everyone on your team is better than you are at something.

Identify strengths and weaknesses of each team member—doing this will help you to understand where you can help them, and where they can help you. Each team member plays an important role in the success of the group. They do this by bringing something special and unique to the table, and you need to convey this to the group and to each individual member.

Shape and implement action strategies based on leveraging the strengths of each member.

The fourth key to engaging your team through effective leadership is making work fun and interesting for others. Do you and your employees actually enjoy coming to work? Do you, as the leader, believe that work should be fun? If not, you’ll have a difficult time with this key.

If you find that when you ask yourself these questions, you discover that having fun is difficult for you personally or for the organizational culture as a whole, then at least focus on making work enjoyable and interesting.  People spend more time in work-related activities than any other activities in their lives. Life is too short, when you think about it, not to have fun during or enjoy doing the activities that take up the most time in your life.

Are people smiling at your office?  Do people laugh where you work? Are people too uptight and “all business” in their attitudes?  If you answered, “No, No, Yes” to these questions, the stress levels at your workplace are too high for optimal performance

Laughter is a natural coping mechanism for all of us—even people who survived the Holocaust used humor and laughter to survive.  We’re not comparing even the worst work environments we’ve seen to the Holocaust, but if it worked for people who were enduring torture and waiting for their deaths, then perhaps it could do you a world of good to take the air out of the room at your overstressed office with some humor.

To make work more interesting, try making it a game.  Reward yourself for completing a task that normally takes 90 minutes in under an hour.  You can do this by treating yourself to your favorite lunch. “Punish” yourself for not achieving a task-specific goal—perhaps by donating $5 to the political party that opposes your beliefs and values (Editor’s Note:  If you didn’t laugh at this attempt at humor, perhaps you’re too uptight and not having fun at work, thus illustrating our point!).

Tune in next week for four more keys for engaging your team at work through effective leadership.

In last week’s installment, we discussed four proactive ways that managers can utilize to forge trust with their teams at work:  be sincere and understanding, use honest and open communication, make realistic promises and keep them, and be predictable. This week we will discuss four more great steps to consider, so that you can take your team to new levels of performance and fulfillment.

You should strive to be the caretaker of confidential and private information—be “the vault.” When we protect the confidence of those who seek us out in the workplace, we convey the same respect and trust that we are trying to build with others.

Nevertheless, you shouldn’t commit to keeping someone’s confidence unless you can agree to the terms.  Blind promises do no one any favors, and you never want to put yourself in a position where you’re protecting someone engaged in criminal or unethical behavior, detrimental to themselves or the health of the business.

Thus, you should establish a mutual understanding of the confidence, what’s expected from both parties, and only make agreements to which you can remain true.

One of the most proactive ways that managers can build trust is by also building a reputation for being responsive and available to their employees.  When employees feel that the relationship is a two-way street—where the manager grants them access and also seeks their feedback—their confidence in their own ability to perform to expectations increases exponentially.

To pave this two-way street, managers should use an open-door policy that welcomes and respects the honest feedback of their employees. They should also proactively offer timely guidance and help their teams accomplish tasks and solve problems.

Great managers are candid as they share information, advice, and suggestions to their employees for being more successful in their work.  And last, but probably most important at times, the very best managers identify problems early and proactively engage their employees to solve them before situations mushroom into major conflicts.

The most underused concept in building trust is through setting and sustaining high performance standards.  Teams derive their self-respect, as well as the respect and trust they have for their managers, based to a large degree on the expectations and the example set before them.

There’s no better way to complement high performance standards for your team than with high standards for your own performance.  This not only extends to constantly exceeding your own metrics-oriented goals (sales revenue, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction rating); it also extends to embracing your own professional growth and development through a commitment to learning and getting the coaching you need to be more effective. It almost goes without saying that your team, when they see these exemplary behaviors, will follow suit and trust you on an even higher level.

This also means that managers should stay committed to availing themselves of external issues that can affect their team’s performance, such as staying current on economic conditions, regulations, or customer trends that can affect the company and its results. This consistency of staying attuned to your own professional and personal credibility, with regard to the business and its performance, is contagious.

The final area where managers can have a tremendous, proactive impact on forging trust with their teams is in demonstrating character and concern for others.  Managers should always be thinking, “How can I define and clarify my core values for my team?”  In our fast-moving, constantly evolving times, many elements—economic conditions, technology, politics, and the law come to mind—can influence our core values and character—but only if we let them.

Managers need to keep their character and concern for others consistent, even when these elements come to bear in the workplace.  You should think about how you treat people and address your own past inconsistencies in both good and bad times and learn from them.  That’s personal evolution in order to build trust.

Also, a measure of character is your ability to have faith in those around you. Just as you may believe in your family and friends, you need to extend this core belief to your colleagues at work.  Seek to find common ground and earn cooperation with a minimum of pushback by exhibiting character and concern.

Finally, give serious thought, each time you make a decision, on the impact it will have on others.  Consideration of others is easy when times are good, but we all know that managers often have to make hard decisions—“that’s why we get paid the big bucks” is the old cliché that comes to mind.  Have the character and concern for your team to let them know your level of consideration, and share with them the negative impacts as quickly and honestly as possible.  When the going gets tough, show people that you’re equal to the task.

Trust—it’s that little bit of secret sauce that makes the difference between a team barely missing a goal and hitting it out of the park.

A foundation of trust is one of the fundamental virtues of great leaders and influences the amount of discretionary effort your talent will expend to meet business goals.  If you expect your team to go above and beyond, they have to believe you would do the same for them.  It’s that simple.

We’ve come up with a set of eight proactive ways for managers to take action and forge trust with their teams. We’ll discuss four of them today, and the other four in a future installment.

The first block in the foundation of trust is to be sincere and understanding.  This involves several components, including taking your time to listen and think through your responses to others.  Many times people mistrust quick answers to tough questions. Also, you should never be judgmental or argumentative, keeping an open mind to the ideas and feelings of others.

Finally, you should exhibit thoughtfulness and consideration of others. A great way to accomplish this level of trust is to make a practice of doing something nice or of value for a peer or team member for no apparent reason.  Offer your help on an important project, take them to lunch, your treat, or ask about their plans for the upcoming weekend. 

Second, you should always use open and honest communication.  The best communicators consistently let people know where they stand. They never put customers, peers, or managers—much less the teams they manage—in the position of guessing what they want or need from them.  They don’t play games, strategically withhold information from some while disclosing to others, or seek out political maneuvering as a means of gaining political advantage over others in the company.

The honesty piece is every bit as key in the building of trust.  Trust-builders don’t stretch the truth, even when they know they may face consequences.  When they make mistakes, they admit them and take responsibility. When they miss deadlines or don’t finish a project, they are up-front about falling short of expectations and seek to do an honest re-set of those expectations.

Third, you should make realistic promises and keep them. This is one of the first lessons that most of us learn as children from our parents and teachers, yet we still need to revisit as adult professionals!  Yet, we find ourselves, in pressure situations or, just out of a need to think we’re doing the right thing for someone, make promises we can’t keep.

You should avoid over-committing and under-delivering—manage the expectations of others realistically.  Sometimes, “no” is the healthy answer to give someone, and they will respect you for giving them the honest truth instead of a later, unfulfilled promise.

And from a more simple perspective, don’t be that person that misses calls or meetings—meet your commitments, and be consistent about it.

This next concept is the most fun—be predictable. Many of us equate predictability with being boring.  Yet, when people are seeking out others they can trust in a workplace, they aren’t looking for a rollercoaster ride of responses, reactions, and moods. They want predictability.  Predictability equals dependability.

Remember, respect comes from your consistent, trustworthy actions, not from some title, status, or supposed power or authority you hold.

Predictability cuts back to keeping promises, of course.  But it also means exemplifying a “what you see is what you get” mentality.  You show the same mentality in relaxed situations as you do high-pressure environments, so people always know where you stand.

And predictability directly translates into integrity. You walk the talk, unbending in your advocacy for what you believe to be right, even under political pressure from others.  You never send mixed signals, so that those who want to trust you can come to your side and stay there.