5 Leadership Practices for Building Great Teams

A leader's most important responsibility is to create an environment where teams and team members can do their best work, accomplish great results, and demonstrate respect for others. Successful leaders have many different styles and approaches for leading teams, but there are some universal truths about what leaders must do to build great teams.?

5 Leadership Practices For Building Great Teams

1) People First

A leader's most important task is to build a team of people around them that are engaged and capable of advancing the organizational mission. The best strategy is to have a group of people who can adapt to and perform brilliantly no matter what changes or challenges arise. Great leadership is irrelevant without great people.

Leaders need to work to surround themselves with employees who are Capable, Engaged, and Connected. Individuals who demonstrate these three attributes have the most influence on team productivity, low turnover, profitability, and customer satisfaction.

Capable

• Use their strengths every day
• Consistent levels of high performance
• Natural innovation and drive for efficiency

Engaged

• High energy and enthusiasm
• Broaden what they do and build on it
• Clear about desired outcomes of their role

Connected

• Intentional building of supportive relationships
• Emotionally committed to what they do
• Show commitment to the organization, workgroup, and role

2) Clear Goals and Roles

It is the leaders' responsibility to create a foundation for team success. This success starts by establishing an environment where employees have clear and aligned goals and roles. The importance of meaningful goals and role clarity on employee performance, engagement, and motivation is well-researched and documented.

Goals

Setting clear and meaningful goals provides a team with clarity, focus, increased performance, and accountability. Goals provide direction to a team, which enables team members to understand where they are now, where they want to go, and unites each individual's effort in getting there. Common goals are what makes a team a team.

Roles

Clarity of roles, responsibilities, and authorities are essential for team members to effectively accomplish individual and collective goals. Everyone should have a clear picture of who is responsible for what, the extent of each person's authority, and how people must work together to accomplish shared goals. Team members must cooperate to be able to achieve their goals and build strong relationships.

3) Effective Core Processes

Every team has a handful of core processes that facilitate efficiency, scalability, and performance. The leader needs to ensure that team members understand which core processes are essential for their team success. Once identified, these processes should be documented, thoroughly tested, simplified, and regularly measured for efficiency and participation.

Core processes vary from team to team but are most often in the areas of service delivery, building products, marketing, accounting, human resources, customer service, etc.?

4) High-Trust Environment

Great leaders invest in creating a trusting work environment and take the necessary steps so that teammates feel safe to take risks. They are confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea. Establishing an inclusive team environment that invites equal voice and values all team member perspectives is not created by accident.

A 2017 Gallup poll found that only 3 in 10 employees strongly agree with the statement that their opinions count at work.

Creating a culture of trust starts at the top. Below are behaviors that leaders need to model to create a high-trust environment.

• Live the values every day
• Quickly address negative employee behaviors
• Inclusive process for Problem-Solving (see #5)

5) Problem-Solve Important Issues

The best teams are great at problem-solving. Resolving the ongoing issues that get in the way of accomplishing strategic team goals should be the central component of a team's recurring meetings. Too often, a team will spend a majority of their time together sharing general updates, many of which are not pertinent for everyone to know or could be shared electronically. Below are best practices for teams that excel with inclusive problem-solving.

• An agreed-upon process and dedicated time to problem-solve issues
• A clear expectation that a team member input is valued and expected when working through defined organizational issues
• Explicit agreements for the next steps and accountability are clearly documented

Now more than ever, organizations need leaders that can build and maintain high-performing teams that can produce results and build strong relationships in the midst of ongoing change. These 5 Leadership Practices for Building Great Teams help leaders enable their teams to deliver on the promise of their potential.