Elevate Your Team’s Success (Self-advocacy series 7/7)

In addition to ensuring your contributions are visible, consider doing the same for your exceptional yet often unnoticed teammates and colleagues, particularly those who belong to underrepresented groups.

Let's explore ways to highlight other’s work:

1. Acknowledge Their Achievements. Recognize your teammates' accomplishments through thoughtful gestures such as gift cards, congratulatory lunches, or public acknowledgments on a Kudos board. When you celebrate their successes, you not only incentivize continued excellence but also convey their value to the team. Leadership Author Kevin Cruz highlighted that this recognition can significantly enhance performance and engagement.

2. Invest in Their Professional Development. Encourage and support your team members’ professional growth. ?Provide opportunities for training, workshops, or courses that can enhance their skills and knowledge. Investing in their development benefits them, strengthens the team's capabilities, and advances the organization.

3. Provide Stretch Assignments. As a leader, identify your team members' strengths and assign them tasks or projects where they can showcase these abilities. Matching skills to opportunities for growth can profoundly impact their careers.? Columbia Law professor Alexander Carter shared a story of when all the lawyers from her class got together one month into their jobs to give talks. ? The professor in the back of the room pulled her aside and let her know she was a fantastic speaker.? She said she would like to put her on a committee that gives legal presentations, and that allowed her to have so much more practice, which led to her incredibly successful career.

4. Offer Them Visibility with Leadership. Invite your teammates to meetings with you to increase their exposure. In leadership gatherings, amplify your team's voices and ensure their ideas receive proper credit. For example, you can say, "Jill's innovative approach to this event significantly improved employee satisfaction and connection. Jill, could you elaborate on this?" Or, “Bill came in with the winning idea that helped us gain the client’s trust.? Bill, can you share your strategy?” This practice elevates your team's contributions and highlights their significance.? You can take it a step further and put them on a substantial project so they can play a significant role by presenting to the executive team.

5. Endorse Them Privately. ?Even when they are not present, endorse your teammates to your peers by discussing their achievements and sharing valuable insights your team has gained from them. Reference their ideas and represent their perspectives to contribute to their credibility. Incorporate any testimonials from key stakeholders or customers to reinforce their reputation.

6. Share Credit on Projects. Always acknowledge the team members who contributed to a project's success. Similar to the acknowledgments in a book or an Oscar winner's acceptance speech, emphasize that your success is a collective effort. Mention how your team played a pivotal role in making this happen. People appreciate success stories more when credit is attributed where it's deserved.

7. Express Appreciation of Your Team to Your Boss. When your teammates excel, send appreciation emails and consider copying your boss. This practice not only recognizes their accomplishments but also highlights their value within the team.?

8. Publicize your Team’s Efforts on Your LinkedIn.? Randelle Lenoir, VP Branch Leader at Fidelity Investments is a pro at this.? After speaking to her mentor, she set a goal for herself to post one thing on LinkedIn each week: ?a photo of the team doing important work, a recent win they collectively had, or just an individual achievement. ?One of the most popular posts was when a younger member held his certificate and announced that he had just passed his series 7 exam. ?She usually has good engagement with other team members, chiming in during the celebrations. The impact this has had is that she has developed a pipeline of great people who want to work for her because they see how excellent the culture is.? This allows her to be agile in creating movement for current members, if they want to move on and do something else, she can pull from her waiting list.

By implementing these strategies, you can actively contribute to the success and recognition of your team members, creating an environment where everyone's contributions are acknowledged and celebrated.?

Quote of the day. "Great things in business are never done by one person; they're done by a team of people." - Steve Jobs

Question. How do you effectively promote your team?? Comment and share below; we’d love to hear!?

As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to communicate effectively including strategically self-promoting, contact me to explore this topic further.