Five Essentials for Fostering Exceptional Team Culture

During my 22-year career, I’ve had the good fortune of working for some of the world’s most highly regarded communications agencies, serving inspiring and iconic brands in both technology and consumer goods. In that time, across several roles, there’s always been something to sell: a new offering that we’ve “productized,” fresh insights from proprietary data, extensions outside of the realm of traditional PR like paid media plans, etc. But at the end of the day, what we’re really selling is the collective brainpower, creativity, and experience of our people. And if agencies and companies aren’t viewing their people as their most important asset, then they're doing it wrong.

?That said, having a high-performing team isn’t enough. Top talent will inevitably seek a fresh start elsewhere if trapped in stale roles or within organizations lacking transparency, empathy, and clear paths for career growth. Cultivating high-performing, highly engaged, and fulfilled teams demands intentional leadership - one that prioritizes people.

Building a cohesive, highly engaged team that feels tethered to one another and to the company’s broader mission should be among the chief priorities of all people leaders. However, it doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen by accident. From my experience, here are five essential practices for any leader hoping to nurture an exceptional culture and create empowered, engaged, and motivated teams:

Lead with Empathy

Some of the best leaders I’ve had the good fortune to work with in my career lead with empathy. Before you can truly lead anyone, you must understand them. If you’re taking on a new role as a people leader, make space for open conversations and focus on suspending your agenda and listening without judgement. Let people know you see them as human beings first, not just numbers and roles filling out a team. Of course, it’s important that you actually do feel this way. You can’t fake empathy.

Human Connections Matter

People leaders have a massive responsibility for ensuring their teams don’t just become transactional silos of excellence. It’s one thing to do great work for clients and customers, it’s another thing entirely to create an environment where people produce great work and feel both supported by their leaders and fulfilled by their roles. Prioritizing practices and channels that encourage connections between people – work-related or otherwise – build important bonds and strengthen the collective potential of a team. These human touchpoints become a sort of connective tissue that can foster the kind of caring culture that gives people a reason to stay (and for distributed teams, these human connections are even more essential when people aren't together in-person daily). Amid our pivot to remote and hybrid work, I've found that the people leader has a much greater responsibility for ensuring people feel connected to one another and to their work. It's much easier today than it has been in recent times for people to become unmoored from a sense of purpose in the workplace. Treating your reports as human beings and creating meaningful touchpoints is a good starting point to ensuring this doesn't happen.

Transparency in Everything

When leading people, it’s crucial to establish a foundation of transparency and honest conversation. In my previous roles, I’ve always aimed to create forums or discussion pods for an honest dialogue where all feel empowered to engage in candid discussion – not just the project updates, and how “busy” everything always seems to be, but other more complex topics: changes within the broader organization, fears about business growth during a flagging economy, professional growth opportunities, and much more. The good and the bad, woven together into a meaningful conversation between colleagues supportive of one another.

These discussions require a degree of intentionality, too – this isn’t a series of all-hands conversations between 10, 20, 30 or more people. There is a time and a place for that, but open and honest discussion typically requires all participants to remain fully engaged and plugged in - something that is hard to do in larger groups. Navigating nuances and approaching people with care is an important skill for people leaders to master.

Role and Process Clarity

If you’ve held a job in any industry at all, you’ve surely been part of strong teams of people working well together and those, well, that don’t. When I’ve had to diagnose issues within struggling client teams, it often comes down to one thing: lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities.

High-performing teams require absolute clarity around roles, responsibilities, and processes. There's no room for ambiguity around who is accountable for what, and how work gets done. Your people need to feel grounded and understand both what they need to produce and, importantly, how their contribution fits into the larger machinations of the business. Clarity manifests discipline and structure.

Creating a Culture of Coaching

Finally, the people leader wears several hats, but “Coach” is among the most important both for creating a thriving culture and for building teams that deliver for clients and customers. Establishing an environment where people feel seen and heard, and where they feel on most days that they’ve learned something new and grown professionally, is crucial for keeping teams motivated, happy, and engaged for the long haul. Truly, one of your key missions as a people leader is to ensure that your people feel like they are on an educational journey.

People leadership is not unlike gardening; it requires constant attention and nurturing. However, the payoff in terms of collective achievement, professional satisfaction (both yours and the people you lead), and staff retention make it all worthwhile. Remember that in business, your people are your most vital resource. Fostering environments where they can thrive unlocks their fullest potential.

I’d be curious to hear what you’ve found to be most effective either as a people leader yourself or on your own teams. Drop me a line or leave a comment! Horror stories welcome, too, as long as enough time has passed and you’re able to look back and laugh!