How can a Leader Forge an Unbreakable Team? Uncovering the Journey to Delivering Exceptional Results

Most leaders want to create a lasting impact and leave a legacy that could thrive long after they have moved on. One of the key components to do so is to build a strong and cohesive team, who can deliver great results in time to come. This is the story of Idhant one of the leaders from a tech startup company, who started with a vision of creating a strong team that could accomplish greatness for years to come.

Idhant had an unwavering vision for what his team could achieve. As they approached the year-end, he spent a lot of time visualizing and creating a clear picture of the end goals that the team should achieve. Idhant planned a team meeting to go through the goals and clearly articulated the vision to the team, where he inspired team members by painting vivid details on the possibilities and alignment to potential individual aspirations with a collective purpose.

Challenge 1: The Vision - Develop the skill for putting together a compelling vision, and paint a rough picture of what success looks like for both individuals and the team. Communicate the vision with clarity and passion, and ensure your body language and message comes with unwavering belief.

He understood and recognized that trust is the foundation of any strong team, so he put the required time and effort to build a foundation of trust among team members, by working with each leader in his team to refine and align deliverables to the collective purpose. He created a safe environment where transparency, open communication, and respect could flourish. Trust was the bedrock on which the team’s relationships were built, which allowed the team to weather any storm that potentially came their way.

Challenge 2: Trust - Start by trusting your team members by actively listening, always encourage open and honest discussions, and valuing a diverse set of perspectives. Lead by example, demonstrate trustworthiness by ensuring your actions are consistent, and follow through.

Idhant understood strong teams are made up of strong and exceptional individuals, he focused on empowering individuals to unleash their true potential. He put consistent efforts to identify individual strengths and frequently discussed them with team members, in addition to the gaps, and encouraged personal growth. He provided opportunities for skill development to nurture each individual’s unique talents. He drove a culture of continuous learning by investing in the overall growth of the team and fuelling the team’s collective expertise. This was focused on preparing the team to take on greater challenges and add greater value to the organization in the time to come.

Challenge 3: People Development - Invest time and energy to develop individuals by mentoring and leveraging available resources. Create opportunities for skill development, try to plan ahead, and align them to individual goals. Provide an environment to support risk-taking and learning from failures, and ensure the learnings are shared consistently within the team and across the larger org.

Idhant was a fast learner and keen observer, he had read about the success stories of organizations that embraced diversity and also had seen a few teams globally within the company operating with higher diversity and their success, so he completely recognized the strength of diversity and wholeheartedly embraced it. He always looked for opportunities to build a team with individuals who could bring different perspectives, having varied experiences and diverse backgrounds. He was clear that diverse viewpoints drive higher creativity and innovation. He encouraged all his team members to collaborate and solve challenges together while leveraging their different thought processes to solve complex problems.

Challenge 4: Invest in Diversity - Actively seek for diversity candidates and create opportunities to collaborate and cross-pollinate ideas. Drive a culture to value diversity and inclusion, by encouraging teams to appreciate and celebrate differences.

Obstacles and setbacks are inevitable, how the team responds truly matters. Idhant ensured one of the essential traits that the team had was resilience, by ensuring the team understands that failure was the stepping stone to success and fostering a growth mindset. The team members had developed the skills to adapt, bounce back, and were able to innovate in the face of adversity. As the team members collectively worked towards solving a challenge, they emerged stronger and more united.

Challenge 5: Build Resilience - Nurture a growth mindset, and encourage a positive attitude towards any failures or challenges. Drive a culture to embrace change and adapt. Identify and celebrate any act of resilience and be there to support during difficult times.

Idhant’s efforts in building a strong team with his forward-thinking approach did pay off, as the team started delivering results that surpassed expectations. The team continued to thrive and consistently surpass goals and add tremendous value with innovative solutions long after Idhant’s move out of the company. Over time teamwork, trust, resilience, empowerment, and diversity became part of the team’s DNA, and guided the organization toward greatness for a longer period to come.

The journey to build a strong team who can deliver outstanding value for a long time to come is difficult. However, if you have the commitment coupled with the right set of actions taken long enough, you should be able to achieve the goal. I hope this inspires you and provides the key focus areas in your journey of building a team who can produce outstanding value for a long time to come.