The Best Team-Building Techniques for Business Leaders

Guest post by Stephanie Haywood of Life Boost

Are you looking for ways to bring out the best in your team members? In an ideal situation, your workers will perform in individual niches that bring out their unique abilities, and each niche will fit together in a cohesive, optimized unit. Developing your team to that level requires insight only top business leaders can provide. Here’s expert advice from WBC In-house Advisors on how you can become the type of leader who pulls the best out of your workers so you see more success in your organization as a whole.

 What is Leadership?

 Off the cuff, there is a tendency to think of leadership as simply a role someone fills or a title they are assigned. After all, people earn those designations, whether through schooling or checking off duties. However, deep down, real leadership goes beyond that and can be seen in how an organization performs.

 As Chron explains, true leadership means guiding your underlings with meaning and values and aiming them toward the company’s higher purpose. It has less to do with charisma than you might think, and more to do with integrity and the demonstration of the qualities you expect from individuals in your organization.

 What this means for you, as a business leader, is doing some self-introspection. Identify some behaviors that you want to nurture, think about what you want to learn, and consider what culture you intend to hone in your organization. Ask yourself what relationships you currently have in your company, why you have them, and what needs to be enhanced, enriched, or broadened.

Other relationships come into play, too. Think about this in terms of the impact you’re making on your family members. As ZenBusiness explains, parents can influence their children’s futures as entrepreneurs. Skills for negotiation and conflict resolution, the ability to take rejection in stride, and appropriate crisis management are all applicable at home as well as in the workplace.

There are more questions to contemplate as you’re traveling this path: Where are your team’s weaknesses and how do you address them? Does your company feel scattered hither and yon or fully connected? Do you have a right-hand man or woman you rely on for the bulk of your key tasks, or do you have a number of people you turn to for various solutions? Is it time to bring in a consultant or Change Leadership Officer (CLO)? 

Measurable Impact

Leadership, in general, doesn’t sound like something you can put a finger on. In reality, how well you lead will ultimately impact something very measurable: your company’s bottom line. At the same time, focusing only on your bottom line will undermine what you’re trying to achieve. By looking thoughtfully at your organizational values, overall productivity, performance, and yes, financial gains, will follow.

Much of what you hope to achieve can be seen in how you demonstrate the qualities you expect. For example, telling your team about an error you made billing a customer, how you addressed the issue, and how it was resolved can provide them with insights into your expectations in terms of customer service, professionalism, integrity, and transparency. It directly affects company culture and ultimately affects your bottom line.

Demonstrating great customer service alone is a critical component. Poor service quality will drive your clientele elsewhere. In fact, some statistics indicate that it takes a dozen good experiences to make up for a single bad experience and customers are four times more inclined to head to the competition following a bad experience. Modeling what you want from your staff is an ideal way to convey your expectations, and it will convince them you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is.

Practical Solutions

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution for business leaders, there are some outstanding resources to help you develop your leadership skills and abilities. AllBusiness says taking a course can be very fruitful for business leaders, particularly in enhancing your team-building skills. It’s also an opportunity to work on things like self-confidence, and the resulting connections you gain with other business leaders can prove invaluable. While you might not be able to head to campus, there are many online learning opportunities that can mesh seamlessly with your work schedule.

Another suggestion is simply digging into some reading material to enhance professional development. There are some excellent books on leadership, like Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or anything by best-selling author Brene Brown. Well-chosen books can provide the insights you’re seeking, and you can stash one in your desk drawer or nightstand to peruse at your convenience.

Worthy Connections

All business leaders have heard the old saying about the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, but nobody wants their business to be described that way. Staying in touch with your employees is the best way to ensure you’re on the right track with your leadership model, and it’s a perfect way to identify areas of improvement.  

There are plenty of ways to boost collaboration and connection within your organization. Breaking down silos to streamline processes, using team portals to enhance communication, and reaching out to those you identify as outliers are just a handful of ideas. Consider where the chinks are in your company’s armor, and it will tell you a lot about what solutions will help you enhance the connectedness of your team.

Leadership is an intangible commodity, but when you’re willing to work at it, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck without solutions. Do some self-introspection, identify weaknesses, and seek learning opportunities that fit comfortably into your day. Keep moving forward with your team’s connectedness, and you’ll be the type of leader that brings out the best in each member as an individual, as well as your organization as a whole.

Are you ready to lead your team to the next level?