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Four essentials for new leaders (and experienced ones, too) 🎯 Wednesday Win
Published about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Leadership is hard and starting strong with a new team can be the difference between long-term success and disappointment. But what priorities should make your list?
These five can support a strong start, especially when you are a new leader of an established team. Let's explore:
1. Engage
Spend time with each new direct report and do it the right way: listen 10X as much as you talk. Ask questions to dive deep. Don't spend the time instructing or directing.
Learn their goals and understand how they take in new information.
Observe how each member of your team works and what level of oversight and direction they need. One may benefit from frequent check-ins. Others may be able to self-manage and only come to you with problems and seeking your help.
Take the time to meet individually as soon as possible after starting
Primarily be a listener; ask questions to learn more
Over time, learn work styles and engagement needs
You have less time at the start than you think
2. Communicate the team’s goals to each member of the team
Be concise and frame the immediate and mid-term targets in ways each member is expected to contribute to them.
You can’t expect professionals to execute tasks endlessly without seeing their role in pursuing and achieving the broader goals. Communicate the goals frequently with precision and clarity. Frame them in a way that makes sense for each role.
Frequently communicate your goals
Frame priorities in ways that each can contribute
Don't miss recognizing progress and achieved milestones as they are reached
3. Lead by example
This is simple to state, but an easy place to lose your team. Act as you wish each of your team members to act.
You are setting the culture for your team and no matter what words you say, they'll clue in to your actions. When your direction and your behavior mismatch, your actions will matter more.
If you expect high performance, you must show you understand how to deliver, too.
Demonstrate your values
Stay consistent with your stated expectations
Build your team culture to a high standard
4. Use public praise and private correction
These are among the easiest moves, but often not obvious to new leaders. Publicly praise the standout performances on your team while correcting any failures in private.
Praising the successful moves will drive all the best staff to try to reach the performance levels worthy of that praise. This reinforces the positive results and expectations from your team.
But when things go wrong, address the failures with each team member in private. No one needs to be dressed down in public. When you use your authority to treat people poorly, you are setting yourself up for needing to ever-escalate your intimidation tactics to drive performance. You will
Plus, disrespecting your team in public will only undermine their willingness to go above and beyond in any areas.
The best leaders know they will be recognized for their team’s performance. Claiming it is unnecessary and disrespectful to your team. Pass along credit to them and you’ll keep getting more of those great results. Similarly, you need to protect your team when they make a mistake or fall short. It’s up to you to take responsibility. Trying to blame your team will come across as petty and undermine your leadership authority
Call out great performances in front of your team and other organizational leaders
Always give credit to your team members for successes
Give corrective feedback in private
To the rest of the organization, give credit to the team members when you have success, but accept the blame directly when things go wrong
Action Summary
Creating a high-performing, long-lasting team requires different skills than being a stand out individual contributor. You need to build trust, set clear goals and expectations, support your team member's individual goals while achieving your team priorities, and you need to accommodate the varied needs of high-impact individuals.
Are you already leading a team? What's worked best for you? Reply to this email and share your experience.
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