7 Keys to a Winning Team
You must demonstrate a conviction and determination to be a strong leader.
It is critical for everyone on the team to understand the goal – the big goal. Having a clear and compelling goal is essential.
Everyone wants and needs to know how the game is to be played and where the boundaries have been set. No more surprises.
Everyone in the business must have their own personal plan of action – what they are going to accomplish to move the business forward. If you are going to expect everyone to have a plan, then how important is it that there is a plan for the business?
Everyone makes mistakes and as the business owner, you must acknowledge the good effort and help the team learn from every good effort that goes badly. This can be a game changer if you play it well.
That’s right – everyone must be involved! We’re not asking folks to simply come in and do their manual tasks. We need everyone to have their head in the game if we’re going to win.
No matter how well you do keys 1 through 6, if you don’t get to know your folks and show them that you care about them, you will not win their heart. We are after their hearts – not just their brains or their muscles.
A good team is a nice thing to have. However, complacency in business leads to missed opportunity! To succeed in business, you need a GREAT TEAM.
It’s Time To Expand Your TEAM Comfort Zone
As the pandemic restrictions begin to ease and business starts to reopen, now is a critical time to ensure that you have the best team in place, they are trained and trained in how to Be Patient, Be Kind & Be Compassionate.
We all have a set comfort zone, a place where we feel completely relaxed. However, becoming too comfortable or complacent within your business can lead to missed opportunities for growth.
Remember, you learned to walk by falling down. The same is true in life, business, sales, marketing, and creating wealth. Are you ready to expand your comfort zone and see how far you can take your team?
Turn Your Staff Into A DREAM Team!
You’ve probably heard the expression that your people are your best business asset. Well, it’s true. This is because when you have a team that is just as passionate about your business as you are, synergy kicks in with remarkable results.
Internal politics can tear a business apart. Unhappy and unmotivated staff are the fastest way of destroying any business. When you apply the principles of the 7 Keys to a Winning Team in your workplace, the team will begin to work together like an efficient, motivated and well-oiled machine.
As the Business Owner or Department Manager, you must show Strong Leadership. As the Leader, you MUST have passion, focus and take responsibility for the leadership of your organisation or your role within the organisation.
Your team will be looking up to you to provide the strategies and direction for the business or department. Without passion, focus and responsibility you will not be able to engage the team or achieve the traits that championship teams exhibit.
Your role as a Strong Leader of the Team is to enroll and engage your team members through the Vision you have for your business, or department, and ensure that you have documented that Vision with Keys Goals that your team is striving to achieve for the business or department.
Are you clear about where you are going and how you are going to get there? Have you set long term goals for the business and are they aligned with Clear Vision, Mission & Purpose statements that every team member can be truly engaged with. Is the Vision Mission and Purpose of the business aligned with each team members own personal beliefs and values.
Think about sport and the rules of the game – On the playing field the team understands and knows what each individual is responsible for in winning the game. Each team member is empowered to make their own decisions in how they play the game whilst the ball is in play. They also understand that when the ball goes outside the boundary or someone breaks a rule on the field, that they are no longer in control of making their own decisions and look to the umpire for making the final decision. It is no different in business.
When you have clearly articulated the Rules of the Game in business through your Policies & Procedures, Your Communication, Strong Leadership and Common Goals, you will have a tight Culture where everyone plays by the Rules and in the context of winning the game of business.
When you have unclear Rules of the Game you end up with a loose culture, team members doing their own thing and only focusing on the content that they bring to the table. In other words they are not playing with or contributing to the team.
Good action plans are about more than just what needs to be done by when. In addition to operational milestones and key performance indicators, they contain positional contracts, systems manuals, plans of action and much, much more.
My challenge for you is to take some time to review your own Action Plans that take place in your business every day AND then look for ways that you can improve how your Action Plan can be adapted or modified to improve your business results and outcomes. Using the football analogy from earlier, the coach and his key staff are always looking at the game, reviewing and refining the Action Plan, during and after the game, that will achieve a winning result for the team. Apply the same principles in your business …
Every business has experienced a product, employee, or service failure. It comes with the territory! One of the best ways to feed your company culture and to grow, is to openly address your failures and be open to discussion and feedback from your team.
Failure can lead to more failure unless you are willing to learn to look at each failure and use it to your advantage to help propel your company forward. It is important that in the Game of Business that you do not rest on your laurels – if you are not constantly looking for improvements, your competition will eventually overtake you and leave you behind.
Companies that have gone from good to amazing will have adopted the Japanese Principle of Kaizen – in todays language - Continuous Improvement. Be comfortable that Change is Good … and supporting Risk Taking can propel your company forward through a uniqueness that sets you apart from your competition.
Team members who are engaged put energy and excitement into the work that they create. If you want to build a strong company culture and maintain or hire a team who is loyal to their work, you must first engage with all of them.
Culture is a collective concept and is produced by groups of people. What your company creates together and how it performs together is at the heart of that culture, and not merely in the hands of the leaders. The most successful companies understand the importance of input from all of their employees, and it is through all the steps we have mentioned that you engage with:
If your employees don’t understand the what and why they come to work everyday, through the Business Vision, Common Goals, Rules of the Game and their role in the Action Plan, then they will be very limited in how they can contribute to the overall success in winning the Game of Business.
When you engage with your team members and show them that you value them, then the majority are going to want to be a part of your company’s journey and future. As a Strong Leader in your business, thinking of the future is in taking a big picture look at the company. You also want to look at more than numbers and performance, as an employee’s role in your success or failure, is one of the most important things to consider when trying to predict what the future holds.
Make your employees a part of that growth! If there are roles to fill or projects that need a leader, look within your organisation first to find employees with the skills and ambition to fill roles. Play to their strengths and nurture your team on the individual level. Notice the work they are doing, use them as a positive example, and show them they are valued.
After all, a high-performance culture is sustained by employees that feel valued, noticed, and nurtured! A quote from Richard Branson really reflects this point: “Customers do not come first. Employees must come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the customers.”
If you have any further questions, please email me at philbadura@actioncoach.com … I am here to Help …!