10.12.22
October Leadership Goals: No “Tricks,” Just “Treats,” for Your Team
by: BISA Staff
With Halloween approaching and October quickly flying by, it’s a great time to reflect on the hard work your team is putting in this season and lead by example. Here are a few leadership tips for “treating” your employees and how to avoid “tricks” that might put your team and organization at risk.
“Treating” Your Employees
Recognize Team Members
It is no secret that employee recognition is one of the greatest ways to highlight someone’s efforts in a workplace setting. In an article by Cultureamp, there are several great ways to showcase an individual’s hard work that don’t just come from the words “thank you.”
Positive Feedback
Employees always love to receive positive recognition when it comes to their work. Not only does this motivate them to continue to create great quality output, but it also shows them that you’re paying attention to their work — big or small.
Value-Based Rewards
We know gifts aren’t everything, but the meaning behind them is what tells the story. Determine a reward that has significance to your employee, and it will be a guide in motivating them towards even greater work.
Kudos at Meetings
Vocal recognition is a great way to showcase an employee’s hard efforts in the workplace. Giving them a simple “kudos” or “congratulations” during a meeting will give them a major boost of confidence, knowing that the work they’re putting in is well worth it and powerfully meaningful.
Wellness Day
The spotlight on employee wellness has never been brighter, and a great way to address this concept is to bring self-care activities into the office — making for a delightful and surprise relaxation day at the office.You’ll be surprised with the outcome and excitement of your team!
Keep Your Team Engaged
Employee engagement is a major way to ensure your team has the continuous motivation to pursue their work. Engagedly provides a high-level explanation of the best ways to ensure your team has fluent engagement while working.
Set Challenging but Realistic Goals
A study by Gartner found that aligning employee goals and expectations with organizational objectives has a significant impact on their performance: a 22% increase in employee performance. With 2023 arriving soon, there’s no better time than the present to start talking about next year’s performance objectives.
Keep Lines of Communication Open
There are many benefits to keeping your communication open to your teams. This builds a great level of trust with all parties involved, and creates a greater opportunity for productive conversation inside the workplace. Keeping humility and honesty front and center when talking about both the positives and negatives of a situation will help keep your team engaged.
Trust Your Employees
Be sure to communicate honestly and openly with your team and set the expectation in return. Doing so will result in all parties reflecting on successes and mistakes, and looking at them as an opportunity for them to learn and grow in the workplace.
Share the “treat” you find most effective in building up teams and morale on BISA’s LinkedIn page!
Avoiding "Tricks" With Your Team
Embrace the Power of Communication, Clarity and Consistency
As listed in an article by Chron, managers and leaders have a major role in defining what it is that they are to expect from their team.
Define Expectations
As a business leader, defining your expectations to your team from the very beginning will minimize the mistakes and avoid confusion from team members. It is important for managers to note that they cannot enforce accountability if their team members are in a lull period and confused on their tasks at hand.
Be Consistent and Ensure Adherence
The first step to making sure you’re consistent in promoting expectations is by doing them yourself. Selectively choosing which policies to follow and which to graze upon is the difference between adherence and loose rules.
Set an Example and Lead From the Top
Setting an example as a leader is the most important way to encourage a team to follow suit. Adopting set policies and expectations will help that adoption trickle down to all members of the team. This is only successful if you hold yourself to the same standards you expect of others.
Define Roles and Responsibilities
The first step to creating a successful team is to clearly define the roles and responsibilities as a leader, as stated in an article by LinkedIn.
Identify Roles
The initial step is to identify roles that need to be filled and how each role will provide benefit to the team. This establishes a need for specific attributes of an individual that is fit to take on the position at hand.
Identify Tasks
The second step is determining what tasks need to be completed at a high-level, then gradually filling in gaps to roles where needed with the mindset of employees being tasked with what “only they” can do. This gives all parties a clear-cut definition of what is expected to avoid confusion.
Assign
The last step is to assign the roles and delegate the responsibilities. In order to ensure the team is in a proper position to fill these gaps, you must find the proper candidate for each role so that it meets the needs that you had defined and then communicate those roles in a clear, concise manner. Communication here is not one and done — follow up on an ongoing basis to ensure a mutual understanding throughout the year.