Are you a leader?
Do you want to help make more leaders?
My simple guide to help you get the best from your team.
We’ve all been there…
We feel like we’re not doing our best.
Unable to articulate ourselves and deliver our maximum value; it’s a combination of our skills, our ideas and our passion not firing at the same time.
Think of the engine in a car. If one of the pistons is out of sync, then the engine isn’t working to it’s full potential.
Potential is a beautiful thing, everyone has potential.
There are many factors that might lead to someone feeling insufficient, unable to carry out their day to day tasks
Workplace culture is a complicated beast, one that takes many things and moulds them together.
A healthy culture is just that; it encapsulates all that matters about your team, your organisation and it means that if everyone is on the same page, you’ll see great people do great things.
Here’s my simple guide to getting the best from people by respecting, trusting and leading people to deliver better things.
Trust
Trust is earned, not given. To gain one’s trust, you must first be open and trust the person you are working with.
Want to get the best out of someone?
Instil a culture of trust.
Listen to people, be honest with them and give constructive feedback where necessary.
One of the simplest things that so many get wrong is appearing to trust someone, only to go behind their back or later question their ability. It’s a damaging thing to someone’s personal development.
Respect
When someone trusts you, it’s likely they will respect you too.
Respect is earned, not given. If you’re expecting someone to respect you just because of your job title, then you’re going about things in the wrong way.
The mutual respect between two people, a team and a wider organisation develops and carries a healthy culture in the workplace.
Respect the decisions that people have made, and carry those with them. Help them out and show that you care by offering help if necessary.
Respect drives towards a collective goal, where a team is headed, and why they are headed that way.
Passion
A visible amount of passion can lead to bringing out the best in others.
If you’re a leader, then show your own drive, show people some passion for the work they are doing. Encourage people to be passionate about their own work.
This can be as simple as giving them a chance to talk to the rest of the team about what they are doing or enable them to go and speak to other businesses about the same thing. Meetups, conferences, talks and even video gives people a platform to do this.
Passionate people are often happy people — and, passionate people do amazing things. Time and time again.
Responsibility
You’ve asked someone to do something…
…so let them do it!
Showing respect for this responsibility will mean that person can carry out their job and deliver against what’s been asked of them.
Showing a lack of respect towards someone’s responsibility breaks the foundations of trust.
Process
If you have a process, then try to stick to it.
A constant chop and change of your mind doesn’t let people flourish.
Blocking people from doing the work they’ve been asked to, doesn’t let people flourish.
Respect the process and people will respect you.
Trust in the process and people will trust it too.
Encouragement
Encouragement is one of those difficult things to give.
If you’re trying to get the best from someone, then show positive encouragement, get that person to open up and talk to you about what they are doing.
You may not be able to help them directly with the task at hand, but you can always show encouragement if they’re doing something right.
If they’re doing something right, then it’s likely they can do something good and we all know that something good has the possibility of being something great!
Encouragement helps people to bring out the best in someone.
Transparency
I’m not a huge fan of the word transparency, I feel it’s slightly overused.
However, transparency can mean many things; being open, being honest, being truthful and being these things all of the time.
If you hide things from the people you work with then you’re creating unnecessary ‘politics’ that can be harmful to the workplace.
Being open about how you feel about someone’s work or their actions is far better than hiding it.
Being honest about your feelings towards something show a humbleness that is often very rare in the workplace.
Being transparent leads to a healthier, more respectful workplace.
Go forth and multiply!
If you like to think of yourself as a leader, then try and make more leaders.
A leader is not just the Founder, the CEO or a Manager — anyone can be a leader
The more leaders you have, the stronger, more adaptable workplace you have.
Think about it.
Do you want every pressure, every decision, every problem to be on your shoulders?
Do you want to share responsibility, share decisions, share problem solving with others?
A collective effort of a team is what delivers a better culture, a better experience, a better product.
I know which one I’d go for.
Originally written and published on Medium.
I’m a UX Consultant in London – get in touch about your next big idea.