Challenge 1: Being Clear About What You Want To Achieve

A lot of people talk about mission statements and the importance of having a clear vision. In reality getting crystal clear about what you want to achieve is really tough and yet without clarity it is difficult to brief others.

Challenge 2: Getting The Buy-In Of People

Unless you have followers you are not a leader and not leading a team. Winning hearts and minds is tough, especially when proposing something different. Being able to step into others shoes is a major benefit.

Challenge 3: Responding To Different Agendas

Different people want different things from their work, their employer and boss. Responding to these different demands and agendas is tough.

Challenge 4: Handling Resistance

Resistance will come up whatever you try to do. It never ceases to amaze me the lengths people will go to in order to hold on to things, even those things that they don’t like when they face uncertainty.

Challenge 5: Keeping People Engaged

Many studies have identified that as few as 20% of people are actively engaged in the organisational agenda. Disengagement hurts organisations in terms of productivity, customer satisfaction and profits so don’t underestimate the importance of keeping people engaged.

Challenge 6: Handling Negativity

Some people are said to be glass half full people while others are glass half empty. In those situations where the glass half full dominate they can drag down even the most optimistic team members.

Challenge 7: Impatience

We all to some extent want quick results and the reality is that anything significant takes time to achieve.

Challenge 8: Remaining Positive Personally

You are a human being not a robot. In the face of a tidal wave of despondency it can be really tough to stay positive.

Challenge 9: Getting The Balance Right

There is a fine line between pushing people to hard and being a soft touch and it is tough to get it right.

Challenge 10: The High Jump Factor

When you achieve anything just like in the high jump the bar is raised to another level. As a consequence you are under constant pressure to continually raise the game of your team and yourself.

The Bottom Line: Leading a team can look really easy from the outside looking in. The reality is often very different.

Duncan Brodie helps professional people to become highly effective leaders. You can sign up for his free audio e-course here

So I was thinking about my take on leadership and what I have learned and discovered personally through my own experiences and those of my clients. Here is my top 25 and I would love you to share your experiences too.

1. It is not always the smartest people who progress to the more senior roles. The reason being is that your success at a more senior level is as much about you as an individual as it is your knowledge.
2. Knowledge is just one dimension in being a successful leader. Interpersonal, or what are sometimes oddly referred to as ‘softer skills’, really count.
3. If you cannot get along with people it is always going to be a struggle. The idea that you can do it all by yourself is a complete myth.
4. You have to take action. Ideas are great and creativity is marvellous but it is action that translates ideas into results.
5. Good leaders make plenty of mistakes. No-one is perfect and we all make mistakes. The key is to learn from them.
6. Breakthroughs do not happen without balanced risk taking. Sometimes we can fall into the trap of thinking that taking risks is a bad thing. On the other hand, balanced risk taking is essential if you are ever going to make any kind of breakthrough.
7. Leadership success is a marathon not a sprint. Forget the idea that you become an overnight success. It takes time, effort and commitment.
8. Anyone can find fault. At the same time not everyone can find solutions or spot the opportunities.
9. Simple things can often yield the biggest impact. It is easy to get obsessed with the next big thing but often it is the small changes that make the difference.
10. Being a leader is a longer term project, not task and finish.
11. A great team is essential, otherwise you are always going to shoot below your potential.
12. Leaders need a support network as being at the top can be a lonely existence.
13. Taking responsibility is essential rather being optional.
14. Look for the good in everyone as no one turns up intending to do a mediocre or poor job.
15. There will always be difficult challenges and it is how you respond that matters.
16. Sacrifices are part and parcel of your success in your career. You need to be willing to make the sacrifices.
17. Time is your ultimate limiting factor so you need to invest it wisely.
18. Praise people for what they contribute as it is a powerful motivator.
19. We never stop learning. There are always going to be new challenges, obstacles and barriers to address.
20. See challenges not as problem but an opportunity to learn and grow.
21. Communication skills are important, especially listening skills. The best leaders in my experience are exceptional listeners.
22. Play to your personal strengths as much as you can rather than trying to master what you are no good or not so good at.
23. Don’t let your personal agenda become more important than results and people.
24. People are your real assets even if they are shown as an expense in the profit and loss account.
25. Persistence through good and not so good times really counts. Anyone can thrive in the good times.

So what else would you add to the list?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements Ltd helps professional people become great leaders . Sign up for his free 6 part audio e-course .

So what were the real learning points?

People need to listen to each other rather than talk over each other all of the time.  Yet in truth I bet some of this is happening every day in organisations across the globe.

You need to speak up if you don’t agree with something and explain your reasons.  Many of the people said that they thought it would not work but they did not give specifics on why not.

Use the resources at your disposal.  Some team members were shipped off the Brighton to do research yet they did not appear to seek any feedback on the viability or otherwise of the book reader from what we saw on camera.

Don’t stand in the wings and criticise later.  The book stand seemed to become the product choice almost by default, perhaps in the absence of other unique ideas.  Team members were critical of the choice even when they had not offered any credible alternatives.

It takes courage to lead a team.  Did the project manager get everything right, well no.  At the same time she kept focus on the task despite the mayhem.

Decisions need to be taken.  Delaying taking decisions just shortens the time for implementation.  We always need to remember diminishing returns and the fact that the extra thinking time often makes little difference to the final solution.

I wondered what learning points you would add if you watched this episode?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to realise their professional potential by helping them to become highly effective leaders and managers.  To sign up for his free audio e-course click here.

So what are my best secrets of leading a team?

Secret 1: Aim to be consistent
• Don’t be the leader who is the split personality. Have a style and try to stick to it.

Secret 2: Take an interest in others

• Leaders need followers. The best way to build followers is to be interested in their success.

Secret 3: Be clear on expectations

• Despite what you think, people prefer clarity on what is expected of them to vagueness.

Secret 4: Provide support

• Teams have ups and downs. Support them through the good and not so good times.

Secret 5: Determine people’s motivators

• If you don’t know what makes people tick, how can you ever expect to motivate them?

Secret 6: Give feedback routinely

• People thrive on feedback. Make a point of giving feedback routinely.

Secret 7: Paint a picture

• The clearer the picture you can paint of where you want to get to, the better.

Secret 8: Build trust

• As someone said to me recently, “No trust equals no team”.

Secret 9: Keep it all in perspective

• Sometimes, especially when the going gets tough, it is easy to lose sight of the relative importance of things. Learn to keep things in perspective.

I wonder what secrets you would add?

So do you really have what it takes to lead? Check out the following 10 questions to find out.

1. I am able to create a long term vision.
2. I am able to get others to buy in to my vision.
3. I can set specific objectives and milestones to achieve the vision.
4. I empower people to deliver and then get out of the way.
5. When I communicate, I listen as much as I speak.
6. I treat people well and help them to achieve.
7. I bring out the best in others.
8. I put results first, ahead of how I am seen or perceived by others.
9. I have the personal resilience to bounce back from setbacks.
10. I focus on what I do best.

I you can say “yes” to most of the above, you have the foundations for success as a leader in my view.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Reality 2:

Reality 3:

Reality 4:

Reality 5:

What other suggestions would you add to the list of realities?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

What else would you add?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Quality 1: An effective listener

One of the most important and yet most challenging things for team leaders is effectively listening to others. It can be hugely tempting to try and rely on your position power to make things happen and while this might get some results in the short term it is unlikely to work in the long term. Make listening more effectively and actively a priority if you want to make an immediate improvement in your team leadership competency.

Quality 2: Treating everyone fairly

Just as in life, there will be some people that you connect with more than others. This in itself is not a problem as such unless it starts to compromise how you treat others. Treat everyone fairly and you will gain the respect and support of those that you lead in most cases.

Quality 3: Providing clear direction

As the leader of the team you need to provide direction to others. This includes giving a clear message of the overall direction of the team or function as well as clearly setting the expectations of the team of people that you lead. If you fail to do this, chances are that the results that you deliver will be less than they could potentially be.

Quality 4: Making decisions

You might not always have 100% support for every decision that you make but people will value the fact that you take decisions. Being led by someone who procrastinates over every decision is a huge de-motivator and hugely frustrating for those that you lead.

Quality 5: A genuine interest in others

If you don’t show any interest in helping others to achieve results and success in their careers why should they be interested in helping you get results? Team leaders who make the time to take a genuine interest in helping others achieve results will get benefits well in excess of the investment of time and energy that that they make.

Bottom Line – Team leadership is challenging and rewarding. Doing some simple things exceptionally can make a huge difference to the results and success that you achieve.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professionals and organisations to achieve better results through improved team working.  Click here for my free audio masterclass Leading and Managing Highly Productive and Highly Positive Teams

Reality 1: Your success depends on having the right team

While easy to say in practice it is much more difficult to achieve.  You often inherit people or find it difficult to move on those who are not a good fit.  You also need to be adept at identifying the types of people and the qualities you need to create great results.

Reality 2: Conflict is part and parcel of a team

While you hope to achieve camaraderie and get everyone working together the truth is conflict will always be part and parcel of a team.  As the leader the challenge is to use conflict productively rather than allowing it to be destructive.

Reality 3: You need to get all views aired

The value of a team is the diversity of opinions, ideas, perspectives and ways of looking at things.  Some will readily offer their thoughts and views while others need to be encouraged to speak up.  As the leader you need to make sure that an equal opportunity to speak is given to everyone.

Reality 4: Your status does not guarantee success

There may have been a time in the past where leaders achieved success based on position power.  These days such a style of leadership rarely works.  People need to respect you and feel that you respect them if they are going to support you.

Reality 5: You set the tone for the team and the results it achieves

As the leader the tone you set or even your attitude goes a long way towards the results that a team achieves.  If you have a general attitude of finding a way to achieve something you are much more likely to deliver more than someone who focuses on the obstacles.

Bottom Line – Leading a team is tough.  So what do you need to focus on to achieve more success as a leader?

Tip 1: Set clear goals or outcomes

If your team or teams are to achieve anything they need to have absolute clarity on what you expect them to deliver in terms of goals or outcomes.  While in theory this might seem simple, too often leaders fall into the trap of setting very vague or ambiguous goals.  To overcome this start by getting clear about what you want to be different 1, 3 or even 5 years from now and then narrow it down to a very clear purpose.

Tip 2: Facilitate more and direct less

As the leader of the team, think of yourself as the conductor of the orchestra rather than the person playing an instrument. Your role is to bring out the best from everyone in the team so that you get optimal performance and results.

Tip 3: Learn to listen

We were all given two ears and one mouth.  Yet often you would think that it was the other way round.  Don’t fall into the trap as the leader of the team of spending all of your time talking and little or none getting the contributions of others.

Tip 4: Reward team rather than individual performance

If someone is going to be rewarded just for what they do individually, what incentive is there to contribute to team performance?  Aim to create reward structures that mean that if the team wins, everyone wins rather than being narrowly focused on individuals.

Tip 5: Be consistent

All leaders have their own style which is to be expected.  At the same time it is important as a team member to have some sort of consistency in leadership style.  There is nothing worse in having to guess what leader has turned up on a particular day so try to be as consistent as possible.

Tip 6: Be a role model

As the team leader you set the tone for the rest of the team.  How you behave, how you interact, how you deal with difficulties and conflict will all impact on the team.  Decide on the tone you want to set then model that for others.

Tip 7: Provide opportunity

One of the big attractions of being on a team is that you often get the chance to work with different people or to take on new challenges.  Use this as an opportunity to grow and develop people.

Tip 8: Take responsibility and praise others

When things don’t go according to plan, take responsibility and don’t seek to apportion blame.  When things go well don’t grab the glory and make appoint of praising others.

Bottom Line – Leading a team looks easy yet in truth it is hugely challenging.  So what do you need to be doing to create more success as a team leader?