A good leader takes time to get to know their team and understands the strengths and weaknesses of each member.
Great managers set clear and realistic goals for their team and provide the resources necessary to achieve them.
A good leader also provides feedback and encouragement to help their team achieve their full potential.
In this blog post, we will give a brief overview of these three areas and some strategies to grow in each.
Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your team
While there are many tools out there to help you understand the strengths of your team, I have found the most effective to be Clifton Strengths.
The assessment is cheap, relatively easy to understand, based on a massive amount of research, and leads to some massive breakthrough insights in the makeup of your team.
In leading larger 10+ person teams, this kind of insight is absolutely invaluable. Being able to see how each of your employees’ strengths and weaknesses play into their overall performance allows you to develop custom professional development plans for each individual.
This allows you to create a supportive work environment where everyone has a sense of belonging and purpose, and where everyone feels empowered to make their own independent decisions. This leads to higher employee morale and improved team effectiveness.
Beyond these generalities, Clifton Strengths can give you insights into the unique gifts that each team member brings to the table. You can thus prevent burnout or people being utilized in the wrong role.
CliftonStrengths has been shown to be a valid and reliable assessment used to identify an individual’s inborn talents and to allow them to discover their strengths as they invest in them.
Examining talent alongside investment can help individuals achieve personal and professional growth, as well as lead to an improved quality of life. The research behind CliftonStrengths is evidence-based and consistently provides positive outcomes.
You don’t have to use Clifton Strengths, but you need to do something to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team.
Some other methods for getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of you team include:
- Conducting quality one-on-one check-ins with direct reports
- Having team members take self-assessments, like DiSC profiles
- Surveying team members on their current challenges, goals, and aspirations
- Utilizing a 360-degree feedback process to provide anonymous feedback from peers and mentors
- Observing team dynamics as they interact
- Conducting informal and formal surveys
- Practicing team building activities to see the natural roles that people take
- Taking a personality or aptitude tests:Personality Tests: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), 16 Personality Factors (16PF), Big Five Personality Model, Hogan Development SurveyAptitude Tests: Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, The Occupational Personality Questionnaire
- Encouraging team members to set goals and share feedback, showing who is more apt at problem solving or visionary leadership
- Observing team members in action to see how their strengths actually work in practice
Knowing your team’s strengths and weaknesses allows you to better match task assignments to team members which leads to better outcomes and improved team performance.
Set goals to stretch your team
SMART goals can help a team by adding structure and focus to its work. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-Based.
These properties ensure that the team has clear objectives to work towards, and that progress can be assessed and measured along the way.
Goals shouldn’t be a “set it and forget it” approach. Leaders need to refresh and reset goals every year.
SMART goals are Specific, meaning that each goal has a clear and unambiguous objective.
They are Measurable, so that the team can track their progress towards their goals and see whether or not they are being achieved.
SMART goals are Actionable; meaning the team has a clear path toward accomplishing them.
They are finally Time-Based, ensuring that there is a definitive deadline for each goal to be accomplished by.
For example, if you set a SMART goal for your team to learn a particular skill within a certain amount of time, the team can track their progress through the process and measure their performance in achieving the goal.
One example that would help your team grow professionally might be, “Every team member will lead at least one meeting per month for the next quarter.”
Growth can easily stagnate without clear lanes for improvement.
If the goals are too easy, members might become disengaged. If goals are too difficult, it could set your team up for failure.
Make sure your goals are achievable yet also push your team to use their skills and innovate.
One way to do this is to set goals that ask the team to stretch beyond their current capabilities, such as finding new approaches to solve a problem or making a presentation in a new format.
It is important to ensure that all team members are included in the goal setting process, and to make sure that everyone understands the objectives that have been set.
Having regular check-ins and team meetings to review progress towards goals will help keep the team focused and motivated, and help ensure that the goals are met.
Once they’re met — rinse and repeat!
Providing feedback (both positive and negative)
In order for your team to grow, you need to create a rhythm of constant feedback and coaching.
Gallup has found that, “70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager. This means managers affect virtually every part of a team’s success.”
This is why Gallup and others have promoted the idea of shifting from “boss” to “coach.”
That means you need to be fully invested in your people that you’re leading, guiding them along the way and not just criticizing or acting in an authoritarian manner.
When providing feedback, it should be clear, direct, and actionable while never criticizing the person.
By cultivating self-awareness, appreciating each person’s strengths, and understanding what behaviors are coachable, managers can transition from boss to coach and build a successful team.
You need to focus on having regular feedback touch points with your direct reports.
These consistent, intentional conversations allow for you to give specific encouragement – which is always more effective than generalized, seemingly meaningless praise – while also identifying areas of growth.
You need to make this a focus year-round, not just during annual or quarterly reviews. If you put these conversations off until those big meetings, you’ll end up dumping a lot of negative feedback at once, instead of offering course correction along the way.
In the future, we will write a post specifically about giving specific positive feedback and encouragement, but until then just know that it is far more impactful than general statements like, “Hey, good job.”
Generic praise doesn’t really accomplish anything. It only leaves the direct report feeling like you don’t really care about them or their work.
Specific praise, like, “The way you interacted with our client in that last meeting was fantastic. You did a great job of listening to her needs and tailoring our offering to their context” is much more meaningful. It also actually helps steer your direct reports in the right direction.
However, we often shrink back from negative feedback.
Yet, it is just as important! Some examples of negative feedback that could be given in a 1-on-1 meeting might be:
- “I noticed that you were not following the agreed upon deadline for completing your tasks. This has caused a delay in the team’s progress which has impacted our ability to deliver on time.”
- “I noticed that you were not meeting our standards of quality in your work. I would like to give you some constructive criticism about how you can improve in this area.”
These examples of negative feedback focus on the work itself, rather than the person performing the work. This avoids what is called the “fundamental attribution error.”
Don’t make it about the person, make it about the work they are producing.
If you have a direct report struggling in these kinds of areas, you might suggest a few concrete areas of growth.
For example, you might suggest:
- Creating a personal to-do list or calendar in order to stay organized and to ensure that deadlines are met
- Looking for ways to improve existing work, such as by finding additional resources or talking to people who have worked on similar projects before
- Asking for additional training or feedback in order to improve their skills or understanding of important concepts
- Working with a mentor or coach to create a tailored improvement plan that takes their specific circumstances and goals into account
If working with a professional leadership coach might be a good fit for you or members of your team, please reach out to us at Leadership Coaching Network to book your initial consultation. We can help you and your team grow and begin to make a larger impact.
Conclusion
As a manager or leader, you need to have a focus on constant growth for your team. You can begin by focus on deeply learning the strengths and weaknesses of every individual.
Also recognize that setting goals for yourself and for your team is key to ensuring that everyone is constantly growing and developing.
To make sure that these goals are met, create measurable objectives and hold regular check-ins
Additionally, provide consistent, meaningful feedback in order to help everyone progress and succeed.
By taking the time to invest in individual team members, you can foster a culture of growth that leads to greater engagement and employee retention. You might even attract new top talent to your organization in the process.