How to inspire and lead a Team

Working together is often most successful when the team is lead by an inspirational leader.  But what makes a successful leader?  Business Optimizer takes a look at how to inspire and lead your team to greater success in 2020.

Great leaders inspire and motivate their people.  We look at six fundamentals to creating an environment where your team can deliver to their full potential.

Individual empowerment

Everyone has their own set of superpowers.  Inspirational leaders understand this and give the individual members of the team the space to demonstrate their own strengths.  Good leaders spend time getting to know each team member’s strengths and weaknesses and allocate work in a way that enables each team member to shine.

Invest in learning

Investing in ongoing lifetime learning for your team is a major part of individual empowerment.  Not only do employees feel more motivated and valued when you invest in developing their skills and personal worth, you know your team has the tools they need to do their job.

Give your team ownership

Ownership is different from accountability; it’s a better fit within a culture of employee empowerment.  When employees are empowered to be part of the process of goal setting and defining how accountability actually works, they have a real stake in the successful achievement of those goals.

Make it safe to fail

When you give your team autonomy and they take ownership, you also need to remove the fear of failure.  Develop a culture of learning and sharing where people feel safe to admit and learn from their mistakes and develop a desire to look for opportunities to do things in new and better ways.

The power of a common purpose

We hear a lot about millennials and Generation Z workers being motivated by more than profit, but everyone benefits from a shared sense of social purpose.  The knowledge that time spent working is also contributing to the wider community and helping to make the world a better place has been shown to impact performance, productivity and recruitment and retention.

Trust

Trust works both ways; not only does a good leader empower and trust their team, but the team must also trust the leader to deliver on their promises and responsibilities.  Authenticity and delivering as promised is a vital part of effective leadership.