Marcia's Leadership Q and As: What Teams Need

Q. How can we help our teams be more stable and successful?

A. From your Board of Directors to your customer-facing teams, from work to home to your community, it starts with your natural leadership, wherever you are in life. How can you and how do you contribute toward your aim? Define what you want to accomplish together. 

Whatever is happening in your work and with your team, the more you decide what you want to achieve, unite, and communicate, the more likely you will achieve progress and success. Define what success is. Define your barriers to success and make your plan to tackle and remove them together. If you need help or resources, ask for them or get creative and find them. 

Clarify Your Purpose. Clarity during chaotic times is a key role for team leaders. Having a purpose, priorities and ways to ensure progress is being made will help teams thrive. Communicating and collaborating are going to be significant actions that you commit to. Don’t let fear impact you. 

Learn and Adapt. The more a team works together, learns about the work and improvements they can make, the more adaptable they become. Experimenting and questioning leads to creativity and new pivots. Instead of having a rigid plan, have a flexible plan. Learn from new ideas and mistakes (steps in the process) and do not blame each other for trying new ways to accomplish the work. 

Communicate. Encourage people to speak up, questions assumptions, share, listen well, and navigating in new directions. When people contribute, appreciate their contribution. A simple thank you goes a long way. 

Use Data. Look at data over time to make informed decisions in context. Look at processes, and rapidly make improvements. 

Train People to Deliver Quality. Committing to delivering quality to the customers and supporting each other helps make teams resilient. They can be proud of their work and cohesive, no matter what challenges they face.