It’s a situation you see commonly in sport: A team dominated by elite performers comes up against a team of lesser-knowns, but on the day the underdogs smash the elite performers out of the park. 

A great leader can lead an average team to victory, even against superior competition, because they know how to inspire the very best from their players, even in impossible situations. It’s the same for business; knowing how to build a team that’s strong and loyal is essential for your success.

To achieve the pinnacle of leadership, a true leader knows they have to do the work to bring the team with them. A team that’s either strong or efficient is not enough: You need both. You can’t expect both to naturally be there during recruitment, it’s up to you to hire staff with potential and the desire to learn and create an environment where strength and efficiency can thrive.

Many leaders get confused between leadership and authority of power, but your way or the highway isn’t going to inspire your workers to stay with you, in fact, it will inspire them to find the door pretty fast, costing you time and money in recruitment and training. You need to evaluate how you lead and figure out where you can be a better leader. Make sure that your leadership style is accepted by the team and helps them feel comfortable. 

Cultivating these relationships, understanding your staff and ensuring their comfort can help you provide a happy workspace they are invested in emotionally, giving you years of loyalty and dedicated work. 

Why being an inspiring leader helps keep a team together

Look to inspire a culture of growth and camaraderie through team building—and not just through those casual Fridays or treating your team to drinks, but daily interactions. Doing this encourages your team, creates a sense of trust and belonging and allows them to build bonds and care about the business, its values and goals and how crucial their continued presence will be.

Lead by example and your staff will naturally mirror you. If you are working cooperatively, with passion and enthusiasm, so will they.

While it might be easy to wield, fear is never a sustainable driving force. Teams are enlivened by environments where they don’t feel under constant pressure. If an employee feels permanently on the edge of criticism, they’re not going to feel valued by the business, they may want to resign or jump ship to a company with better team culture and less stress.  

To make sure everyone’s comfortable, you can be an inspiring leader, rather than just another boss. Show genuine concern for your staff and focus on team-building efforts which will yield better results compared to intimidating your employees, micromanaging and focusing only on deliverables. 

Instead of micromanaging, give the floor to your team. Be more social and join your staff flocking to the water cooler for mid-break banter where you can unwind. Being more socially generous with your time and listening to your employees instead of waiting to rebut their points will make all the difference. 

8 ways to create an effective team that’s built to last

In order to put together a team that stays with you and excels, follow these eight easy steps to build and shape a team of absolute champions.

1. Know how you lead 

There are a lot of leadership styles, each with pros and cons. Are you more directive, collaborative, influential, social, factual, conservative or entrepreneurial?

Understanding your natural leadership style allows you to adapt to align with your team more effectively by merging the benefits across different styles to be more approachable, direct or understanding of others. 

Also, look at your communication style preferences. Do you prefer to engage directly in person and group meetings, or indirectly through texts, emails and messages?

Make sure you get 360-degree feedback from others you work with. It can be difficult to stay objective when assessing yourself so insights from others can be surprising. If you get stuck you might like to hire a business coach who can give you feedback on your leadership strengths and weaknesses as well as strategies for improvement. 

2. Establish trust and understand each of your team members

Learning about what makes your staff tick, their strengths and weaknesses, goals and motivations can help you figure out what tasks to assign them, what kind of assignments they’ll execute well and where and how they can improve. You don’t need to know their entire life story, but it helps to get to know them to a degree.

Consider knowing your staff’s individual:

• Goals
• Motivations for success
• Workplace strengths and weaknesses
• Preferred communication style and work personality 

Rather than gaining these answers through direct questions, spend time getting to know your team each day and make gentle observations. 

As you get to know your team and build their trust, the benefits will keep on giving. They’ll be less apprehensive about approaching you for any concerns they have, so you can give advice and suggestions without micromanaging. Collaboration will also help them become more open to feedback and will be willing to take changes onboard knowing you have their best interest at heart.

Make sure you follow through on your open-door policy. Don’t say they can come to you but are unapproachable when they do. Take the initiative to talk to them, ask them how they are and where they’re going for their next vacation. They’ll appreciate you going the extra mile and feel like a valued part of the big picture. 

3. Develop your team vision, purpose, values and goals

Sharing your business mission, vision, purpose, values and goals is critical because this is what outlines what you and your team are aiming for. Great communication around these ensures everyone is motivated in the same direction, putting real energy behind getting your goal outcomes met. 

As well as helping with deliverables, there are intrinsic goals to be discussed as well. These are critical for building culture and sharing information as well as knowing performance expectations and creating trust within the team. When it comes to team culture, rules will need to be in place to establish what behaviours are acceptable and non-acceptable. 

4. Have clearly defined functional roles and responsibilities

Make sure everyone knows their place in the team and what roles and tasks are required of them. Although this sounds obvious, it’s very common for team members to accidentally have overlapping roles which cause confusion and even anxiety about where they stand and what they are responsible for. 

Mapping out responsibilities is also a great time for teams to review their processes and develop better strategies and systems.

5. Promote trust and collaboration within your team

Collaboration is far more effective than micromanaging. It encourages independence and confidence in individuals and also encourages them to ask for help within the team and upper management for better problem-solving skills and bigger personal and team growth.

Effective delegation starts with knowing each individual’s strengths and allocating work tasks to suit. Listen to your team members and their ideas and avoid micromanaging, instead let them immerse themselves in overseeing their part of the project and trust they will come to you if they need anything. Take note of how team members work together so you can understand their dynamic and integrate yourself into it. Cooperation and mutual respect is something that you can promote by living it yourself.

6. Provide ongoing feedback and encourage improvement

Giving effective feedback is an important key to raising the performance level of your staff. Making mistakes and developing improvements is all part of skill development and growth. How that feedback is delivered makes every bit of difference to how it is received. 

Understand how each of your team members likes to receive feedback and tailor your suggestions accordingly. It helps to provide positive feedback first, then any areas for improvements and finish with another positive.

Make sure the feedback (positive and negative) is linked to actual outcomes or behaviour so related to their work, not to them personally, which also allows a measurable area of improvement. If you don’t see results and improvements, it might be time to find a different way to encourage them.

7. Acknowledge and reward your staff for excellent work

Praising your staff for a job well done is just as important as highlighting improvements. 

Being commended feels good and can boost a staff member’s confidence and morale and entice them to repeat the behaviour. Acknowledgement builds loyalty with your team and shows you care about their efforts. 

8. Celebrate team wins 

Everyone likes to be a part of a successful team and is great for team building and culture. Celebrations bond the team together and are a great way to have fun in your business. 

Don’t make mundanity and the idea that, “it’s all just part of the job” the norm, being able to achieve a goal together is big in itself. Being able to celebrate a team win helps the staff bond, deepen culture and build the team. 

Team sustainability comes from healthy working relationships with managers and co-workers. When it comes to building a strong team, don’t stop at hiring key players. It’s up to you to create an environment that is collaborative, encouraging and rewarding so your staff want to keep working and growing with you.

A leader who cares about their team, inspires by leading through example and sets the tone by being a part of the culture, helps build their team to become more efficient, independent and productive. Remember it’s not just about team outings and games played at retreats, it’s about fostering a good environment and strengthening bonds with your employees.

When your staff have reasons to love clocking in every day you will see them flourish and rise to any challenge that your business may face in the future. 

Business Cut Through can show you how to keep your employees happy and loyal to your business, to learn how, give us a call.