How to Excite Your Team to Achieve Greatness

Exciting your team can bring huge rewards, but it takes subtlety, persistence and smart assessment to really pull it off.

Have you ever taken part in one of those ‘team building’ exercises involving Kumbaya songs and choosing the fruit, dog or piece of furniture that most resembles you?

Even worse, the totally inappropriate ‘therapy groups’ or bonding sessions involving extreme sports, splatter guns and excess alcohol?

If so, this blog should be music to your ears.

Genuine team development is a strategic, long-term process which blends individuals with different and complementary talents into a high-functioning unit which is constantly evolving.

The best teams are dynamic, with members always seeking to understand each other more fully, contribute more effectively and function in a more productive way – both individually and as part of the team.

The process of building and developing a high performing team never happens by accident.

And neither does excitement.

Smart managers know that teams need the right guidance, motivation and behavioural assessment to fire them up and get them moving to the next level.

Authentic leadership is the key

Behind every successful and innovative team is a true leader – the more authentic, the better.

Authentic leaders know and value who they are, living and working according to deeply held ethics and beliefs.

The idea was popularised by American management guru Warren Bennis in his 1989 book On Becoming a Leader, gaining further attention through the 2003 publication Authentic Leadership by Bill George, a professor at the Harvard Business School.

Such leaders know and accept themselves, presenting a genuine and empathetic face to their staff and teams.

They embrace their weaknesses and own their mistakes, never blaming others for their own failings or covering up to save face.

Communication is truthful and direct, leading with the heart and not just the mind.

But they’re no softies. Truly authentic leaders always keep their goal in mind – the good of the organisation they work for. Mission-driven, they are able to separate out personal feelings from work imperatives.

How to use authentic leadership to excite the team

The smartest leaders know that teams can only thrive in a conducive work environment.

The company they work for must provide the springboard of strong culture, sound values and true determination to succeed – taking their staff with them, rather than using them up and disposing of them down the track.

But there’s no magic bullet when it comes to getting maximum productivity and innovation from your teams.

Instead, authentic leaders and managers tailor their own, unique team-building solutions aimed at increasing engagement, identifying opportunities and creating an atmosphere where team members can rejoice in collaboration.

• Show recognition and respect

Real respect comes from valuing your employees on bad days and good. It’s about never looking down on your staff, sneering at them, making unfunny jokes or invading their privacy.

It’s knowing that every member of the team has something unique to bring, and needs to be recognised for their achievements, however lowly.

So recognition and respect lay the foundation necessary for a team to build its confidence and start getting excited about what lies ahead.

• Take interest in the individual

A productive, fired-up team is built from happy workers. And workers are far happier when the boss treats them as a valuable human being rather than a money-making machine.

Expressing genuine, ongoing interest in the welfare of your staff is a sure way to help them feel secure and appreciated, encouraging loyalty, a sense of belonging and increased productivity.

• Give plenty of positive feedback

Tell them when they’ve done a brilliant job. Encourage them to do better when they haven’t. Hold the criticism where possible and always look for the nugget of positivity lurking in every performance. It’s a great way to maintain the individual’s passion for their job.

• Ask, don’t tell

We all hate being told what to do. Asking is usually sufficient to get the job done. Being bossy, authoritative and demanding is the quickest way to sour a team’s motivation and morale.

• Discuss, don’t argue

If asking doesn’t get the required response, it’s time to find out why. Get to the root of the problem by starting a conversation and discussing the issue rationally. Avoid being argumentative or confrontational – it will hinder, not help.

• Question, don’t teach

You don’t have to give explicit instructions for every task. Encourage critical thinking and creative problem-solving by asking a series of questions designed to help the team member find their own solution. They might discover a better way of doing things – which is something to get excited about!

• Listen hard

There’s nothing like real listening to help your team advance their own cause. You might find that members of your team are staggered when you start genuinely listening to what they’re saying. It’s something of a dying art!

• Lead by example

Don’t just tell your team how to behave – show them how it’s done. They’ll be watching your every move, so you need to practice what you preach. If you want your staff displaying politeness, respect, willingness to admit mistakes and decorum at office parties, you need to show them too.

The importance of behavioural assessments in firing up the team

It goes without saying that teams are made up of vastly different personalities, all with their own unique passions, backgrounds, views and work styles.

With the best will in the world, misunderstandings and differences of opinion can create friction within the group.

Left unchecked, this can put a damper on excitement and enthusiasm, leading to conflicts which may be hard to resolve.

So how can you harvest the best each team member has to give – using their attributes to maximum benefit – while managing those behavioural traits with the potential to upset team dynamics?

The answer is people or psychometric assessments, which give you detailed information about each employee’s skills, behaviour and personality traits.

These smart tools provide valuable pointers about the way employees can function to optimum capacity at work – both as individuals and within the team.

Unless you really know how a person thinks, and what environment brings out their most creative thought, you won’t be able to tap into that employee’s true potential.

So what can people assessments achieve?

• Greater understanding. Maybe a team member is perceived as detached or lazy, while in reality they are shy, calm and do their best work in a quiet environment.

• Less team conflict. Assessments help both manager and team members to know each other more fully, so different personality traits can be accommodated and clashes are more easily resolved.

• Better communication. Once a manager knows what makes their team members tick, they can find more effective ways of communicating with them – and encouraging them to communicate with each other.

• Increased productivity. With greater understanding comes greater team work. The manager has a far clearer idea how to get the best out of team members, morale is improved and members start working together and pooling resources rather than pulling in different directions.

Result? A team which is not only working in harmony but is genuinely excited about what they’re achieving. And what is still to come.

Interested in how people assessments can help you? Contact us for assistance in unlocking the potential of your teams.