Understanding & Communicating with Your Team
I recently shared the importance of self-leadership and how to lead yourself by recognizing some of the inner skills it takes to become a leader. This blog focuses on leading others through skills like reframing, example, and open communication. This is not simply about how to properly manage your team or others but rather how to lead them through difficult situations to victory. This includes key concepts such as positive thinking, problem-solving, asking questions, defining reality, building a team, communication, and finding your own leadership voice.
Positive Thinking
A leader’s biggest challenge is expanding people’s perspective of what is possible for the team and organization. When given a big project that seems impossible, most people will, in fact, believe it is impossible. They will firmly believe it can’t be done under the deadline and question whether adequate resources exist. Leaders must remember that their role requires them to properly convey projects or tasks as expectations and refrain from communicating these as demands. People like to meet expectations. Demands may feel constraining.
In addition to shifting your phrasing from demands to expectations, never start your questions with “why” when asking for updates from your team members, as “why” questions have been associated with defensive responses.
As a leader, you may have an idea or project that doesn’t gain support. Instead of dictating your thought process, rephrase your pitch to include questions that share your thought process while the individual comes to their own ideas or solutions for the project. This skill will help build problem-solving skills within your team and potentially alleviate future concerns. As a leader, remember that people want to do the right thing; if they can’t or don’t, it’s often because they don’t have the proper resources or tools to do so. It is a leader’s responsibility to remedy these shortfalls without getting angry or defensive.
The essence of leadership is not performative positivity. Positive thinking is created when leaders help their team members free themselves from mental constraints that limit their accomplishments.
Solving Problems – Getting the Facts
It is a fact of life that competent professionals with precise skills and logical minds flounder when asked to make tough decisions, especially when time pressures, conflicting interests, and emotions run high. At times like these, it is important to get the facts, including reading the analytics and data for quantitate. A leader must master when to decipher between primary and secondary or insignificant data. It is also imperative to listen to employees individually for qualitative data to develop their own understanding of the facts on the ground. A leader should understand the decision-making and problem-solving skills of staff at the supervisory level to prevent any self-imposed barriers to other staff’s success on projects.
How do you know you have enough facts? There is no one right answer. You should listen to many voices, gauge the importance of missing information, take levels of risk into account, protect your future flexibility, and heed your inner voice.
Reframing for Leaders
I recently discussed reframing yourself. Reframing can be implemented in the way you look at business problems. One of the first steps towards solving a problem should be to reframe it and challenge the negative assumptions. This reframing can happen by talking to supervisors and on-the-ground employees. Reframing problems can lead to new innovative directions or products. Reframing will help solve problems and provide insight into what is working. It will reveal new opportunities.
Reframing is all about uncovering unfamiliar and exciting possibilities.
Asking Questions to Open Minds
The most effective leaders are the ones who ask fundamental questions and continue to learn or develop skills that allow them to make the right decisions. These leaders uncover hidden realities that make innovation possible.
When asking questions, remember the diversity of your staff and organization. The diversity of your team can lead to unusual and powerful insights, which can be achieved through questions specific to that individual.
Five types of questions can help a leader change the organization’s reality.
Questions that highlight key problems
Questions that clarify the facts
Questions that probe an underlying story
Questions that suggest alternatives
Questions that drill down to basics.
As a leader, asking questions that elicit information, ideas, and innovation rather than resistance or fear is essential. Here are some positive, constructive questions to consider.
Avoid yes-or-no questions.
Don’t ask questions for which you know the answer.
Actively listen to the answers given
Ask follow-up questions.
Encourage others to ask questions, even if they think it’s “stupid” or “naïve.”
Use questions to ensure everyone is on the same page.
When problems arise, question the issue, not the person.
Use care when asking tough questions.
Skilled leaders’ questions can be a powerful tool for gaining insight, understanding, and creativity.
Define What’s Really Important
In today’s world, with the emergence of remote work, people are being asked to work more with fewer resources. A leader must help team members set priorities and focus on the most critical tasks.
Every organization has issues that must be addressed. When these issues are minor, the goal should be to handle them effectively with an efficient use of resources. Serious, unexpected problems shouldn’t arise often in a well-run organization. Repeated serious, unexpected problems is an indicator that leadership needs to be addressed.
Defining what’s important is critical in making detailed plans to address the problem. Some topics to consider when deciding what really matters are financial impact, stakeholder impact, future scope, reputational impact, underlying cause, and degree of uncertainty. The detailed plan should also outline necessary steps, resources, time allocation, people, deliverables, etc., to alleviate problems.
Although plans may evolve, a detailed plan helps leaders recognize when events differ from the set plan, measure the difference’s direction and magnitude, and plan corrective actions. A leader should continuously improve and refine the plan.
Building a Team
A key to leadership is cultivating talent that allows the project to succeed. Leaders must learn to recruit, train, and motivate talented working teams. Talented, engaged people are the most important part of the organization. Above all, people should be put first.
A key to recruiting a good team is recognizing the need to hire people who complement your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses. You should aim to choose people that are different from yourself.
The right people must have the right culture. Leaders should create a culture that enables the team to bring their best to the organization.
An organization can accomplish many amazing feats without outrageous demands and schedules by building a system that is staffed with the right people. Simply put respect and listen to your team to help them flourish.
The Two-Up/Two-Down System
Any leader will agree that communication is key to a team’s success. Yet, there are numerous misunderstandings and misinterpretations of communication daily. This is because people fail to devote enough time or energy to conveying messages clearly. They fail in absorbing and understanding the message of others. A successful leader pays attention to understanding information and ideas from different people around them.
A vital leadership skill is creating a two-up/two-down system to grasp the strategic intent of those above and below you. When managing up, the key is to listen and develop the ability to hear more than the words being said. Seize opportunities to talk and listen to people two above and use the information to inform your daily decisions about goals, priorities, and methods. When managing down, the key is to understand and respect the goals and values of the people below you, which is essential to your effectiveness in motivating and leading them. An important tool, but challenging, to managing two-down is having open lines of communication. Allowing for open communication allows a leader to know what is happening at the organization on the front lines. In closing, as a leader, communicating two-down can be tricky, but some tips are:
Make communication across hierarchal lines part of your leadership routine.
Invite open-ended feedback about the organization and its workings.
Be open about being in touch with people at various hierarchical levels.
Don’t give work to those that don’t directly report to you.
Don’t shoot the messenger.
Let everyone know that as the leader, you’re responsible for keeping the lines of communication open and clear.
Discover Your Authentic Leadership Voice
The ability to effectively communicate requires leaders to find their authentic voice. All leaders do not need to be naturally eloquent or charismatic to be a good communicator. They need to present their ideas authentically and persuasively.
A key to improving your skills is to practice; the more a person speaks in front of groups, the greater the comfort level. Another key to success is to experiment with what works for you, detailed notes vs. outlines or being spontaneous.
As a leader, no matter the leadership level, your words and behaviors are scrutinized. Think carefully about the message you are delivering and ensure it matches your intentions.
My Story
I studied organizational development because I believe every team member should be invested in and heard. Over the years, I have studied my supervisors and people in leadership positions, learning what to do and not to do. I have had my share of poor leadership and a share of exceptional nurturing leaders–both of which shaped me as a leader today. I learned the importance of surrounding myself with people of diverse understandings and skills who complement mine. As a leader, it is essential to remember that what makes you shine is the people supporting you. Support them through communication and authenticity.
The final blog will expand on what a leader needs to lead an organization successfully. It will focus on creating a culture and inspiring future leaders.
