4 ways to tap into your team’s highest potential in today’s fast-changing world.
Today’s leaders must go beyond providing a vision, devising a product strategy, or setting the company direction. You need to structure collaborative activities so diverse sets of individuals can contribute their strengths and innovate.
According to a recent international survey sponsored by iBridge, Business Brio and the Digital Science Foundation, collaboration in the post-COVID work world will be difficult. Participants of the initial survey felt the expanding hybrid workforce will make collaborative meetings hard to assemble.
The survey’s findings showed that historically only 15% of their workforce was outside the office 80% of the time but anticipated that as much as 46% of the workforce would be spending less than 20% of their time in the office. In fact, respondents said they anticipate 18% of their workforce to be 100% remote.
So, if you want to inspire collaboration and unlock the power of your team post-COVID, you will likely need to change the way you lead.
Here’s how to unleash the collective genius of your team:
Adapt and Adjust with Sensemaking
In today’s fast-changing business environment, you need to help your team update their understanding of how shifts in technology, markets, customers, and competitive moves will impact their success on an ongoing basis.
As a leader, you should take fast-evolving inputs, such as changes in regulations, emerging market needs, technologies, market gaps, new opportunities, etc., and distill the insights down to a solution that your team can understand and execute.
Humanize Leadership with Care
2020 has taught us a valuable lesson in how leaders need to interact with their teams with compassion by caring for each employee as a holistic human being and addressing their emotions inside and outside of the work context.
Without an understanding of what drives your employees, you can’t develop processes and design procedures to keep them engaged, which is the key to creating the synergies you need to tap into their strengths and talents.
Foster a Team-Based Culture
Gone are the days when the leader is responsible for providing all the solutions to every issue. Instead, foster a collaborative environment in which team members can challenge each other to do their best and most creative thinking.
You also need to find out what makes your employees tick and enable each of them to produce to the maximum return on their capabilities. Help them tap into their needs and strengths in flexible ways while actively managing a culture that supports adaptability and learning.
Give and Receive Continuous Feedback
Feedback is a two-way street. While it’s important that employees get timely input to improve their performance, you also need to make sure there’s a channel for them to be heard and get their concerns addressed promptly.
Instead of traditional annual performance reviews, organizations are using software that collects real-time input from both sides. This also enables employees to feel more confident about their strengths and inspires them to develop their potential.
The Foundation to Leadership in 2021
Your core value as a leader will drive the success of your employees. If you’re committed to unleashing the collective genius of your team, you need to put your employees at the center of everything that you do.
From helping them apply their strengths and sharing continuous feedback to celebrating diverse perspectives and creating a sense of belonging, a leader has the power to shape the culture and values that hold the team together and inspire them to do their best work.
