Looking for a quick read on how to enhance the effectiveness of your leadership team? You have come to the right place! My name is Ken Kilday of Leader’s Cut, and I have been helping businesses incorporate leadership training to enhance their team effectiveness for years. Here are my 3 Quick Tips to enhance team effectiveness in your business.
1. Create a clear structure of accountability for EVERY team member.
One of the most critical tenets of managing people is the need for clear accountability. If only it were enough to define jobs, roles, and goals and call it a day! Organizing and managing people successfully requires creating a clear structure of accountability in the workplace. Your team members need to learn to be responsible for decisions made, actions taken, and assignments completed. Accountability starts with the leadership team and flows down throughout a business building trust, inspiring confidence, and promoting ownership. When you hold your team members accountable for their actions, you are teaching them to value their work which produces higher quality work and enhances team effectiveness.
People struggle with accountability when roles and processes are ambiguous. Creating a clear accountability structure is an organizational framework that outlines the roles and responsibilities of each team member, describes the processes and support necessary for each individual employee to effectively do their job. Accountability structure provides:
- Clarity – what is each person’s role, what are their responsibilities, and establishes decision making authority.
- Organization – creates a systemized workflow to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
- Communication – team members know who to go to for when they have a question.
2. Communicate in a kind, clear, consistent manner in all directions with a common language.
Effective communication makes a business; ineffective communication breaks a business. There are four types of communication styles and in leadership skills training your leadership team will learn how to spot these types of communication styles, learn why team members are using them, and learn how to interact with each type of communicator. The four basic communication styles are:
- Passive: These communicators have difficulty expressing themselves and tend to give into others. Their failure of expression often leads to miscommunication and built-up resentment or anger.
- Aggressive: These communicators dominate the conversation, often fail to listen to others, and are controlling and critical.
- Passive-Aggressive: These communicators appear passive on the surface but underneath display hidden resentment that is apparent in subtle, indirect ways.
- Assertive: These communicators are open, confident, and expressive while sensitive to the needs of others.
Assertive is the most effective form of communication because it is open and expressive, while not overbearing. Assertive communication that is kind, clear, and consistent creates a culture of common language where team members know what is expected of them leading to enhanced team effectiveness. Becoming aware of what type of communicator you are will help you and your leadership team become better team workers. You can change your style of communication to become more assertive with increased self-awareness and focusing on creating a culture of support, kindness, and openness among your employees.
3. Make space for every team member to be an individual and bring those same talents to serve the team.
Everyone is unique and individuality should always be celebrated! Each person who joins your team will bring with them certain talents and skill sets that serve your team and thus your business. All leadership coaching engagements begin by having all team members take the Talent Dynamics test. This is so much more than a personality test! With Talent Dynamics, there are eight profiles and each one represents a certain mix of energy, thinking, and action styles. Taking this test and discovering each person’s profile is incredible for team building. The profiles help each individual team member gain insight into their individual flow state, and when shared with the leadership team, it also helps everyone understand each other, how to effectively support each other, and effectively communicate. This profile test looks at what you and your team are good at, and suggests ways to improve your teamwork and increase team effectiveness.
Ken Kilday is the CEO/founder of Leader’s Cut: The Ken Kilday Coaching Experience, is an Executive Business Coach and EOS Implementer®. He works with leaders in companies of all sizes to implement actions, evaluate success, and adjust to new, improved habits and actions to produce repeatable and predictable outcomes independent of changing business cycles. Ken is an entrepreneur who has designed, built, launched, and rejuvenated successful businesses. Contact Ken to schedule a 15-minute Meet & Greet and discover how coaching can best serve you and your business.