8
Team Building Tips for Leaders
One would have to lead a team to
get the hint in Mr. Benaud’s message. It is no fluke like the one-liners he
used to churn out. Our guy has seen it all for years in baggie greens. And,
courtesy people like him we could comprehend 8 team building tips for budding
leaders to evolve.
Is there any mystery in the
following tips?
Sorry, to disappoint you for these
are well known facts after all. With a twist in the tale i.e. And, a handful of
references too.
Tip#1.
Cometh the hour, Cometh the Man!
Mark my words for it, that’s what
Imran Khan, Winston Churchill, and many have done when they face a literal cul-de-sac.
You might be familiar how Imran
Khan conjured up Pakistan’s dying spirits in the 1992 world cup. It’s the story of a strong captain, with
deep-rooted ambition and noble mission, motivated the entire team to great
heights. He took the role, when his team
was almost eliminated during the preliminary rounds and turned the team into
champions.
Winston Churchill – wellknown as a
war leader. He is typically remembered
for his successful leadership during the World War II. His inspirational speeches and refusal to
give up attitude during these hours made him the greatest British prime
minister.
And, another real deal is the story
of Howard
Schultz and his Starbucks Coffee. Howard Schultz returned as CEO after an eight
years gap and pulled out Starbucks from the financial meltdown of 2008. He didn’t blame the economy as the former CEO
did. Instead, he took up entirely
different view of the situation. He told
his employees to shift the focus from bureaucracy and back to customers. He established to the world that Starbucks
cared their customer’s opinion with “My Starbucks Idea” through social
media. Giving the customers a platform
to share their ideas. Over 90,000 ideas
were shared by 1.3 million people.
The morals of these storieslead to
one-way door. A leader should step
forward during the crisis and motivate the entire team to the triumph.
Tip#2.
Maintain Transparency: Build Loyalty.
If you keep quiet on an employee’s
performance or the lack of it for too long.
Then they must be literally bad-mouthed behind your back.
It is ideal to maintain a
transparent communication flow within the corporate set-up as opposed to
playing peeping tom. The Corporate shenanigans are only waiting for a clarion
call.
You don’t want to feed them with
something to chew on, do you?
Tip
#3. Build an Aura; Be Genuine.
Being a leader doesn’t necessarily
mean you try and imitate Adolf Hitler. Like any civilian, you are also a part
of a larger set-up and the society you may mingle with would want to know the
man behind the veneer too.
If you make a mistake, be bold and
take the fall for it. If you get anything right, keep it to yourself and let
others share the credits. Like, how, MS Dhoni did in the World Cup 2011 all
those years ago. Or, how, Ratan
Tata did
after Tata Nano, the so-called cheapest car in the world, had failed. I can
highlight more examples too but you get the big picture.
Tip
#4. Celebrate Successes; Lest You fail.
Leaders have tremendous work ethic.
A bad leader would go through the motions when the team is either literally
down in the drums, or buoyed up in sheer euphoria. And, good leaders know
success and failure are part of the job and somewhat out of their
control.
Alexander
Ferguson of Manchester United FC was a great man manager. It was simply because he had tremendous work
ethic. Whenever Manchester United wins a laurel, he was the first to celebrate
from the sidelines. And, whenever the
team losses, he would be the first to let out the anger too.
Bottomline is – “Show them you mean
business; don’t just go through the motions simply.”
Tip
#5. Fire the Bad Moles: Prioritize Team Needs.
Firing an employee or getting rid
of a mole from your team is the tricky part which leaders must learn to master
in due course. Being a leader, you wouldn’t want to abscond duty for the
well-being of the main team is pivotal to your own survival than the
individual/s itself.
Tip
#6. Instill Self-Belief: Don’t jump ship.
Except for maybe football
management and politics, constant chopping and changing of responsibilitiesroutinely
is a clear giveaway to bad leadership. I say that because football managers
andpoliticians don't necessarily get to make choices for themselves, for it is
the owners or respective partisans who would eventually take the big calls.
As for exuding immense
self-believe, a true leader should instill belief in the team. A leader should stick to the damn job even when
a potential threat emerges out of nowhere.
In addition to that, a good leaders
know when to quit, and when exactly to come roaring back into
the reckoning.
Tip
#7. Make Tough Calls, even if that provokes people.
Being a leader, you shouldn’t be
afraid to ask your team to perform certain obligatory tasks even if you have to
go the extra mile to gain your objectives. As a great Aussie Captain (Chappell)
would have it: You should even call the big-shots dummies since all the wins
and losses go against your name, not the team.
It is true Ian Chappell – the great
raconteur that he is, never lost a Test series in his career. But, do you know
how could he even manage to do that?The guy knew the job, and yes, he was one hell
of a character. When a famous Indian commentator asked him as to what he
thought of England’s Mike Brearley: He literally criticized the so-called best
ever cricket
captain with
his usual chutzpah – “Was tough playing
11 Vs. 11 Harsha. So my question is why you want to play 10 Vs. 11?”
The point is not about highlighting
Chappell’s brash attitude, nor to showcaseannus
mirabilisstatistics.It is to illustrate how these peoples’ minds work.
Tip
#8. Be wary of false Propagandas: Walk the Talk.
Being a leader, you would initially
feel good about yourself while making great propagandas and genial offerings to
the team members. Or, to your stakeholders as for some crooked politician often
does.But, while making propagandas for achievements’ sake – you should rather
work on the feasibility of it. For this point, I don’t want to quote anything
because this is a given fact. And, quoting, as painstaking as they may seem on
paper would be missing the whole point for this tip in particular.
Conclusion:
What makes a great leader? The
catchword here is Evolve, since no one is born a leader. Evolve with experience, and build a strong
unit that is behind you all the time.
Since I have started the blog with
a quote from an Aussie, it would be appropriate to cite the classic case of
England’s Alistair Cook. Having taken
the mantle in 2012 in the sub-continent; Cook overcame batting troubles and
off-field havocs that affected his leadership.
And, in 2015 ICC named him the ‘Captain of The Year’ too!
Cook has given all the credits to
mentor’s Andrew Strauss, and Michael Vaughn for this turnaround. Which is
enough evidence, one can learn the craft to some extent from true leaders.
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