Team Management

Three simple steps to bring out the best in your team
The most efficient way to achieve more in less time, is having others do it for you.

But this is easier said than done. After having felt disappointed by my team several times, I realized it is up to me to give them the support and resources needed to deliver outstanding work.

I mastered three team management skills which make all the difference. Since then:

  • No more overtime needed
  • People feel inspired to work with me (the good ones at least 😉 )
  • I save time and frustration, giving energy for the bigger picture

Continue reading for 3 simple steps to bring out the best in your team.

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My own team management journey

In 2008 I first became a team leader inside a large corporation, started studying leadership and communication, implementing the main lessons, growing my skills.
From 2017 I’ve been personally mentoring purpose-driven leaders on their team management challenges.
From March 2020 I am co-creating Gaianet, a purpose-driven foundation with best practices such as delegated authority, facilitated meetings, and heart-conscious communication.
I distilled 3 underlying leadership skills  which make 80% of the difference.

Master these skills, and be the leader who brings out the best in others.

1. Meaningful conversations

Step 1 is always to build a personal connection with each individual team member. You cannot separate the personal from the professional side. With money you can win people’s hands, but it takes a personal connection to win their hearts.

Radical honesty. Only when you open up and truly hear each individual’s desires, needs, wishes and preferences, you will be able to inspire and empower them in their own unique personalized way.

Ask what drives them. Ask which work challenges you should help them solve asap, in order to make everything else run smoother.

  • Understand which few interventions will have the greatest effect
  • Set each team member up for optimal engagement and flow
  • Win their hearts, loyalty and commitment, in a genuine way

 

2. Delegating with care

One of the toughest skills for purpose-driven leaders. Take a moment to consider how difficult it is to effectively delegate work: you need to transfer complex information from your being into somebody else’s being, using only the very limited means of words. And then expecting them to do exactly what you have in mind, with similar or better quality.

A nearly impossible task… which is why 95% of leaders I meet struggle with this topic.

Although delegating work will never become easy, there are several best practices which make it easier. For example, having clear roles and responsibilities defined, giving clear assignments and providing the required resources, asking whether all is clear and agreed, and asking regular status updates.

 

  • Limit miscommunication and personal frustration
  • Worry less about missed deadlines and low quality outputs
  • Waste less time fixing mistakes, and be more strategic

3. Constructive meetings

After you empowered each individual to work on the right things, you can interconnect the team, activate the mastermind, and facilitate ways for the team members to empower one another.

Each meeting needs a clear purpose, a format to accomplish that purpose, motivated participants, and a facilitator who guides the process. When you learn to effectively help the team fulfil each other’s needs, each individual will produce more with better quality faster.

In my online course Masterminding101 and in the Gaianet OS Playbook I share more best practices which you can apply immediately.

  • Meetings become fun and inspirational again, raising people’s energy instead of sucking them dry
  • Discover new opportunities and even quantum leaps by effectively putting your team’s minds together
  • Empower your team to support each other, without you intermediating

 

More team management inspiration

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