A term first used in military environments, VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), describes the kind of environment in which today’s organizations are increasingly operating. New technology and competitors, evolving customer demands, and changes in the regulatory landscape, among other factors, all result in four distinct types of challenges that company leaders must face:

• Volatility – Challenges are unexpected, unstable, and may last for an unknown duration
• Uncertainty – Causes and effects are unknown and the future is unpredictable
• Complexity – Information and variables are plentiful and overwhelming
• Ambiguity – Situations are vague and hard to interpret

Every organization is subject to varying degrees of VUCA, both internally and externally, and some of these factors will be beyond company leaders’ control. However, strong leadership can have a positive impact on a company’s ability to navigate and overcome VUCA challenges. Here are four ways leaders can make all the difference in successfully guiding the organization through change in times of VUCA.

Provide an Inspiring Vision

When times are uncertain and ambiguous, people need to understand why certain changes are happening in the first place, and then they need a line of sight to the end goal. Leaders can provide the vision and direction that helps employees to be less fearful and resentful of the changes and uncertainties happening around them. A strong vision not only helps individuals see what the organization will look like in the future, but it also explains how certain processes will be improved over time. With a clear, compelling vision, leaders can inspire employees, answer their questions, and allay their concerns, putting them in a better position to embrace change and navigate it successfully.

Define the Strategic Plan

Once employees see the vision for change, they will naturally want to understand how all the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity will impact them day to day. A strategic plan brings the vision for change alive by detailing the timetable for shifts in certain processes and explaining how individual and team responsibilities will change. With a clearer understanding of how the vision for change will be implemented, employees will be more likely to connect the dots between their evolving work environment and what they can do to be successful.

Communicate Effectively

Communication is at the heart of every organizational change effort, and leaders play an important role not just in communicating the vision and strategy to their teams but also in listening and creating opportunities for healthy dialogue. Leaders who communicate early, often, and consistently help others remain focused and build a common understanding across the whole team. Some examples of effective communication leaders can incorporate into daily activities include:

• Virtual focus groups and chat rooms that enable all employees, including those who work remotely, to share their experiences and provide feedback
• Team meetings that focus on a particular process that is changing and how employees can approach it
• One-on-one discussions that provide individuals with advice and coaching for how to navigate specific challenges

Provide Consistent Support and Reinforcement

Because there is always likely to be an element of VUCA in the workplace, employees will benefit from leader support that helps them navigate change on an ongoing, day-to-day basis. Company leaders can sustain the energy around change and support employees through it by:

• Providing ongoing coaching and mentoring to help employees adjust their mindset and behaviors
• Modelling desired behaviors for embracing change
• Supporting employee learning and development, including periodic reinforcement to keep new skills fresh and top of mind
• Celebrating successes and milestones

All companies face times of VUCA, and those that pursue and embrace change will be better able to evolve and grow than those that do not. Strong leadership not only helps individuals understand change but also positions them to embrace it and thrive in an ever-evolving work environment. By taking clear steps to communicate and support employees through change, leaders can guide the organization to success in times of VUCA.

As a leader, it is always important to be present and accessible to the individuals who report to you, and it is more important than ever during a transition in the company. When not handled well, change can be distressing and potentially damaging to morale. On the other hand, if you implement a well thoughtout change management plan, with accompanying activities, you can successfully undergo a transition that leads to long-lasting, positive change.

Leaders are especially important in the success of any change initiative. Regardless of whether the change is small such as a physical modification of the office space, or as large as an organizational culture transformation, individuals will look to leadership for cues. If you exhibit poise and grace under pressure, your team is likely to follow suit. However, if you express concern about the transition, or even worse, seem oblivious to the worries of those around you, others in the company are more likely to feel anxious. Approach the transition with intention and incorporate these change management activities for leaders and you will be well on your way to success.

1. Build Effective Communication Throughout the Process

Effective communication is essential for successful change management. Start an open dialogue as early as possible in the process and continue to provide updates and ask for feedback. Do not assume that people will come to you if they have questions; make it clear that they are not only welcome to do so, but encouraged to actively participate in the process. By communicating the reasons for the change, the projected timeline, how it will impact each individual, and any other relevant details, you not only minimize the disruption, but you also get the buy-in you need for everybody in the company to embrace the new systems or change behavior.

For your change management plan, consider face-to-face communication sessions that start with executive leaders, move down to management teams, and then to individuals. You can:

• Conduct one-on-one meetings with each of the senior leaders in your organization that foster an honest and straight-forward discussion of the changes.
• Form small group meetings, led by these senior leaders, throughout the organization. These meetings should share the same information, brainstorm solutions, and implement the new processes.

Remember, individuals will be more likely to embrace change if it’s discussed on a personal level rather than by reading it.

Recommended Change Management Activity

If you’re finding that communication is breaking down, try starting your meetings with a communication-focused team-building activity, based on the improv comedy tenet, “Always say yes.” Take ten minutes to do an improv exercise that helps build communication skills.

1. Have individuals break into pairs.
2. One member of the pair starts with a statement and the second person responds with, “Yes and…” The first person continues with another statement and the “Yes and…” cycle continues for five minutes.
3. After five minutes, the partners switch and do the same exercise starting with a different statement.

This kind of activity works in two ways: first, individuals benefit from practicing communication skills. Second, when leaders are involved, they get insight into the kinds of communication improvements that individuals respond the best to. You strengthen communication and leadership skills – all in one.

2. Create an Environment of Accessibility

Your team should always feel that they can come to you and any other leaders with questions, suggestions, or concerns, particularly when the company is undergoing a transition. Make it easy for them to communicate with you by eliminating the obstacles that make it logistically challenging or intimidating. For example, if you have a busy schedule that leaves limited time for one-on-one conversations with individuals on your team, try these strategies:

• Set aside a couple hours a week when you have an open door policy so they know they can reach you without disrupting your schedule. Put it in the calendar as “non-touchable” time.
• Schedule a regular meeting time with team members, giving them the opportunity to speak up when they otherwise might not. Also put it in the calendar as “non-touchable” time.
• Allow team members to participate in decision making by scheduling a brainstorming meeting where each individual will have an opportunity to voice their ideas or feedback.

Recommended Change Management Activity

If you feel that team members aren’t comfortable coming to you and may be holding back questions about the process, try an activity that both opens you up as a leader and encourages questions from the team.

Use a physical activity to demonstrate the importance of open communication.

1. Start with everybody in the group blindfolded and have them pass a ball around the room without speaking. The process is slow and the ball can only go to people who are adjacent to each other.
2. Next, allow them to speak while passing the ball, but still with blindfolds on. Speed increases, but where the ball can be passed is still limited by proximity.
3. Finally, remove the blindfolds and allow them to pass the ball around the room to anybody they want to.

This exercise demonstrates that when all of the obstacles to communication are removed, the flow of information is dramatically improved.

3. Practice Empathy

Remember: just because the reasons for the change and the process to get there might be crystal clear in your mind, they are not necessarily so obvious to others in the company. Take the time to put yourself in other’s shoes (which will mean stepping out of yours) by using active listening:

• Prior to implementing the changes, conduct interviews with employees from various levels and functions.
• Repeat back how you interpret their ideas or feedback by saying: “Please tell me if I’ve got this right. You feel that…”.
• Avoid weighing in with your opinion during these meetings in order to truly see the changes from their perspective.

Once you have clarity on how the changes will affect others in the company, adjust the change management game plan accordingly. Clearly outline the process and make your communications– whether they are email memos or announcements at staff meetings–concise and and organized. This is especially true if the change involves multiple steps or different categories of activities.

Recommended Change Management Activity

Active listening not cutting it? If you’re not feeling like it’s easy to put yourself in your team members’ shoes, try one of the activities listed above–but you should be a participant, not the leader. Instead of leading through a communication breakdown, you’re experiencing it firsthand. Later, you can better lead through these breakdowns because you’ve recently been on the receiving end.

Even the smallest of changes will inevitably be disruptive to some degree, especially if the stage has not been set properly in advance. Therefore, by employing change management activities like effective communication, being accessible to your team, and looking at the transition from their perspective, you can successfully lead change.

High potential employees can shape and lead an organization into the future, but identifying and retaining high potentials goes beyond assigning a label or offering frequent promotions. Rather, it requires careful examination of who your high potentials are, what they are motivated by, and the optimal development path that unleashes their full potential. As you set out to develop your high potential employees or build a comprehensive HiPo program, it will be beneficial to adhere to the following best practices.

Cultivate an Understanding of What Motivates a High Potential

High potentials are often looking for their next big achievement and want to exceed expectations. To retain them, you will need to provide the tools, resources, opportunities, and knowledge that will keep them challenged and enable their continued high performance. Without addressing those needs, you run the risk of your high potentials becoming disengaged and leaving your company for one that will meet them. In fact, one study found that nearly 60 percent of highly engaged high potentials planned to stay with their company, but only 23 percent of low-engaged high potentials intended to stay.

Some of the important motivators that can help to retain high potentials include:

• Providing frequent challenges that keep them engaged in their job and with the work your organization is doing
• Freedom to act without feeling micromanaged
• Resources that are readily available, which include tools, technology, and even other people
• Mentorship opportunities with other successful high potentials or company leaders
• Cross-functional opportunities that allow them to learn more about how the greater organization works

Experiential training that is interactive is an ideal way to learn new skills, practice them, and then confidently apply them back on the job, as it is a methodology that can be used both in-class and virtually.

Recognize Those Identified as High Potentials

Many organizations are unsure of whether to tell high potentials that they’ve been identified as such. They should be told, but recognize that doing so requires that the company be prepared for the questions and expectations that are likely to follow. Those who have been identified as high potential employees will have expectations of training and increased opportunities. Those who have not been identified as high potentials may feel left out and undervalued, which will have to be addressed, usually with a robust career development program. Despite these concerns, telling individuals they are considered high potentials brings transparency to the organization’s commitment to developing talent, and can also go a long way in retaining them long-term.

Create a HiPo Program That Caters to Their Unique Development Needs

Every individual in the organization must be valued for their potential and developed so that they can perform to their best. However, high potentials have unique development needs because they’ve already shown their potential for breakthrough performance, but may not have yet shown their full potential to lead. Therefore, they will need to be taught how to see the world through the eyes of those who possess a different range of talents and needs.

High potentials also possess a unique motivation and capability to succeed that others might not have to the same degree, which can sometimes lead them to become frustrated or dissatisfied with their progress. High potentials do not need to be led as much as they need a line of sight to the end goal, which is not true of all people. Therefore, the HiPo program you create should show them how to provide the motivation, coaching, reinforcement, and recognition that they will require throughout their entire career to be successful.

Conclusion

Cultivating and developing high potential employees is a long-term investment. It is worthwhile, though, as it ensures organizational success down the road, aids in the retention of top talent, and builds the skills employees and leaders will need to navigate the world of tomorrow. By following the three listed best practices you will be well on your way to creating a HiPo program that is experiential, practical, utilizes virtual learning, and aids in retention and attraction of top talent.

Attending team meetings are an everyday occurrence for many of us. Gathering people together to discuss a topic or decide a course of action can help to maintain and improve workflow. However, not all meetings make good use of employees’ time.

A team of researchers surveyed senior managers across a range of industries, and 71 percent of them said meetings were unproductive and inefficient. One key reason meetings can be unproductive is because only an estimated 20 percent of leaders receive training on how to run them effectively, according to research by Steven Rogelberg, author of “The Surprising Science of Meetings.”

Meetings don’t have to waste anyone’s time. With targeted training, leaders can learn to take the following eight steps to ensure every team meeting is effective and relevant.

Know the Meeting Objective

Team meetings can have all sorts of objectives, from informing to providing an update to getting input from others to solve problems. Unfortunately, many meetings don’t have a stated objective. They may simply be called based on an assumption that participants understand and agree on the purpose of the meeting. To ensure that everyone involved understands the objective of the meeting and the intended outcome, it’s necessary to establish what the meeting will accomplish before or at the beginning of every meeting. Before the meeting, send out an agenda that outlines the goal of the meeting, along with any items you want people to prepare or provide updates on. Once everyone understands the meeting objective, you can start the meeting off on the right foot.

Get Input from Everyone

A meeting is not effective if only a handful of participants are actively involved in the discussion. All participants in a meeting should be contributing, whether by offering new ideas, asking questions of others, or volunteering to take responsibility for follow-up action. Some ways to get input from meeting participants include:

• Regularly asking for input during the meeting, including from those who have not yet spoken up
• Having the team engage in brainstorming or brainwriting exercises that encourage idea generation
• Asking a select number of individuals to perform follow-up work and present their findings at the next meeting

Ensure Clarity Between Fact and Opinion

Although an effective meeting benefits from participant viewpoints and opinions, it must also include facts and data that help the team make progress. After all, a team project is not likely to find success if activities are guided by individual guesses or conjecture. Instead, reports, trend analyses, and other data will be more effective guides for team discussion and action. One good way to ensure clarity between fact and opinion in a meeting is to include a presentation of key data, and then offer each person the chance to weigh in on their interpretation of the data.

Recap Periodically

It’s not uncommon for a meeting discussion to stray from the agenda. Team leaders can ensure agenda items aren’t overlooked by adding periodic recaps of what’s been discussed and agreed upon. Periodic recaps ensure that each agenda item gets its necessary attention and discussion. Recaps also help to focus the team and keep off-topic discussion to a minimum.

Make Decisions

An effective meeting doesn’t dance around issues but brings them to closure through definitive decision-making. A decision outcome can be as small as an agreement to revisit a specific topic once more information has been gathered. It can also be as large as a decision to change some part of the team strategy. Making a decision ensures the team doesn’t stagnate and keeps the agenda moving forward to action.

Assign Tasks to Individuals

An effective meeting specifies deliverables and who will be accountable for achieving them. As one Inc. article describes, “Great meetings result in decisions, but a decision isn’t really a decision if it’s never carried out.” When you carefully assign follow-up tasks along with deadlines, there’s a greater likelihood of ensuring that nothing is forgotten and that team members aren’t duplicating efforts. Producing meeting minutes and using project management software are examples of ways you can ensure efficient task assignment and keep track of deliverables.

Keep the Meeting Engaging

Meetings shouldn’t be tedious or boring. Instead, they should be designed to hold participants’ attention and use everyone’s time efficiently. Some ideas for keeping meetings engaging include:

• Limiting the duration of the meeting
• Adding an experiential activity that encourages participants to interact and communicate on a deeper level
• Using video conference tools to involve remote employees

Commit to Follow Up

An effective meeting requires follow-up so that each member of the team knows what to expect and what they need to do after each meeting. Following up after a meeting also ensures that important information isn’t lost and helps to memorialize what was discussed and agreed upon. Whether the meeting follow-up is in the form of an email to the team or a discussion in a subsequent meeting, it keeps the meeting agenda and deliverables top of mind for meeting participants.

Conclusion: Start Running Effective Team Meetings Today

Running an effective team meeting is a critical skill for leaders to master because it helps to move projects forward in an efficient manner. Because leading meetings effectively doesn’t come naturally for many individuals, it makes sense to include opportunities to learn and master that skill as part of a robust leadership development program. From there, individuals will be equipped to get broad participation, regular follow-up, and clear decision-making in each of the meetings they lead.

The way a manager leads a team is a driving factor behind what their team accomplishes and produces. It can impact the productivity of their staff and the overall output of the organization. Organizational efficiency is a byproduct of each department, which can be significantly influenced by the different forms that management can take.

Unfortunately, there’s no universal standard or approach, when it comes to management styles. The most appropriate approach ultimately depends on the structure of your team, including your people—their experience and expectations—and situational factors such as short- or long-term growth and organizational goals.

While there is no definite way that managers can apply every organizational style to their management technique, it’s best for leaders to at least be aware of a range of leadership characteristics so that they can appropriately apply facets of the techniques to specific situations.

Directive

Also known as the coercive style, the directive management technique has a primary objective of obtaining compliance from employees. This authoritarian approach closely monitors employees, motivates employees through discipline, and generally positions the manager at the center of the organizational structure. While this management technique is effective when there is a crisis or potentially perilous situation in the mix, it is not effective as a long-term management strategy if you wish to further develop employees.

Ultimately, this managerial style is useful when deviation from the norm is a risky decision. In highly litigious industries or situations, the directive manager drives their team to success. However, if employees are highly skilled, or you’re looking to develop certain skill sets, this management preference can stifle growth. Little to no learning happens within this style, and employees often become frustrated and unresponsive to the micromanagement that occurs.

Authoritative

Authoritative managers lead with the idea of implementing long-term direction and foresight across their teams. Also referred to as visionary leaders, these managers embody the “firm but fair” mentality. While they provide employees with clear explanation and direction, they may choose to motivate by persuasion. These leaders include a large amount of feedback on their employees’ performance.

Authoritative leaders are effective when clear direction and standards are needed. These leaders lead by example and manage with a high level of conviction. When leaders are credible, employees are apt to follow their guidance. While this leadership technique works in some situations, like directive management, it does not develop employees to their fullest ability. Because management provides guidance, employee insight and opinions often take a backseat, which can limit collaboration.

Affiliative

Affiliative leaders work to develop strong teams. This style of management is concerned with creating harmony between employees, management, and departments. These leaders promote open communication and place an emphasis on building cross-departmental, interpersonal relationships. Often, managers work hard to avoid conflict and motivate their employees by keeping them happy.

This management style generates positive results across companies that rely on structured teams. When combined with other management styles, affiliative leadership can help coach employees. Leaders manage and mitigate conflict, which ultimately fosters a collaborative work environment that produces results. While this management technique does build harmony, it does not create much accountability. Therefore, this style is most effective in work environments in which tasks are routine and performance is reliable.

Participative

Commonly recognized as democratic leadership, participative management has an overarching objective of fostering commitment and consensus across a team. In this style, management actively encourages every employee to voice their opinions in the decision-making process. As opposed to directive and authoritative leadership—in which management emphasizes individual performance—participative managers motivate by rewarding team effort.

This honest, transparent work environment can inspire employees to feel involved and part of their organization. It’s especially effective when an organization has a structure in which experienced, credible employees work together in a steady, stable environment. Participative managers can foster collaboration and drive creative solutions. However, much like affiliative management, this style does not work well in environments that need to be closely monitored.

Coaching

The coaching technique is a self-explanatory style that centers on learning. Much like the authoritative leadership, this management style has a primary objective of fostering long-term professional growth and development. Managers spend significant time training, evaluating, and coaching employees. By encouraging employees to develop specific skill sets and strengths, managers can positively influence the performance and output of their team members.

While this style doesn’t directly contradict team-driven approaches such as participative and affiliative management, it does tend to drive a one-on-one mindset. Taken to an extreme, managers that deploy coaching techniques can be misinterpreted as micromanagers. In this regard, it’s important for managers to offer coaching opportunities to every employee, which, in some situations, may be time-consuming.

While each of these leadership traits has something different to offer, not every management style will suit your organization. How would you describe your own management style?

Organizational change is happening all the time, especially during times such as these. It can bring about a range of emotions in people, including fear, resistance, frustration, and confusion. Leading change successfully in the midst of those emotions requires the ability to define and communicate a vision that inspires others. It also requires helping others to adjust their thinking and behavior in the workplace so that they can successfully navigate change.

One powerful tool that helps leaders guide their teams through change of any kind is emotional intelligence—the ability to identify and manage one’s emotions and to handle interpersonal relationships with empathy and good judgment. Not only is emotional intelligence a strong predictor of overall job success (research has found that it accounts for 58 percent of success at work), but it also influences individuals’ ability to successfully navigate the emotions and behavior of others during times of change. Here are four ways emotional intelligence helps leaders guide their employees through changing times.

Helps to Overcome Resistance

Resistance to organizational change is common for many reasons. Some individuals may want to avoid certain changes to their responsibilities and work processes, and others may simply resist being pushed outside of their comfort zones. Because emotional intelligence involves understanding others’ emotions, it requires listening and asking questions rather than simply telling employees what they should and should not do.

Leaders can leverage emotional intelligence to hone in on the source of employee resistance to change and can offer ideas, strategies, and coaching that will help to overcome feelings of resistance. Some key activities that can support getting at the heart of resistance to change include:

• Q&A sessions that allow employees to air their frustrations and fears about change
• One-on-one discussions that provide opportunities to talk about specific employee experiences with change
• Employee surveys that ask individuals to describe their experiences and share feedback on company change initiatives

Encourages Continuous Learning

Change implies that there will be an ongoing requirement to think and behave differently in order to be successful in the future. Change in the workplace requires the same—that individuals will acquire new knowledge and skills to help them navigate the waters of change. Research points to emotional intelligence as a key factor that drives the willingness and desire to learn because it helps to encourage both curiosity and an openness to learning lessons from successes and failures.

Leaders who possess emotional intelligence and model behaviors that demonstrate their support for continuous learning can encourage those behaviors in others. Leaders can further instill a dedication to continuous learning by encouraging employees to participate in training that helps them develop healthy attitudes toward change.

Improves Decision-Making

When navigating organizational change, individuals must be equipped to use their judgment and make decisions in the midst of uncertainty and shifting circumstances. Because those with high levels of emotional intelligence are more self-aware and also more socially aware of others’ feelings and emotions, they are better equipped to make well-informed decisions when solving problems or determining a course of action.

Leaders who employ emotional intelligence can help themselves and others become better decision makers during times of change. Instead of making a decision based solely on assumptions or a single person’s interpretation of the facts, emotional intelligence helps leaders consider the emotional needs of others when leading their team through important decisions.

Supports Healthy Relationship-Building and Trust

During times of change, individuals need support from leaders and need to feel like they’re not alone. Emotional intelligence allows leaders to provide the understanding and empathy that builds confidence and trust in others. Through active listening, patient conflict resolution, and mentorship, emotionally intelligent leaders build healthy relationships with others and allow employees to trust them as they lead the team through change successfully.

Emotional intelligence is a valuable tool in all aspects of working life, but it is particularly important when leading in times of change because it helps individuals take the emotions and feelings of others into account. When leaders take the time to provide support, training, and coaching to help individuals manage their emotions during the uncertainties of organizational change, there is less chance for resistance, fear, and distrust to derail organizational change efforts. With a combination of leading by example, providing opportunities for employee learning, and establishing forums for communication and feedback, it’s possible to fully leverage emotional intelligence to successfully lead others through change.

It’s of the utmost importance that we recognize how employee engagement and staff retention are connected. When employees are not engaged at work, they have little incentive to stay. Even pay increases often cannot keep an employee who is not engaged, especially if they don’t see a promising future that includes satisfying work and a clear development path.

Given this, it’s not surprising that an SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey indicated that the top three workforce challenges for HR professionals are retention, engagement, and recruitment. Rather than dealing with the symptoms—turnover and recruitment issues—getting to the root of the problem leads to long-term solutions. Focusing on engagement can help reduce turnover, which also alleviates recruitment issues because there are fewer empty positions to fill.

Why Is Retention Important?

One of the most motivating reasons for businesses to improve retention is the fact that it’s expensive. The cost of turnover includes lost productivity, lost profits, recruitment, training, and more. A Deloitte report found that the average cost to replace an employee is around $7,000. For large organizations with high turnover, this can quickly add up. While this number might seem reasonable, the more shocking number that is less easy to see in a financial report is the cost of lost productivity, which is estimated around $120,000 per employee. Even the loss of one employee can have an impact on the bottom line.

Another reason to focus on retaining valuable employees is the company culture. High-turnover companies have a hard time building the culture they want because there are fewer long-term employees to demonstrate the ideal behaviors. Additionally, when employees see that others frequently leave the organization, it sets a negative tone and prompts them to question why they are staying.

How Engagement Impacts Retention

Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report captures the link between engagement and retention in a nutshell:

“Employees who are engaged are more likely to stay with their organization, reducing overall turnover and the costs associated with it. They feel a stronger bond to their organization’s mission and purpose, making them more effective brand ambassadors. They build stronger relationships with customers, helping their company increase sales and profitability.”

The same report found that only one-third of workers are engaged, which should be a red flag for most organizations. If you’re not confident that the majority of your employees are engaged, this could lead to a costly turnover rate.

How to Improve Employee Engagement

Improving engagement is possible, but it requires a sustained effort. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will immediately shift mindsets, organizations should focus on the following three components to improve employee engagement:

Recognition

Publicly recognize employees for a job well done. When leaders demonstrate that they value an employee’s contribution, it fosters further engagement. Employees also want to stay at a company where they feel valued and appreciated. You can do this by creating a rewards program, hosting monthly or quarterly dinners where employees are recognized for their contributions, or simply thanking your team at the next staff meeting.

Culture

Create a culture that encourages, supports, and motivates employees to do their best work. Whether you do this by allowing dogs in the office, having a company-wide ping-pong tournament, or having quarterly team meetings, your culture should remind people why they want to be there. So, while the elements that make up your culture will be as unique as your organization, determining the desired culture will be the responsibility of leadership.

Development

Employees today value education and learning opportunities. They also want to know what opportunities lie ahead. Create clear growth paths and provide the resources that will help people achieve their development goals to keep them engaged as they progress in their careers. This requires more than a single annual review and should include coaching and mentoring to help employees reach their personal career goals.

Conclusion

Retention is a real issue that should be addressed, especially if you already have high turnover rates. Increasing employee engagement can help improve retention and also provide the benefits of better productivity and greater employee satisfaction. Focus on your company culture and take proactive steps to improve engagement, especially among your top talent.

There is no doubt that teamwork is essential to the success of any organization. No single individual can do all of the work on their own. That is why leaders must cultivate high-performing teams and lead them effectively.

Think of teams as the two essential components of a brick wall: the bricks and the mortar. Individual employees (the bricks) must have integrity and quality in and of themselves in order for the wall to be structurally sound. If you have weak bricks, you’ll have a weak wall. Leaders (the mortar) must also be strong and have the right mix of skills and abilities. The leadership provided is what holds the team together and allows each brick to do its job.

With this in mind, the leaders who develop these nine leadership skills are able to build the most effective teams.

1. Communication

Teams can’t perform to their fullest potential without strong communication, and it is up to leaders to model communication based on these three factors:

• Style: The way you communicate must be appropriately matched to the person you’re interacting with to help put them at ease so that they will be receptive to what you have to say.
• Facts: Some people are very responsive to facts and information. If you don’t provide the level of information they are seeking, they are less likely to engage because they feel that something is missing.
• Passion: Some people will be persuaded more by convictions and passion than they are by facts, so it is important to know when you must communicate with enthusiasm.

The key is to find the right balance for each individual. Find the style that mirrors theirs, include enough facts to satisfy their desire for information, and be passionate enough to engage them.

2. Time Management

High-performing teams are able to successfully juggle multiple assignments, and leadership can provide the training and tools to help them manage their time effectively. In addition, however, leaders must also create an environment that enables their teams to use the training and tools effectively.

One of the most important skills leaders must master to make time management easier for their teams is the ability to delegate effectively. When assigning tasks to a team or an individual, it’s important to be clear about the expected deliverables and due dates and to provide opportunities for them to obtain clarification. This enables the team to accurately prioritize their workload, do the necessary planning, and execute the task efficiently.

Leaders can also help by being proactive. The ability to be responsive to shifting priorities is a great quality for teams to possess, but constantly changing course due to a lack of planning—or worse, the whims of a few people—is exhausting and makes it impossible to keep up. But if leaders anticipate organizational needs and prioritize effectively, their teams will be able to function proactively, and reactivity will be the exception rather than the norm. Along with delegating effectively, fostering a proactive approach will enable your team to consistently manage their work and deliver on their accountabilities.

3. Empowerment

Like that brick wall, a team is only as strong as its weakest member. In the context of the workplace, strength often translates to empowerment—each member of a high-performing team must feel empowered, and leaders are responsible for achieving this.

Leaders can choose to be autocratic—telling people what to do—or they can engage others and allow them to have more input and involvement in decisions. Involving others tends to be more effective than an autocratic approach because in an empowered workforce, hearts and minds are engaged.

Many employees want to contribute to the success of the organization, but if they’re not empowered to do so, the company misses out on their valuable skills, knowledge, and experience. If leadership doesn’t allow participation, the team’s skills are squandered and they become disempowered and disengaged. Empowerment is good for both the company and the individuals and teams that work in it.

4. Decision-Making

The decisions that leaders make have a ripple effect—they have the power to influence many aspects of the organization and impact how teams perform. The scale of the decision directly relates to the consequences it will have. Because decisions from leadership have such power, it’s important to ensure that they are the right decisions.

Strong leaders get input, especially when making significant decisions. The people who will be implementing the decision often have ideas about the best path forward, more experienced leaders can share lessons learned, peers in the organization might have had similar experiences, and external sources may provide a fresh perspective. All of this information allows leaders to make better decisions and gives them more confidence to enforce accountability.

5. Openness to New Ideas

Success breeds success, but leaders cannot have tunnel vision about the things that are currently working, especially if they want to unleash the true power of high-performing teams. They must stay open to new ideas to maintain a competitive edge and consider other alternatives to embrace.

Leaders don’t necessarily have to seek out innovation or new ways of doing things, but they do have to maintain a mindset that allows them to see opportunities when they arise. One way to cultivate this mindset is to be continually learning by trying new hobbies, gaining new skills, and seeking out new experiences that will train the mind to automatically absorb new ideas and incorporate them when appropriate. Being receptive to new ideas is a discipline that can be rewarding both personally and professionally.

6. Teachability and Accountability

Leaders who are building high-performing teams should look for individuals who have both teachability and accountability.

Teachability is not the same as good listening skills and the ability to pay attention. Being teachable means understanding feedback and new information and then applying it on the job. Leaders and employees who are teachable are valuable in any organization, which is why it’s so important to recognize them and help them grow.

Personal accountability is demonstrating that when you say you are going to do something, others can rely on you to do it. When an individual has the combination of teachability and accountability, they can be trusted to understand the tasks assigned to them and follow through on their commitments.

7. Passing on Strengths

Leaders at every level have a lot of responsibilities, and they must ensure that all of them are delivered as promised. This often requires working with high-performing teams to complete the work, and leaders need the individuals on those teams to be as effective as possible.

It is up to leaders to work with individuals to make them better. This can be done through training programs, but one of the simplest ways is for leaders to share what they know. Passing your strengths on to your team allows them to build their skills, allowing for increased responsibilities and personal growth. Do this by allowing them to observe. Inviting them to participate in meetings and sharing experiences with them will expose them to the possibilities as they build their skill sets.

In addition to encouraging observation, it’s also important for you to explain to your team why you do things the way you do them. This helps teams understand the thinking behind your actions and allows them to replicate them more effectively. The combination of observation and explanation allows individuals to build stronger skill sets, which ultimately leads to better performing teams.

8. Employee Productivity

Employee productivity is a common goal for leaders at all types of organizations, and it’s a big topic to address, especially when building high-performance teams. One of the most important elements is understanding how much freedom each individual can handle with the tasks that are assigned to them.

Some people need a lot of direction and coaching when taking on a particular task, while others just need a few key pieces of information before running with it. What any given employee needs depends on how much experience they have with the task at hand. If they don’t have enough knowledge and experience, too much freedom will lead to lower productivity because they will be trying to learn along the way. On the other hand, if they have a high level of experience and are not given enough freedom to do the work, they will become disengaged. When maximizing the potential of a team, leaders must allow the appropriate amount of freedom to match the experience and competency of the individuals in the team.

9. Candor and Empathy

Leaders have an obligation to the organization to ensure that individuals and teams are able to contribute to their fullest. Maximizing all of their talent, capability, insight, innovation, and ideas requires delivering useful feedback.

To do this, leaders must employ both candor and empathy. Candor builds trust, which is vital when engaging employees and motivating them to work to their potential. Leaders with empathy demonstrate that they actually care about and identify with the individuals on their teams.

These two competencies work hand in hand—being candid with employees requires empathy. Hearing a difficult truth becomes easier when it’s clear that the individual delivering it has your best interests at heart. Leaders who can cultivate these two skills will be effective at building high-performance teams.

Strong Teams Need Strong Leaders

The performance of a team depends on both the individuals on the team and the leaders behind them. Without strong leadership, even the most skilled employees will not function to their highest potential on a team. On the other hand, the leaders who develop and hone these nine skills will unlock the potential of their teams and contribute to the success of the organization.

One of the most important components of successful change management is executive alignment. Whether your organization is undergoing a major culture transformation, kicking off a strategic initiative, or involved in a merger or acquisition, having leadership aligned during times of change is critical to your success. So, if you feel your organization is lacking executive alignment, it is important to know the potential effects it may be having on your business so you can take swift action to remedy it:

Corporate Culture Suffers

When alignment among leadership is lacking, there will also be a lack of clarity that will have a negative impact on the company’s culture. When people are left confused or frustrated for too long as a result of misaligned leadership, everyday conversations at the water cooler may quickly turn distracting or destructive to your company’s culture.

The best way to put a stop to this and take steps to repair the culture, is to have leaders collectively wrestle through the tough issues of mission, values, and strategy, and then effectively cascade that clarity throughout the organization. This will provide your organization with a common language, and an agreement on what to do in order to hold each other accountable to the desired culture. Providing this high-quality information will prevent individuals from filling in the blanks themselves with a negative picture of reality.

Leaders and Their Employees Are Uncertain of Expectations

Clarity and alignment begin at the top, and must trickle down to the people leaders and eventually to the individual contributors. If this does not happen, leaders are left on their own to make decisions with the information they have available to them. While they will try to direct their team and individuals, using this information to the best of their ability, neither party can be certain of the right decisions. Unsurprisingly, this leads to mixed messaging, with both employees and leaders getting confused and frustrated about what they are working toward. To overcome this and get change initiatives back on track for success, executive alignment must be achieved.

Your Organization’s Purpose Is Unclear or Undefined

When an organization’s purpose is lived authentically, it will act as a guiding compass for employees and leaders, ultimately dictating the right path forward. If there is no executive alignment on it, the purpose of the organization will be unclear to everyone. This leaves priorities open to interpretation from various vantage points depending on role, level, or department. When this happens, an organization where teams or departments are moving in every direction, rather than in the same direction toward a common goal. All too often this leads to decreased engagement, increased frustration, and a lack of momentum.

Inconsistent and Irregular Communication Causes Confusion

If the communication coming from decision-makers at the top is not open, transparent, and consistent, it may be a sign that there is a problem with executive alignment somewhere in the organization. When leaders are uncertain of the strategic direction, or not aligned with their fellow leaders, this can lead to inconsistent and irregular communication that contributes to the challenges mentioned above. The workforce relies on the communication they receive from the top to make decisions, and to know that what they are doing is in line with the rest of the organization and the change they are aiming to achieve. If this communication changes drastically based on who it is coming from and when, alignment and clarity must be improved.

Next Steps To Achieving Executive Alignment

Executive alignment is always important to organizational growth, but never is this more apparent than during times of major change – which, in today’s world, is more frequent than ever. If executives are aligned on organizational objectives and are committed to a strategy for the change, it will help bring the entire organization onboard. It will help support a corporate culture that promotes accountability and momentum, create clarity around expectations and the organization’s overall purpose, and help ensure that communication is consistent, transparent, and supports the desired outcomes.

Leadership is about more than just having an executive job title. Developing leadership that works requires continuous effort and ongoing training to improve skills and expand the knowledge base of leaders at every level. The goals of introducing leadership training programs in your company should be aligned with organizational objectives. For example, if you strive to create a culture of accountability, it is critical for leaders to both demonstrate that behavior and have the necessary skills for developing it among their teams. The competencies that leadership training addresses—communication, delegation, coaching, building relationships, and beyond—will help ensure that your company has a full leadership pipeline both now and in the future.

Strategies for Achieving Leadership Training Goals

Once you have defined the goals for your leadership training program, you need a strategy to help you achieve them. Think of leadership training like any other internal initiative and apply the same process: Create a strategy with interim objectives, milestones, and methods for measuring success.

1. Offer Appropriate, Relevant Training

In order to build strong leadership skills throughout your organization, you must first decide which kind of training is appropriate for various levels of leadership. This way, you’re spending your training budget in the areas where you’ll see the most impact. For example, it doesn’t make sense to have a junior executive go through a high-level leadership course to learn how to be a mentor if he or she doesn’t even have any direct reports yet. Although mentorship training might be interesting to that individual, he or she won’t have the opportunity to apply that knowledge for many years to come. A better fit would be an introductory course for building effective relationships.

Exercise: Perform a leadership assessment exercise to determine the types of training that will make the most sense for your organization:

• Step 1 – Create a chart that outlines the skills needed for each leadership position in the company (supervisor skills, delegation, organizational communication, mentoring, etc.).
• Step 2 – Create a matrix of all of the existing and potential leaders in the left vertical column and all of the necessary competencies you have identified in the top row.
• Step 3 – Rate each individual for each competency to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie.
• Step 4 – Compare this matrix to your leadership skills chart to identify and fill the training gaps.

For example, you might determine that the mid-level role of Marketing Team Leader needs skills in effective communication, increasing productivity, and coaching others. However, during the assessment, you have determined that Manager Mike, who is currently in that role, is not a strong communicator. Once you have identified the gap, you now know where to invest your training budget for that individual.

2. Commitment to Ongoing Leadership Training

The more you invest in leadership development at all levels, the more likely your pipeline will be filled with future leaders who are equipped to tackle new challenges. The best way to ensure that this happens is by creating a long-term strategy that includes regular training sessions that build on each other as individuals progress in their careers. Develop a strategy to meet your short- and long-term goals just as you would for any project or company initiative. This should include putting training dates on the calendar and making sure the timeline doesn’t get pushed back.

Exercise: Solidify your training strategy and demonstrate your long-term commitment by implementing a training calendar:

• Step 1 – Create a rolling 12-month training calendar that you update once each quarter.
• Step 2 – Prioritize the training gaps you identified in the previous exercise.
• Step 3 – Set training dates at intervals that make the most sense for your organization.
• Step 4 – Share this calendar with everybody in the company to help you stay accountable.

3. Develop a System to Evaluate Training Results

As you would with any new initiative, you need to determine whether the leadership development program is generating the improvements you have outlined in your goals. An evaluation might include a pre- and post- training 360-degree assessment, an employee engagement survey, a series of short tests to assess retention, or observations of changed behavior by a manager who works closely with the individual. Don’t forget: A successful organization needs excellent, not average, leaders.

Exercise: Remember that calendar you just created? Now it’s time to add evaluation activities after the training events that you have scheduled:

• Step 1 – Identify the metrics you want to track.
• Step 2 – Create the systems for gathering and evaluating data.
• Step 3 – Add measurement and evaluation activities to the training calendar.

For example, if you want to develop a coaching program, perhaps you use weekly coaching sessions and short surveys as metrics so that you can track how many sessions have occurred and each participant’s rating to determine how well the program is working.

If you are committed to developing leadership that works in your organization, select programs that are relevant to each group or individual, commit to an ongoing training program that builds on itself, and evaluate results to ensure that your goals are being met. The concepts are simple, but the implementation can be more challenging. Approach leadership training like you would any other important initiative in the organization and make it a top priority.