Managing for Success – Get the Best Out of Your Team

Creating a successful environment for a team is difficult and rewarding.  Managing different personalities and habits in itself is a gift, but how do you create an environment to win?  Winning doesn’t necessarily mean getting first place, selling the most or becoming the most recognizable team at work.  Instead, winning is about getting everyone involved and figuring out how to use the best qualities from each team member.

Every team has a captain or manager to navigate towards success and produce results.  I’ve recently stepped into a leadership role and understand that the success of the team is on my plate.  Not only does a capatain/manager need to worry about their own production but how successful the team is.

Here’s a list on how to “Manage for Success” and win:

  • Create an encouraging and positive environment
    • Positive energy is contagious, but negative energy spreads like a virus – in with the good and out with the bad
    • Keeping the negative energy out and focusing efforts on creating an environment that is positive will encourage all members to take risks and be happy with their work – taking risks is something all team members should try
  • Communicate with your team
    • I’m a strong believer in over-communication because it creates an open door policy between individual contributors and managers – this policy encourages feedback that will benefit the team and help the manager focus on areas for improvement
    • Communicating strategic and tactical goals for the team is key to success b/c all members will understand what they’re working towards and how they’re contributing – goals help keep a team aligned with their success plan and offer a
  • Know the strengths of the team
    • Each member of the team serves a purpose and identifying how their strengths contribute is one of the most difficult tasks of a manager – utilizing everyone’s capabilities and allowing them to work independently with their strengths will deliver a complete product
    • In addition to knowing the strengths of individuals, the manager must understand the overall strengths of the team and figure out how to make the team better as a whole – a team is a unit…a unit that must work together and contribute to the overall goals
  • Recognize and Reward  
    • Goals are established and often times met; therefore its important to recognize high achievers – this will encourage others to work harder
    • Recognition and rewards create a competitive nature that is positive and it will reflect on the overall success of the team – competitiveness is important and it will keep each person within a team pushing themselves to succeed

These values have helped me bring the best out in my team and succeed.  More and more I understand the importance of a leader and how significant their actions are.  Every individual is important and its up to you to figure out how they contribute to the overall success.