Don’t dream about success, but act to be successful!
Without having the right people selected for the right job and responsibility, you’ll never find the energy, drive or knowledge to delight your customer. A statement that resonates with me, in particular, is: “Work together and allow a team to excel.”
A well-performing team is critical and must ask itself, ‘How can we differentiate from the competition?” A great team does this on a daily basis, and doesn’t merely dream of having success, but acts to be successful, and applies this success to create disruptive solutions.
Easy? … absolutely not. It takes time, experience and much energy and effort. Every team needs a leader pointing them in the right direction. A hands-on person with positive thinking and persistent action, who can inspire, energize, decide and listen, and who allows the team members to be creative and make a difference. Every problem or challenge presents an opportunity to improve.
With almost 25 years of management experience, I’ve learned many a lesson from difficult situations and challenges. To turn these experiences into learning experiences, I use this knowledge to help build a strong team. To me, 6 criteria are essential:
Transparency - Through open and regular communications, employees feel more respected and their feedback more valuable. In this type of environment, team members will be more willing to share ideas. While you may not be able to share everything with the team, being honest and upfront wherever possible is always the best way to go.
Communication - In life, just about everything comes down to good communication. Make sure your team knows the proper methods for communicating, or if there is a preferred channel for specific items. Consider holding weekly round-up calls or meetings where team members can speak up and share updates, concerns, or an idea they may have.
Feedback - To ensure your team is growing and thriving, members need regular feedback and insight from the team leader. This will help your employees to develop both professionally and personally and provides an open channel for honest, two-way communications. You can share notable areas of success or perhaps where improvement is needed, and in turn, they can offer constructive feedback as well.
Collaboration - When managing a team full of diverse skill sets and personalities, it's critical for team members to work together to ensure the success of projects and of course, the team itself. Encourage your team to harness their talents by collaborating on various levels of a project from start to finish and watch the creativity happen.
Trust - While it can be challenging for some to delegate responsibilities, learn to trust that your team is entirely capable - after all, you most likely hired him or her! To stay in the loop with project happenings and developments, consider using a project management tool to track milestones and delegate who is responsible for each one.
Work/Life Balance - Nobody wants a team who is entirely burnt out. This will manifest in everyday work, projects, and the overall success of the team. Check-in with team members regularly to ensure there are proper boundaries in place and that work is not all-consuming. Encourage small breaks throughout the day for walks, fresh air, a mini-meditation, or whatever helps get away from too much screen time.
These principles certainly will help you to create a high-performing team and if done at all echelons, you will have a very strong foundation to exceed your customer’s expectations. By practicing these principles, BDP has been able to position ourselves as a leader in growth, innovation, talent, and core values within the logistics industry.
