Team Building Starts with YOU

Whether we’re working with one other person or we’re trying to put together a multi-national division, building a team that trusts each other and gets results can be tough sledding at times.

I feel strongly that an effective team builder needs to have and instill certain qualities in his or her team and be prepared to recognize that their own leadership style will cause people to want to follow their leadership. In other words, don’t expect a team to jump to your commands, come together to solve world peace or any other extraordinary goal until you as a leader develop a leadership style that the people you lead feel is trustworthy – worthy of their trust.

Sure, for awhile you might bully people into submission, or, at the other end of the spectrum, have people who report to you shuffle papers until retirement. But neither method gives any organization long-term high performance. However, the extraordinary results come when you get your leadership style to a place where people feel like following and achieving your vision, mission and goals.

So what is the style your should adopt? I’d suggest that there are eight building blocks (and they are not linear but rather a circular or mosaic approach). They are Humility, Development, Commitment, Focus, Compassion, Integrity, Peacemaking and Endurance. Leaders who embrace these eight have teams who see them as trustworthy and are willing to follow them to achieve extraordinary goals dreams.