Lead Your Team Right

How Can You Lead When You’re Not Sure Who Your Team Members Are?

As a leader, you want to lead your team right. You want to serve your team. But how do you do it if you’re not sure who they are and what they need in order to succeed?

Each member of your team has different roles. You have to balance the fine art of playing to their strengths while still cultivating their skills to meet the team’s objectives.

So, you have to start by building your own skills of perception and observation in order to help the team gel and work together.

Here is a technique to build those skills and lead your team better.

Observe how your team members interact. Do they have conversations that are stilted and curt? Or do they exchange ideas that build off each other‘s thoughts? Even if it’s only how they plan lunch, see if their contributions to the plan build off the previous suggestions. There is a flow to those conversations that creates a flow in their working relationships.

Watch how they interact about something as benign as lunch and you will learn who is the instigator, the planner, the implementer, and peacemaker. There are other roles in the team. But for now, learn who is who and you’ll be able to support each person’s abilities.