Setting objectives and expecting your team to achieve them is not about being a leader. Empowering your employees to interact and be acknowledged will result in increased productivity and the development of the relationship between you and your employees. Understanding their perspective and also what is expected from you enables you to strengthen your leadership position.
Here are ten competencies that teams anticipate from their leaders when attempting to achieve business change:
1. Transparency
The effectiveness of the change depends on the transparency of your expectations. It enables the team to concentrate on what is essential throughout the transformation, increasing their effectiveness and assisting them in making significant progress during the transitional stage. Teams do not expect the leader to know the exact approach, but they do want them to be capable of understanding the objective of what changes are anticipated from them and how a change creates improvement.
2. Opportunity
Leaders are accountable for their employees’ growth and development, and the best way to support their change for the better is to provide them with challenging opportunities that empower them to evolve with the business. Engaging your employees at all phases of the change will give them the opportunity to become a part of the strategy and envision the outcome you want to accomplish through their eyes, their role and what they do every day.
3. Contribution
Teams don’t simply expect to be there just to follow instructions; they should be able to contribute and to become a part of establishing the strategies for the change. Which doesn’t suggest you should surrender to your team as a leader but listening to their recommendations optimise their involvement and dedication, resulting in an effective execution of the change. Truly listening is the key if you want to create a sense of trust and belief from your team.
4. Delivering to Expectations
Leaders that neglect to implement their responsibilities quickly lose whatever commitment and loyalty that their team was willing to provide. Trust is an important aspect of leadership, and nothing builds trust quicker than fulfilling your responsibilities and engaging your employees in the transformation, it’s do what you say you are going to do in practice.
5. Consistency
Leaders that are inconsistent in their management style with their employees can create uneasiness and anxiety, which will never improve performance. They will achieve remarkable results throughout the change period if they are consistent. Employee’s need consistency, they expect everybody to be treated equally, and require consistent behaviour so that whenever they accomplish something, they should be acknowledged.
6. Respect
It never fails to amaze, how often leaders do not appreciate a negative attitude from their employees while failing to appreciate themselves. It takes nothing to recognize your employees, but the consequences of that are substantial. The simplest way to show your respect is to pay attention to your team, ask them what they think, and encourage their input throughout any change process.
7. Ethical
When you mislead your employees, you undermine their trust and respect, which causes them to question you and you start losing face. You may not be ready to share all of the facts about the change process but be upfront and timely in what you can share. It is understandable that you can’t always disclose specific information, but that doesn’t imply that you still choose to hold back. Telling them you have no new updates is more effective than avoiding saying anything at all.
8. Gratitude
Giving gratitude is one of the most fundamental requirements, and when employees perform well, they expect to be complimented by their leader. It doesn’t have to be elaborate; appreciation may sometimes be as simple as a “thank you” or “excellent work, nicely handled.” Showing gratitude is one of a leader’s most powerful tools, but so many leaders don’t do it. When attempting to execute a significant change, complimenting employees on a specific part of the process in which they are participating makes a difference in both their engagement and the success of the change.
9. Constructive Feedback
Leaders encounter problems but criticizing employees never helps to resolve the issue. Employees need frequent, constructive feedback on their participation in the change process. If the outcome is not what you expected, advise them, but do it in a way that facilitates learning and development, so that they will know how to prepare for future situations and attempt to solve their own problems in a more productive and proactive manner.
10. Defend your Team
When problems occur, too many leaders don’t support their employees. However, as the leader, when things go wrong, they are a part of the lack of success; you cannot just remove yourself from the problem and still execute the change without the employees’ support. That doesn’t mean you can claim responsibility, but you should try to defend your team, protect them from critique, and get them back on track by demonstrating to them the benefits of the change. Leaders that do this will discover that their teams will support them while things are working well and should not abandon them when things are not going well.
Leaders who adequately meet these expectations establish a productive, dedicated team which they can ultimately depend on where they are committed and will do everything possible to ensure the successful implementation of the change. If you would like the team’s support, you must first support them.
CONCLUSION
If you want to flourish as a leader, have an excellent career, or a successful business, you must be willing to welcome change. Society, your business and almost everything we see before us is constantly changing. You will most certainly not be equipped to evolve until you truly accept change and know how to implement it. Accepting change if you want your lifestyle, career and business to be different in comparison to what they were before and bounce forward and not stay stuck.
So, by following simple practices, you should be a successful leader:
- Prepare for the journey
- Lead with confidence
- Share your vision
- Empower and support your team
- Implement you change
- Be active throughout the process