Leadership lessons
What do leaders do well in highly engaged teams? A recent study has shed some insight into these important questions and there are lessons to be learned by all leaders from the findings.
The combination of the team leader’s attitude and behaviour is the key factor that influences the team and these can make or break team engagement. There are three key thing leaders do well in highly engaged teams:
- Create an environment of emotional support and care
- Role model the attitude and behaviours they want to see in their team
- Ensure a sense of challenge, purpose, and stretch
When these behaviours are lacking there can be active disengagement, complacency or pseudo engagement. In this type of environment, small, niggly things can become emotional blockages very quickly and this can stunt team growth and prevent productivity and innovation.
Self-awareness has got to be the key here, you need to examine closely how you behave and ask tough questions about whether you are really a role model for behaviour within your team. The study found that in disengaged teams, employees were wary of leaders and reported they had ‘tantrums’ or were ‘up and down’.
Put quite simply, the behaviours and energy of the leader are contagious and we must put our own behaviours under the microscope if we are to get to the bottom of problems within our teams.
