The multiple demanding leadership challenges in teams.
The teams are made up of heterogeneous professionals in their multiple dimensions. From personality to habits, from practices to their experiences, from knowledge to the way they mobilize their skills. Leading these teams, people and professionals are particularly demanding and a permanent challenge – even for those who are more experienced in assuming their coordination, mobilization, and motivation daily.
While critical elements and catalysts both in teams and in the organization as a whole, leaders, in their most diverse nature and profile, can inspire or demoralize people/professionals, transversally.
On the other hand, it is unquestionable that the leadership role is increasingly uncertain, volatile, difficult, and demanding; even more so knowing the unpredictability in which we live, in day-to-day life, and the numerous problems and challenges that arise, constantly – not only organizational; but also the fruit of performance more or less achieved by other professionals and teams.
Something very characteristic of those who have leadership positions – especially at an early stage – is to seek ‘small’ victories very quickly; so it is always relevant to remember that our moments of life, personal and professional, are not a sprint; but more like an ultra marathon.
Therefore, it is more important to celebrate the small sprints and small victories that, as a team, are achieved until reaching the main goal.
To this end, active and dynamic listening and understanding of your entire environment is a critical element in gaining trust – both from others and from the team. Listening helps you to understand the ideas that others have to present in addition to being a useful tool for your involvement.
The involvement of others and/or their work teams is essential to mobilize wills, emotions, and feelings that are very contagious; a good leader knows how to get the best out of those emotions, and it is worth reinforcing that collective trust that brings added value to the teams and their people.
Trust is understood in the context of respect and commitment and not arrogance or spite for the demands and responsibilities that imply achieving results.
Therefore, also, ‘example’ – practices and leadership by example – are catalysts of this positive trust and a tool that will be particularly visible in its absence, i.e. when not verified.
As a rule, when a leader shows, by example, the action and/or the adjusted behavior, he transmits to his team members (and transversally), a concrete example that reproduces, cyclically, with a multiplying effect, over time. If it doesn’t, the effect is largely negative, since, in the same way, it reproduces negative actions and behaviors on the whole scale.
It is therefore necessary to act when necessary. And act when it implies an effective and positive change for the whole organization. However, we find many times multiple forms of excuse.
For example, of so many other themes and actions, we ignore and postpone tasks that we know are important.
We find distractions where they do not exist, awakened by our natural curiosity, resulting in lethargy when assertive action is imposed.
The need for more results requires focus and careful management of time use and priorities, ensuring that we keep the priorities on the day’s agenda. It is often learning to say ‘no’; or better managing priorities, tasks, and goals to have time for what matters most.
Endless meetings, uninterrupted e-mails, several multi-tasks – blurred and decentralized – toxicity of behaviors and personalities, among so many others distract and demobilize from solutions accentuate the problems.
More than ever before – or perhaps, since always, leading has a special demand – it will not be for everyone and implies continuous learning and a constant effort to adjust expectations – of oneself, others, teams, and the organization.
