7 Biggest Mistakes When Building Culture on Your Remote Team!

Building a healthy business culture for a remote team does not happen organically as in a physical location. As the leader, you must work harder to ensure your team buys into the company’s core values and remain connected through shared goals. While doing this, there are some mistakes you should watch out for.

One mistake to avoid when building culture on your remote team is overlooking communication needs. The lack of physical proximity necessitates regular check-ups to get updates on your team’s progress. This reduces the chances of deviating from the company’s main goals and core values.

You’re in the right place if you are eager to build a healthy culture on your remote team. This article covers seven mistakes to avoid while building a business culture remotely. It also includes some tips on building team culture remotely and maintaining it when transitioning to remote work.

1. Failing To Communicate Work Culture to Your Team

Every business has a culture that can be defined or undefined. Companies with defined cultures have shared attitudes, values, beliefs, and assumptions. Conversely, those with undefined cultures tend to have everyone on the team act as they wish, resulting in a lack of coordination.

Work culture usually begins from the top. When working in an office, it’s easy for a team to follow a leader’s example and form a culture. However, in a remote setting, the lack of physical contact denies your team a chance to learn from you.

If you communicate your values to your team verbally or in writing form and how you expect them to behave, you’ll have a functional work culture. You should never assume your team knows how you expect them to conduct themselves.

If you communicate your values to your team verbally or in writing form and how you expect them to behave, you’ll have a functional work culture.

2. Lack of Effective Leadership

Teams are always a reflection of their leaders, so if a business fails to meet its remote culture goals, the inefficiency most likely comes from the leadership. Leading a remote team is different from leading a physical team.

We as leaders must take extreme ownership if we are to be successful!

If a remote leader fails to leverage technology to keep their team organized and aligned in the same direction, they’ll encounter challenges along the way.

Before anyone assumes a remote leadership role, they should undergo training to equip themselves with the technological, interpersonal, and communication skills to bridge distance limitations.

A successful remote leader should enhance teamwork and push the team towards the same goal.

A successful remote leader should enhance teamwork and push the team towards the same goal.

3. Not Establishing Effective Communication Means

Efficient communication is the backbone of every successful (remote) organization. It enhances cohesion and collaboration by ensuring the team receives timely updates and the leaders get feedback when needed.

In an office setting, communication is easier. You can get hold of your team whenever you want and use nonverbal cues to build trust and give your message the weight it deserves.

On the other hand, working with a remote team requires you to rely on digital technology for all your communications. Although most remote leaders have the right communication tools, they lack the knack for how and when to use them to ensure efficiency.

…most remote leaders have the right communication tools, they lack the knack for how and when to use them to ensure efficiency.

Not knowing how to use communication tools effectively leaves the team without clarity of their responsibilities, the project’s progress, and the timelines they’re supposed to observe. As a result, misunderstandings and conflicts arise, making it difficult to work as a team.

To lead a successful team, you should have structured communication. Your team should know your company’s communication channels, which should go beyond written communication, including video teleconferencing channels such as Zoom. Also, have a schedule of meetings where you’ll give updates on the way forward.

4. Failing To Equip Your Team With the Right Tools

A study by ConnectSolution shows that 77% of remote workers are more productive at home than in an office, with 30% taking less time to complete tasks. These statistics can be promising when building a remote team.

A study by ConnectSolution shows that 77% of remote workers are more productive at home than in an office, with 30% taking less time to complete tasks.

However, you can only realize such success if your team has the right tools to work from home. Most remote organizations shift the responsibility of gathering remote working tools such as laptops and ergonomic seats to the team, which can be overwhelming and lead to:

Lack of collaboration. Without the right working tools, it’ll be impossible for the team to meet deadlines. Some members may be ahead and others behind, making it challenging to work and progress as a team.
Inability to attract and retain talent. Your team may find it frustrating and unsatisfying to work for you because they cannot meet the desired results. Changing your team from time to time makes it hard to cultivate a thriving culture.
Reduced productivity. Lacking the right tools causes your team to spend more time completing a task, which can result in burnout, decreased morale, and low work quality.

5. Recruiting Mismatch Candidates

Remote work is not suitable for everyone. When hiring a remote worker, you should look for more than talent. The candidate’s temperament, skills, and work ethic should perfectly match what you have specified in the job description.

The mistakes that most remote leaders make when hiring are failing to discuss the company’s culture during the hiring process and undermining the candidate’s personality and traits. What happens is you bring on board a team that’s unmotivated and unable to work independently.

The mistakes that most remote leaders make when hiring are failing to discuss the company’s culture during the hiring process and undermining the candidate’s personality and traits.

Before signing a contract, all recruits should know your remote working culture, what you believe in, your goals, and what you expect of them. Their signature on the work contract should serve as consent that they agree to abide by the company’s values.

6. Lack of Team Engagement

Lack of team engagement results in decreased productivity.

When working in an office, workers have the privilege of staying engaged with one another in a formal and nonformal way. An employee can stop by another team member’s cubicle to ask for opinions about their upcoming project. Or go out for coffee and have an informal conversation about work.

Such engagements foster connections and deep relationships, which promote teamwork and cohesion. It gives everyone a sense of belonging for being part of the company’s mission.

In contrast, there are no face-to-face interactions in a remote setting, making your team prone to disengagement and boredom. The result is decreased productivity and a lack of motivation to take up more work.

Managing a remote team requires planning for strategies to bring your team together, which could include the following:

Having regular meetings with the team and individual members.
Creating communication channels like Google Hangout to allow team members to interact casually as they work.
Having fun activities such as playing games virtually and encouraging everyone to participate.

7. Lack of Defined Goals and Responsibilities

Leaders mostly assign different roles and projects to remote workers. This constant shift to unrelated roles from time to time leads to a lack of clarity on team members’ responsibilities. It also causes the team to lose focus on the main goal.

The lack of defined responsibilities and goals leads to confusion and decreased productivity because team members don’t know what’s expected of them. Also, it becomes challenging to hold anyone accountable.

Every team member should know their roles and predetermined timelines in advance. They should also know how their roles relate to those of other team members to encourage interdependency.

Reasons why your remote team is inefficient	Description
*Failing to Communicate Work Culture to Your Team*	Undefined work cultures result in a lack of coordination. Remote settings make it difficult to lead by example, and it’s crucial to communicate your values and expectations to your team.
*Lack of Effective Leadership*	Leading a remote team requires training to equip leaders with technological, interpersonal, and communication skills. Effective leadership enhances teamwork and ensures everyone works towards the same goal.
*Not Establishing Effective Communication Means*	Efficient communication is necessary for a successful remote organization. It’s important to know how and when to use digital communication tools effectively to ensure clarity of responsibilities, project progress, and timelines.
*Failing to Equip Your Team With the Right Tools*	Remote teams must have the right tools to work effectively. Without proper tools, there’s a lack of collaboration, an inability to attract and retain talent, and reduced productivity.
*Recruiting Mismatch Candidates*	Hiring candidates whose temperament, skills, and work ethic don’t match the company’s culture results in an unmotivated and unable to work independently team. Communicating the company’s culture during the hiring process is crucial.
*Lack of Team Engagement*	In remote settings, there are no face-to-face interactions. This makes it crucial to foster connections and relationships to promote teamwork and cohesion, ultimately increasing productivity and motivation.
*Lack of Goals and Responsibilities*	The lack of defined responsibilities and goals leads to confusion and decreased productivity because team members don’t know what’s expected of them. Also, it becomes challenging to hold anyone accountable.

Seven Reasons Why Your Remote Team Is Inefficient

Can You Build Culture Remotely?

A corporate culture revolves around what a business does and how it does it. It sets the tone for the attitudes, practices, and values that a company portrays as it pursues its mission. Work culture is equally important whether you operate remotely or in a physical office. It distinguishes you from other similar businesses.

You can build culture remotely as you do in an office setting. However, a remote culture should focus more on fostering deep connections to keep your team fully aligned at all times. Staying connected keeps everyone aware of the core values and what the business stands for.

Building a culture for your remote business benefits you in the following ways:

It differentiates your business. After testing the efficiency of remote work during the coronavirus period, most businesses are fully shifting in that direction. Soon, there will be a lot of similar businesses online competing for the same audience. A business culture helps you stand out because culture is difficult to copy.
It increases productivity. Disruptions are not uncommon in remote work. However, when everyone has a code of values to guide them, they’ll be disciplined and motivated to deliver results with minimal supervision.
It promotes team engagement. Work culture aims to help the business achieve its goals. When everyone is looking for the same results, it becomes easy to collaborate and engage digitally.

How To Build Team Culture Remotely

You build your team culture remotely by first defining your business culture. Your team needs to know what your business stands for and the principles that should guide them when working, making decisions, and interacting with one another.

You build your team culture remotely by first defining your business culture.

You can define your business culture by:

You are gathering information from your team. Your business culture mainly affects your employees. Before defining your values, you should consult with them and learn about their ideal culture.
Establish your core values. The DNA of your company’s culture lies in the values you set. Values dictate how your team conducts themselves and how your company operates.
Creating a strategy for implementing your values. Remember, your business culture remains a concept until you actualize it. After setting your values, the next thing is to define how you’ll bring them to life.
Communicating your values to your team. Apart from defining and implementing your business culture, there are other follow-up activities you should do to ensure it is sustainable.
Publicize your business culture. Consider preparing your culture deck and publishing it on your website and your socials regularly. When operating remotely, your online presence matters because it’s where your target audience and other stakeholders find information about your business.
Encourage open communication. It would be best to have communication channels that promote openness and transparency to give everyone a sense of belonging and align them with the work values. The communication style should be lenient to encourage everyone to participate.
Cultivate deeper relationships beyond work. Many remote workers suffer loneliness and isolation. Engaging with them at informal levels helps you learn how they can fit into the business depending on their likes and dislikes.
Adopt rigorous hiring standards. Conducting a thorough screening when bringing new members on board helps not to settle just for talent but personalities that value your business culture. New workers should also undergo a business orientation to acquaint them with the culture and expectations.

Here’s a quick video made by Forbes, briefly explaining how to lead a remote team successfully.

How To Lead A Remote Team Successfully

How Do You Maintain Team Culture While Transitioning to Remote Work?

Create an environment where everyone feels connected and involved.

If you have dedicated your effort to building a workplace culture that promotes employee productivity and job fulfillment, it can feel scary to transition to remote work. Fortunately, you can maintain your work culture in different ways, even when working remotely.

One way to maintain team culture while transitioning to remote work is to create an environment where everyone feels connected and part of something greater than themselves. To do this, you must create daily communication touchpoints with the team to make them feel involved.

Other ways of maintaining team culture include:

Reinforcing your culture before transitioning. Before releasing your employees to work remotely, meet with them and remind them of your business values. Tell them you still expect them to uphold the values even if they work from home.
Optimizing technology usage. Technological advances have made it more manageable to keep a remote team connected. You should bring your team on board in similar communication platforms like Slack and video conferencing like Zoom. The aim is to keep everyone productive, updated, and engaged during work hours.
Cultivating trust. Upholding your team culture requires you to create trust with your team. You must trust that your team will give results even if you are away from them to follow up on them. On the other hand, your employees need you to trust them to act responsibly.
Planning for team activities. Once in a while, it would help if you scheduled team activities such as watching a movie or playing games and having casual discussions to bring your remote team together.
Prioritizing employees’ well-being. When your employees feel cared for, they’ll have job fulfillment and abide by the company’s code to see it succeed.

Strategies for Maintaining Team Culture on a Remote Team	Definition
*Reinforce company culture before transitioning to remote work*	Tell them you still expect them to uphold the values even if they work from home.
*Optimize technology usage for communication and collaboration*	You should bring your team on board in similar communication platforms like Slack and video conferencing like Zoom. The aim is to keep everyone productive, updated, and engaged during work hours.
*Cultivate trust with team members*	You must trust that your team will give results even if you are away from them to follow up on them.
*Plan team activities to promote socialization*	Schedule some team activities such as watching a movie or playing games and having casual discussions to bring your remote team together.
*Prioritize employee well-being for job fulfillment and commitment to the company*	When your employees feel cared for, they’ll have job fulfillment and abide by the company’s code to see it succeed.

Strategies for Maintaining Team Culture on a Remote Team

Is The Self Authoring Suite Useful For Leaders? (Review)

Being a team leader for 12 years, my experience is that most self-improvement programs and apps capture our attention with their beautiful interface and catchy slogans; the Jordan Peterson Self Authoring Suite is different. It has removed all the unnecessary and is single-mindedly aimed at helping you become a better person.

The Jordan Peterson Self Authoring program is a very useful in-depth journaling exercise aimed at understanding your past so you can design your future. Past, Present and Future Authoring allows you to explore each period. The writing exercises provide greater insight into unresolved traumas, current behaviors, and future goals.

Jordan Peterson’s exploration into the theory of self-authorship encompasses his experiences as a clinical psychologist. The result is the Self Authoring Suite, which provides the tools for a comprehensive self-examination. The program allows you to develop traits that will enable you to achieve increased self-management and professional growth.

I started using the program for my personal development and then realized what impact it could have on my team. The self-authoring program is now an essential piece of the puzzle when building highly effective teams.

Does Jordan Peterson Self-Authoring Work?

There have been many positive reviews of Jordan Peterson’s self-authoring work. Many people believe the Self Authoring Suite helped them identify and set goals. Meeting key performance indicators is usually a measurement of success for many employees. This can be a great benefit in the workplace.

Self Authoring was a topic in an article in Oprah Magazine and one in NPR. The latter’s title was “The Writing Assignment That Changed Lives.” This particular article focused on the academic achievements of participants in the program. Arguably, this is a testament to how effective his program is. But this success can also be easily translated into a work environment.

This isn’t surprising as it’s a concept based on proven scientific research. People with self-authoring minds are highly ambitious and welcome leadership roles. They thrive on using their talents and skills to benefit an organization. They’re also keen on contributing to the company to help achieve its goals.

The program helped me look at my life and goals from new perspectives; it has allowed me to look at my future clearly and precisely. The main benefit I gained from completing the exercises was a solid understanding of my inner wants and desires. I later turned this understanding into actionable steps leading me toward my now deeply connected goals.

People with self-authoring minds are highly ambitious and welcome leadership roles. They thrive on using their talents and skills to benefit an organization.

How This Program Can Develop Your Leadership Skills

Jordan Peterson’s writing exercises give you an in-depth view of your past, present, and future. This can provide you with a better sense of self. The result is a lasting, positive impact on your mental and physical health.

Jordan Peterson’s Past Authoring

Past authoring program exercise screenshot

This session helps you confront past demons that may hinder your progress. One of the essential traits required is effectively leading and managing others. This self-awareness is critical to self-management.

One of my teammates said that doing the work in Past Authoring was taxing both psychologically and physically (which I very much agree with). However, he came out with a MUCH better understanding of himself about the team. He could also let go of some of his traumatic memories and focus on the present.

The past authoring program asks you to divide your life into seven epochs, and then it invites you to write how they have impacted your life. This, as you can imagine, can be very difficult for some, but it most certainly will be helpful for everyone since it will allow you to understand who and why you are the way you are.

Past authoring is an excellent way for your team and yourself to understand why you react to things with many emotions and why some things don’t bother you.

Jordan Peterson’s Present Authoring

This session helps participants understand their personality traits. Reviewing your positive and negative (or faults and virtues, as the program calls it) traits will create actionable insights into your leadership style. The exercise can help you develop strategies to eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors.

Understanding and focusing on your strengths will help you become an expert. Expertise is mastering your strengths, not fixing your weaknesses.

Expertise is mastering your strengths, not fixing your weaknesses.

You can look at it this way, dedicate just enough time to build your weaknesses up so they are no longer obstacles toward your goals. Then commit most of your time and resources to expand and improve your strengths.

The exercise will also help you recognize strengths in your employees that you can build on. This can be highly motivating for them and will increase their productivity.

Jordan Peterson’s Future Authoring

Future authoring program exercise screenshot

This session helps you envision how you’d like your life to be. Creating a plan to achieve this reality is the key to achieving it. For every goal that you select, It will generate a sub-task; in this subtask, you will explore why you chose this goal and how important it is to you.

This aspect is vital. This is the part where you select which goals are the most important. Many people I meet need help prioritizing, which means that when the resources are scarce, they tend to take a step back and get nothing done.

Instead, by having a clear goal hierarchy, you know exactly what to do first and what needs to go if you cannot do all of it.

By having a clear goal hierarchy, you know exactly what to do first and what needs to go if you cannot do all of it.

This part of the program is a more developed and highly functional SMART goal-setting system. If you are like most, you have probably tried this system before, but it didn’t significantly impact you; that’s probably because to use SMART goal setting effectively, you need to know the psychology behind its structure.

This knowledge of your psychology is the value of the future authoring exercise and why it is so powerful.

Goal setting is a significant element in planning for a rewarding future. This habit is easily transferred to a work environment. This provides you and your coworkers with a clear direction. Working toward attainable goals will also motivate your team without team building.

Is the Future Authoring Program Worth It?

Considering the low price, the immense value, and the potentially life-changing impact, the Future Authoring program (included in the Self Authoring Suite) is worth it! I recommend it to any new or experienced leader wanting to understand their history and design their future fully.

If you value science-backed self-improvement, are willing to work, and don’t need a fancy interface, it’s a program worth completing. Here are some of the more tangible outcomes you can expect:

Better performance (in the area you chose to focus on)
Improved relationships with others
A more positive outlook which your actions will reflect
Greater ability and drive to achieve more
Less anxiety and a greater focus on attaining your goals
A clear purpose

These will impact both your personal and professional life.

How Long Does It Take To Finish The Self-Authoring Program?

Completing the full Self Authoring Suite will take 8-13.5 hours of active writing. The estimated time is 13.5, and it took my team and me an average of 9h. The suite is mentally challenging, so with the needed rest between sessions; it usually takes 2-3 weeks to complete. Below you can read how long each of the three programs takes to finish.

Jordan Peterson’s Self-Authoring Suite consists of three programs:

Past Authoring (4h) allows you to:

Identify and work on past trauma
Translate it into your narrative
Understand the experience
Take an in-depth look at some of your major memories

Present Authoring (1.5h+3h) allows you to:

Uncover your strengths
Identify and work on your weaknesses
Understand your way of thinking
Acknowledge your habits

Future authoring (5h) allows you to:

Develop your life strategy
Gain greater clarity and insight
Map out your future
Identify stumbling blocks or complications

You can choose to purchase the Suite or each of the programs individually. One program takes four to five hours to complete. However, the recommendation is that you take sufficient breaks after doing each. This ensures your mind is well-rested and fresh to get the most significant benefit.

The great thing is that once you purchase the program, it doesn’t expire. You can take as long as you need and return to the program as often as you want.

Is the Self Authoring Program Confidential?

The self-authoring program is confidential. They do, however, retain your work on their servers. This facilitates the ability to return to your work as needed, but your work isn’t reviewed or read.

Your credit card information also needs to be retained. Processing takes place directly via Stripe or PayPal. Your personal information isn’t shared with any other third parties.

How Much Is the Self-Authoring Program?

You can purchase the Full Suite of self authoring program for $29.90. This includes the Past, Present, and Future Authoring series.

You can also choose to purchase each series separately at $14.95 each.

How the Self Authoring Program Works

Final Thoughts

The self-authoring program removes everything unnecessary and keeps only what is effective and useful; it doesn’t have any fancy interfaces, cool apps, or automated analysis. It is all up to you to make it work.

If you’re willing to put in the time and energy, there is a significant opportunity to learn something new about yourself so that you can improve your relationships and your business.

Self-authoring might be a relatively new concept to many, but it’s been around for at least a decade. The self-authoring theory has developed and evolved over this short period. Theorists in this field, including Jordan Peterson, have conducted extensive research.

The benefits of self-authoring can have a positive impact on both your personal and professional life. They’ll help you become an effective leader enabling you to build a team driven by success.

5 Measurable Leadership Goals 2023 (For Team Leaders)

As a team leader, setting leadership goals must be among your priorities at any given time to provide yourself and your team with a precise direction. Your objectives must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based (SMART, for short). Emphasis must be given to measurability since this allows you to track your progress and implement changes if needed.

Measurable leadership goals for team leaders may include routinely launching new training programs, increasing team productivity by a given percentage, and growing social media followers by a specific rate. You can also target your self-development by citing weaknesses you can work on regularly.

In this article, we will talk about various measurable leadership goals you can set for your team and for yourself and some valuable tips on how you can work with your team toward achieving these objectives. We will also discuss the value of setting goals that can easily be tracked through figures and timelines, as well as the importance of being realistic in setting your goals. Let’s start!

1. Train All New Hires To Meet Organizational Standards

Ensure that each person joining your team is up to par with company and team standards. To start, brief them on the organization’s goals, then fill them in on how your team’s objectives are aligned with these. Follow this up by inculcating team protocols so they can get off on the right foot and function parallel to team expectations and standards.

This leadership objective can easily be measured by the number of new individuals joining your team at any given time and dividing it by the pass rate of the end test. Give yourself a timeline — training new hires within the first week of acceptance into the team should be ideal and justifiable.

Remember that it is important to test the new hires so they actually meet the standards of the organization and not only go through the motion of the training.

Tests and evaluations, if they are set up correctly, will encourage a competitive atmosphere and increase the performance of your team and company. You can learn more about setting up effective evaluations by reaching out to me here.

2. Launch a New Training Program Every Quarter

Continuous learning and training for your team members will significantly contribute to the development and success of your business. Remember that the market is dynamic. Leading and managing your team toward success calls for you to be vigilant in ensuring that your team is always well-equipped to handle the demands of this ever-changing world.

You can either wait for the change to happen and react, or you can train your people to default attack, as we call it here at Sancus Leadership. To assume a default attack attitude means that you work proactively and look for opportunities instead of solutions.

To assume a default attack attitude means that you work proactively and look for opportunities instead of solutions.

This is vital, especially in a crisis or during adversity, and will give you the upper hand. When most companies look for solutions to get back to normal, with a default attack attitude, you will look for an opportunity to expand and improve your business.

Take on a holistic approach to training your team by focusing on a different competency per quarter. Here are some competencies you can focus on:

Default attack attitude: Equip your team members in handling and adapting to change — an inevitable factor in any working environment. Train them to take the initiative, understand risks and move with great autonomy.
Binary communication. Train your team members in the company’s language so words only mean one thing! Whether in written or verbal communication. Being proficient in this skill helps avoid misunderstandings and conflicts.
Ethics. Your team members must be aligned with the standards set by the organization. Some aspects you can focus on are punctuality, trustworthiness, and consistency.
Accountability. Training your team members to be responsible and take extreme ownership of their work.
Conflict resolution. It is essential to train your people, so they understand that conflict can be useful if managed correctly; conflict is tension between different ideas. This tension can be exploited and used to your advantage, but without proper conflict resolution skills, they might turn into disputes.
Result orientation. Train your team to be result-driven. This will help make them more intentional with their thoughts and actions in accomplishing tasks. This will also keep them focused and persistent in their work, never stopping until goals are met.
Teamwork. The ability to collaborate with others is crucial to achieving set goals. Working in a team means each individual must learn to work harmoniously with others and respect their ideas and skills.
Leadership. Leading a theme isn’t done only from the commanding position; every person on the team needs to have leadership skills. You want to delegate subtasks to teammates and let them own and lead that task. Yes, that sometimes means you will have to listen to directions from your subordinates, but it does not mean that you have less responsibility for that task. You must still take extreme ownership of everything that happens on your team.
Industry awareness. Ensure that your team members are always abreast of the latest trends, best practices, and developments in the industry your business belongs in. You can also take training sessions as opportunities to study your competitors and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

This leadership goal can be measured by the number of High-Quality Training Programs you launch annually and how many “students” that pass.

3. Improve Team Productivity by X% Within 3 Months

Achieve your goals by improving your team’s productivity.

Make sure to quantify your goal, so your team members will know what exactly it is they should be aiming for. Support them by providing the tools and resources they need to achieve the objective. Conduct weekly feedback sessions so that each team member is updated on where the rest of the members are in terms of progress.

Here are some tips on how you can improve your team’s productivity:

Boost team engagement. Your team members will be more engaged with the team if they see that their efforts are appreciated and rewarded. Consider launching an incentive scheme or giving out rewards (gift checks, hotel accommodations, etc.) whenever milestones are reached.
Minimize irrelevant pursuits. Engaging in activities unrelated to the tasks at hand will delay goal accomplishment. Discourage your team members from checking on their social media apps while at work. Be quick and to the point during meetings and provide tips on how to be organized and avoid procrastination.
Use productivity tools. Productivity tools can help make leading and managing your team simpler. They can help make it easier for everyone on the team to monitor their progress at work.

Consider these apps:

Make sure the percentage of growth you set for this goal is realistic and attainable. Your team members may feel disheartened or intimidated if the goals are set too high. Set the goals too low, and they might start feeling diffident and low-spirited.

4. Grow the Business’ Social Media Followers by X%

Grow your business with social media marketing.

Never would I have thought five years ago that I’d be sitting here and writing a post about how to gain traction on social media… but I have come to realize that this is such a vital part of running a business nowadays, so it is worth mentioning as a legit goal for your business.

I have also come to learn that social media is a great place to practice your leadership skills; you will practice your Speaking, how to engage an audience, and how to deliver instructions quickly and effectively. All of these are great leadership skills to have.

Nowadays, social media is no longer just a way for family and friends to keep in touch, show photos, or share milestones with each other. Now, social media is used by most organizations worldwide to widen their reach and boost leads and sales.

The number of people who follow you on your accounts is an indication of how well you’re able to utilize social media as a marketing tool. Followers are essentially leads that can be converted into actual customers.

Here are some ways you can enhance your social media presence and increase your followers:

Be consistent. Post updates, photos, or videos on your social media accounts regularly — every day, if possible. The more consistent you are, the more visible you’ll be, especially with regard to search engine optimization. Make sure to always include relevant hashtags.
Post only relevant information. Quality should be prioritized over quantity. Posting consistently doesn’t mean you should sacrifice your standards. Post only content that is HIGHLY relevant to your audience and niche down as much as possible.
Engage your audience. Make it a habit to reply to all comments and questions on your posts. Randomly post questions to gather your audience’s opinions. Encourage your customers to post reviews so others can gain feedback on the quality of the products and services you offer.

Don’t forget to set a realistic timeline for this goal. This way, your team members will feel a sense of urgency and eagerly take on the task. Once the goal is reached, aim for a higher figure and challenge your team members to break their own records.

Social media audience building can be a fun game to play and to play with your team.

OK, enough with the Gen Z Social media hippie stuff, and let’s get back today to the fun things.

5. Identify 3 Weaknesses, and Work on Them

Identify your weaknesses, and work on them — Maximize your strengths and work on your weaknesses.

This is a self-development leadership goal, but it is undoubtedly one which will impact the whole team. We all have weaknesses and strengths, and leaders are in no way exempted from this.

To effectively lead and manage your team, you must know how to maximize your strengths and work on your weaknesses, so they are good enough. An excellent leader is a master at their strengths and good enough at their weaknesses!

An excellent leader is a master at their strengths and good enough at their weaknesses!

Here are some common leadership weaknesses you might be able to relate to and what you can do about them:

Control Freak

If you’re having trouble trusting your team members, then you fall into this category. You might think micromanaging your team is the best route to take to ensure productivity and success, but this is counter-intuitive.

A manager must check with their employees that they are on track toward the common goal. But this should be done by asking questions and doing inspections. It should not be done by constantly looking over someone’s shoulder; your job is to provide a what and a why; the how is up to the person closest to the problem.

Start off by delegating tasks to your team members. Take note of their strengths and maximize those to your advantage. Give them enough room to make their own decisions instead of wanting to be informed about every detail, big and small. Check on their progress weekly to ensure that everyone is on track.

Encourage them to take risks and make mistakes, And when they make mistakes, ask them what they learned from it!

And if they learned what you think they needed to, then let it go and allow them to keep taking risks. If you have another lesson for them, then provide that in a constructive and useful way, and move on.

Do not encourage creativity and then punish them with a degrading comment when they make mistakes; this is a really good way to get people disengaged and only do the minimum necessary to get a paycheck!

Overcommitment

Sometimes, you may get too wrapped up in your work that you forget about creating and respecting boundaries. Remember that your team members also need time to unwind, relax, and spend quality time with their family and friends.

Respect boundaries by ensuring that work-related matters are only discussed during work hours. Exceptions are naturally expected, especially during stressful times for the organizations (such as during a crisis or when there are deadlines), but limit interaction during these times. You may be overcommitted to your job but don’t expect the rest of the team to feel precisely the same way.

Doing it this way will allow you to have the social capital for the times when you really need people to put in their best effort. But if you ask people to give their best all the time, then you will soonly find yourself in a situation of inflation of importance. If everything is important, nothing is important.

If everything is important, nothing is important.

Stagnancy

If you’ve already established a system that works for you and your team, you may sometimes find it unnecessary to make changes. After all, why fix something that isn’t broken, right? The truth is that sometimes, you need to make changes to the established way you do things so you can keep up with the ever-changing business scene.

Avoid getting stuck in your ways by being open to your team members’ suggestions and ideas. Adapt to changes and strive to become innovative in your approach to handling different issues within the organization or the industry you belong to. Consider the feedback you get from clients so you can design new concepts that will cater to their changing needs and expectations.

Set a reasonable timeline for yourself. Depending on the magnitude of your identified weaknesses, create a timetable that will pose a tough challenge and keep you on your toes. This will motivate your team members to follow your example and pay attention to their self-development, too.

Goal	Measurable Metric
Train all new hires to meet organizational standards	Number of new hires trained with a passing rate of evaluation test
Launch a new training program every quarter	Number of High-Quality Training Programs launched annually and number of students that pass
Improve team productivity by X% within 3 months	Increase in team productivity percentage after three months
Grow the business’ social media followers by X%	Increase in social media followers percentage after a specific period
Identify 3 weaknesses, and work on them	Improvements made in the identified weaknesses

Measurable Leadership Goals for Team Leaders

When you want to learn how to make abstract leadership goals into actionable step-by-step targets, I invite you to book a FREE discovery call with me!

How To Lead With Passion so That People Want To Follow You!

Have you been tasked with attending an admin training session and expecting it to be a slow and painful death? Instead, it turned out that time flew by, and you learned a lot. This is the power of a passionate leader; they can channel their interest and energy into their listeners. They can make the mundane into exciting! So how can you become a passionate leader?

You can lead with a passion so people want to follow you by learning to show enthusiasm, assume default attacks, look for opportunities where others look for solutions, and invest in painful learning. Other more mainstream ways include; communicating your vision and celebrating victories.

In this article, we will talk about different ways to lead your team with a passion so that they will be inspired to follow your lead and become your partners in leading the business straight to the top. We will discuss the merits of being consistent, engaging, proactive, and the advantages of always being self-aware, pragmatic, and selfless. Let’s start!

1. Get Involved

Leading and managing a team is about more than just monitoring your team’s progress and ensuring that goals are met within a given time frame. Effective leadership calls for your actual involvement in the team’s affairs, particularly when circumstances are challenging.

Engage with everyone and exchange ideas and suggestions. A hands-on leader will encourage and inspire the team to give 100% effort in their work. Show enthusiasm for what you do, and your team will reciprocate.

The main job of a leader is to remove obstacles so that your team can move at full speed, but a common problem I see when training new leaders is that they become the obstacle. They get too involved in the details and the doing and too little in the overall picture.

This is most common when people have been moved to a leadership position without prior training.

The main job as a leader is to remove obstacles so that the team can move at full speed.

There’s a balance to be found between being too distant and too involved; let’s look at some ways you can interact with your team:

Be Predictable

Show true passion by being steadfast and dependable. Consistency in your words and actions significantly impacts how effectively you lead and manage your team. Do not show dedication and excitement for your work one day and withdraw the next.

Being predictable might sound bad, but when people know what you think, how you will react, and what to expect, they are much more likely to trust you!

Communicate Your Honest Level of Commitment

Giving 100% effort in your work calls for sacrifice and dedication; if we are honest with ourselves, most aren’t willing to give up family, health, and friendships for our job. That’s not a bad thing!

But only tell your team that you are 100% committed if that’s the truth; it’s better to say to them that you are 80% but always delivers on that; maybe sometimes you’ll even be able to overdeliver.

But if you go around swinging cliches about always doing your best, you better give it your best ALWAYS, or you’ll end up in a situation where trust will quickly erode.

As a leader who genuinely cares about the team and the business, you may have to set aside part of your interests. Set a good example for your team by adopting healthy habits and work-life harmony.

Make it clear to your team that achieving healthy work-life harmony is vital to happiness and satisfaction in your personal and professional lives. However, be clear about your boundaries as well. Work should only sometimes come before family, friends, and other personal matters.

I use the word harmony instead of balance; balance implies they are two opposing forces; I don’t believe this to be true. What happens at work impacts our private life and vice versa.

Exploit Your Strengths

Being a hands-on leader doesn’t mean you should dabble in every aspect of the business. We each have our strengths, so it’s best to focus on what you’re good at and let your team members do the same.

You, as a leader, should be good at planning contingencies, anticipating change, understanding the group dynamic, and how to develop each team member toward becoming an expert in their role.

Doing more of what you are good at is like rolling a stone downhill; all you need to do is give it a good push at the start and then add an extra push from time to time to keep it rolling.

The opposite is also true! When you are in a situation where your strengths don’t align with the task, you’re pushing the rock uphill; it’s slow and painful. But along the way, you will be stronger, and you’ll find yourself at the top sooner or later.

Your weakness will become your strength. The question is, do you have the time and energy to push it all the way up?

It’s essential you take some time to identify and acknowledge your weaknesses so that you can delegate as much of them as possible. You want to be an expert in your strengths but only good enough in your weaknesses.

You want to be an expert in your strengths, but only good enough in your weaknesses.

Working on improving yourself sends the message across to your team that you are humble enough to acknowledge your limitations yet strongly committed to aiming for excellence (not perfection, but more on that in another article).

2. Be a Coach and Mentor

Always be willing to share your knowledge and skills

A good leader is someone who also coaches and mentors their team. Remember, you can strongly influence how the entire team views and executes their work. Always be willing to share your knowledge and skills with your team members and emphasize their self-improvement.

Design training and programs that will enhance your team member’s knowledge and skills so they can become capable partners in achieving your goals for the team.

In the military, we often look for learning opportunities in everyday situations, especially if we see a younger leader doing something worth discussing. Good or bad, some exciting lessons are usually to be learned.

3. Be Specific About Your Mission

It's much easier to hit the bull's eye if you know what it looks like. — It’s much easier to hit the bull’s eye if you know what it looks like.

Well-defined targets and aspirations will give you the specificity and clarity to keep you going despite obstacles and challenges. As a leader, it is essential to identify these early on so you know exactly what you want to achieve for yourself and the team. It’s much easier to hit the bull’s eye if you know what it looks like.

Every year I write two pages called “min ledarskaps idé”; this is Swedish and translates into “my leadership philosophy.” In this document, I outline the direction of my leadership. Who do I want to become? What’s my assumption when someone makes a mistake (malice or incompetence)? Etc.

Here are some questions you might want to ask yourself:

What do I want to become as a leader?
Where EXACTLY do I want my team to be at the end of the year?
What am I willing to give up to achieve my objectives?
What impact do I want to have on my business?

Questions to ask yourself regarding as a team leader — Questions to ask yourself as a team leader

4. Share Your Vision With Your Team

Remember to share your goals and vision with the rest of your team. Remember that you cannot do it alone, no matter how passionate, dedicated, and exceptional you are at your job. Each member of your team has to contribute toward achieving the objectives.

Also, complement your words with actions, and allow the sparkle in your eyes to shine whenever you talk about your work. Speak with enthusiasm and execute your tasks with hunger. Most importantly, follow through with all your commitments.

Become an expert in giving compliments and feedback that people appreciate! I have a complete training program on providing feedback people want to follow; you can learn more by booking a free discovery call with me here!

5. Default Attack

Never be afraid to seize opportunities that will allow you to create or control situations. It is much better to be in charge and have the upper hand rather than merely reacting to circumstances.

Your default should be to attack, gain momentum and run the show.

Your default should be to attack, gain momentum and run the show.

Being in control allows you to do the most advantageous things for your team and the entire business. Don’t wait for the change, be the change.
It also shows how much you value your role as a leader.

It also shows how much you value your role as a leader.

Furthermore, take this as an opportunity to showcase your knowledge and skills in effectively leading and managing your team through various scenarios, whether through routine affairs or crises.

Leading during adversity is what we at Sancus Leadership specialize in. When you want to learn how to make effective decisions fast and increase team output, book a free discovery call here! Coming from a military background in Explosive Ordnance Disposal, EOD.

6. Stop Looking For Solutions

When faced with challenges, it is best to focus on finding opportunities.

Being passionate about your work does not automatically lead to success. Obstacles will stand in your way, and you shouldn’t allow yourself and your team to be demotivated by these. When faced with challenges, it is best to focus on finding opportunities rather than dwelling on the problems or finding solutions.

Finding opportunities when others are looking for solutions is an excellent way to stay ahead of the competition!

Finding opportunities when others are looking for solutions is an excellent way to stay ahead of the competition!

Default to attack, remember 😉

It’s not simply about looking for solutions to get back to normal. Instead, it’s about identifying how we can exploit and gain benefits from the situation so we can do something new!

What opportunities can we glance through the fog of chaos?

7. Be The Change

Passionate leaders are fearless in change. They can manage and lead their team without feeling defeated or demotivated. After all, change is constant and inevitable, so it should be embraced and used as an opportunity!

Solutions and ideas come out of a need to change something; we rarely invent stuff just for the sake of it. A passionate leader also drives change. Sometimes, it is the best solution when setbacks are encountered, and current strategies and tactics no longer work.

Solutions and ideas come out of a need to change something; we rarely invent stuff just for the sake of it.

As a leader, one of your responsibilities is to ensure that your team adopts a positive outlook on change. Here are some tips on how you can effectively drive change and navigate through it for the advancement of the team and the organization:

Overcoming The Hidden Challenge of Implementing Change

Challenging the status quo and formulating better strategies to address difficult situations doesn’t mean you should throw caution to the wind. Having your risk tolerance dialed in and clearly understood by the team; will keep your team from taking unnecessary risks that don’t have good benefits.

Having your risk tolerance dialed in and clearly understood by the team; will keep your team from taking unnecessary risks that don’t have good benefits.

So the first step is to train yourself in risk assessment and risk tolerance (you can contact me here, and ill guide you in the right direction)

But trust me on this one (the military has many “status quo loving” leaders); it’s technically and emotionally tough to be a creative and innovative team! A huge chunk of your time will be spent on overcoming superiors’ objections rather than getting your team to implement the changes.

Depending on your organization’s culture, this can be easier or more difficult; ensure you anticipate and prepare for these conversations.

You must be conscious of the limitations of the changes you want to implement. The transitions and variations you wish to implement and spearhead must be worth the cost (emotional, reputational, etc.). And your decisions and actions, most of the time, need to be based on facts, sound projections, and logic.

Be Disruptive

Passionate leaders are always eager to grab opportunities, take on challenges, and drive change. It takes ingenuity and some radical thinking to do these things, and a good leader can do so without overwhelming fear of disrupting the current state of affairs or being faced with the unknown.

Disrupting is painful but has a net positive outcome in the medium to long term.

Anticipate Obstacles

An effective leader knows that transitions are only sometimes seamless. When implementing change, it is wise to prepare for scenarios you may face. Sometimes, it is necessary to make adjustments along the way. Other times, it may be wiser to abandon the idea altogether.

Leading and managing a team through transitions can be daunting, but if you’re armed with the right tools, you’ll be bolder with your moves. Consider all medium and highly likely scenarios and outcomes early on. This way, you and your team will be better equipped to handle whatever comes your way.

Leading and managing a team through transitions can be daunting, but if you’re armed with the right tools, you’ll be bolder with your moves.

Anticipating obstacles is about predicting the future, which is very difficult to do with high accuracy, especially since our brain likes to make shortcuts and sucks at using statistics for making decisions.

When you want to improve your decision-making skills, I recommend you read the book Thinking Fast and Slow. It taught me so much about my biases and decision-making mistakes! I'm now much better at identifying errors in my thinking.

Celebrate Victories

Implementing any transformation in your organization will bring about a lot of change. Sometimes, the results will be favorable; other times, they won’t. Show passion as a leader by celebrating victories, even small ones.

Remember that, as a leader, all eyes are on you, so it is essential that you always lead by example. Small wins deserve to be celebrated, too, but it is vital to highlight the benefits the business gleaned. This behavior shows your positive attitude toward change. And it influences your team members to accept that change isn’t something to be feared.

As always, be specific; what did someone do that you appreciated? Did they “do a good job” or “turn in a concise, easy-to-read, and on-time” report?

Clarity and precision are key!

8. Invest in Painful Learning

Continuous learning is an excellent way for many leaders to fuel their passion; it works for me and has worked for many of my colleagues. Leading and managing a team means you always have to stay ahead of the game.

You will significantly influence how your members function as a team, so you must find ways to keep your fire burning.

Consider taking classes and furthering your education to add another feather to your cap. You can do so by reading books on various topics involving your business. You can also attend seminars or group discussions to further your knowledge and skills on specific competencies you need to work on more.

I suggest you do something out of your comfort zone that will open you up to experiencing something entirely new!

One example is the Forging Unbreakable Leadership Test, where we spend two days on the mountain and push leaders far beyond their perceived capacity so they can return to their team with a sense of “I can do anything!”

9. Be Self-Aware

Being a passionate leader doesn’t mean you’re all about making initiatives and taking the bull by the horns. Sometimes, you must also be mindful of how your words and actions impact others, particularly your team members.

A conscious leader is someone sensitive to the feelings and opinions of others. Consider your team members’ emotions and how you may affect their morale.

Consider their suggestions and opinions, even though they might contradict your own. A passionate leader can integrate other people’s input into their ideas for the betterment of the business.

10. Do Not Exploit Your Authority and Power

Being a leader only gives you complete authority and power over some aspects of the business. Therefore, you must know how to keep your sense of superiority in check. Remember that you are still part of the team and must ensure that everyone, including yourself, works synergistically for the business’s success.

A passionate leader acknowledges that the business’s success must always come first. You must be able to set aside your personal goals and ambitions if they stand in the way of the common good. An overconfident, narcissistic, selfish demeanor will not only turn people away but also harm the organization.

Include your team in the various stages of managing the business. For instance, ask for their input during the planning stages. Solicit their ideas when formulating marketing strategies. You should also include them during brainstorming sessions in the face of a crisis. Being a good team player will allow you to reap the rewards later.

Here is an insightful video of Jennifer Smith discussing how Passionate Leaders create a positive influence on the people around them and create a ripple effect on society.

How Passionate Leaders create a ripple effect

Topics on how to lead with Passion	Description
*Get Involved*	Engage with everyone, exchange ideas, and be a hands-on leader. Show enthusiasm for what you do, and your team will reciprocate.
*Be a Coach and Mentor*	A good leader coaches and mentors their team. Share your knowledge and skills with your team members, design training and programs that enhance their knowledge and skills, and emphasize their self-improvement.
*Be Specific About Your Mission*	As a leader, it’s essential to identify well-defined targets and aspirations early on, so you know exactly what you want to achieve for yourself and the team. Remember to share your goals and vision with the rest of your team, and complement your words with actions.
*Share Your Vision With Your Team*	Remember that you cannot do it alone, no matter how passionate, dedicated, and exceptional you are at your job.
*Default Attack*	Seize opportunities that allow you to create or control situations. It’s much better to be in charge and have the upper hand rather than merely reacting to circumstances.
*Stop Looking For Solutions*	Focus on finding opportunities rather than dwelling on the problems or finding solutions when faced with challenges.
*Be The Change*	Passionate leaders are fearless in change. Drive change when setbacks are encountered and current strategies and tactics no longer work.
*Invest in Painful Learning*	Continuous learning is an excellent way for many leaders to fuel their passion. Find ways to keep your fire burning by taking classes, reading books, attending seminars or group discussions, and furthering your education.
*Be Self-Aware*	Be mindful of how your words and actions impact others, particularly your team members. Consider your team members’ emotions and how you may affect their morale.
*Do Not Exploit Your Authority and Power*	Keep your sense of superiority in check as a leader. Remember that you are still part of the team and must ensure that everyone, including yourself, works synergistically for the business’s success. Set aside your personal goals and ambitions if they stand in the way of the common good.

How To Lead With Passion so That People Want To Follow You!

Final Thoughts

Leading a team is about more than just ensuring that tasks are accomplished and goals are met. Authentic leadership involves inspiring and motivating your team so that they work together toward a common objective. It calls for encouraging your team members to be creative, proactive, and strategic.

Leading with passion is crucial to the success of any business. When your team members see how energetic and committed you are, they will be roused into following your lead. Passion is contagious, so act as the instigator for your team.

5 Surprising Benefits of Passive Communication (at Work and Life)

There is a misunderstanding that passive communication can be detrimental in various life situations, including work. However, many people may need to realize its surprising benefits.

The benefits of passive communication include building listening skills, encouraging others to speak up, and creating a more easy-going team environment. People who use passive communication often help steer group discussions from becoming tense and avoid violent situations.

This article will explore the various surprising benefits that passive communication can have at work and in life. Let’s get started.

What is really the importance of language in small team leadership?

Why Is Passive Communication Important?

Understanding the importance of a specific communication style before evaluating hidden benefits is crucial.

A passive communication style is vital in team settings since it allows you to hear new ideas from others in the group. It helps to ease the workload by having someone else take control. Also, it aids in building listening skills and supports personal growth.

Passive communication is associated with not expressing opinions openly, keeping to oneself, and often following others rather than taking the lead in various situations. Some may argue that it is not preferred over an aggressive communication approach.

However, achieving common goals as a team is difficult if everyone has an aggressive working style.

For example, planning an activity with a small group of friends can become problematic if no one is easy to get along with. Nothing will get done if no one agrees with other people’s ideas.

Even if you have an aggressive communication style, it is crucial to be aware of it so that you can sometimes be passive on purpose and give others in a group a chance to take the lead.

As a passive communicator, others may feel safe and easy to bring new ideas to for input or feedback since you take time to hear them out and offer a non-aggressive approach.

Passive communication is often considered inferior, which is far from the truth as it has some surprisingly great benefits. Below, we will explore a few of them.

Passive communication is often considered inferior, which is far from the truth as it has some surprisingly great benefits.

1. Passive Communication Allows Leaders to Connect with Their Teams

Passive communication is a surprisingly great way to lead and connect with a team of individuals.

A common misconception in business is that leaders must have an aggressive communication style when managing and leading a team.

However, a passive communication style can help your team members by:

Creating a psychologically safe environment to speak up
Allowing different ideas to be presented
Enabling growth in various roles
Allowing others to showcase their leadership skills

As a passive leader, you can step back to analyze how individuals behave on your team and only intervene at the right time. This way, you will primarily have a conflict resolution role.

Additionally, it can help you determine which team members are better suited for which roles.

2. Passive Communication Can Propel You In Your Career

Surprisingly, you can launch a highly successful career if you incorporate passive communication skills in your day-to-day working style.

Many business consultants will advise you to constantly speak up in meetings and actively participate in group projects to get noticed by top corporate leaders. However, passive communication skills can help you excel in your career by demonstrating an effective managerial style, such as:

Compromising
Being selfless
Avoiding unnecessary conflict
Maintaining a professional tone
Presenting compassion and openness to different opinions

Effective managerial style	Description
Compromising	preventing or avoiding conflicts that are not necessary or beneficial to anyone by practicing effective communication and problem-solving skills.
Being selfless	Showing concern for others without expecting anything in return, being willing to prioritize the needs and well-being of others over your own.
Avoiding unnecessary conflict	Preventing or avoiding conflicts that are not necessary or beneficial to anyone by practicing effective communication and problem-solving skills.
Maintaining a professional tone	Communicating with others in a formal and respectful manner, even in difficult or challenging situations, without allowing emotions to interfere.
Presenting compassion and openness to different opinions	Showing understanding and empathy towards others’ feelings and opinions, even if they differ from your own, and being willing to listen and consider different perspectives.

Passive communication skills that can help you in your career

Creating a positive team environment lets leaders see you as someone they can rely on to keep the peace in a group setting and the necessary work completed.

Creating a positive team environment lets leaders see you as someone they can rely on.

3. Passive Communication Improves Responsiveness Skills

Passive communication surprisingly makes you more responsive to various work and life situations.

Listening carefully lets you quickly identify the communication styles of your team members during a meeting or discussion. If you manage the team, you can lead a discussion but remain passive to allow others to provide input.

As a team member looking on, if more colleagues contribute, you can use this opportunity to follow their lead. It is only sometimes necessary to provide an idea, and a team is optional to accept your idea for you to be seen as a successful contributor.

Passive communication is also practical when a situation becomes violent. Using related skills can de-escalate an argument and prevent things from getting worse.

Regarding responsiveness skills in a work environment, passive communication can keep things moving in a fast-paced environment. This includes when quick decisions need to be made, and workers need to be on board with a process promptly with few questions asked.

Passive communicators are also great at keeping the peace in their home environments. Only some arguments need to be won, whether with your siblings or in a romantic relationship.

4. Passive Communication Unlocks New Experiences

One attribute of passive communication is the inability to say “no” to others.

Although this sounds like a shortcoming, passive communication can be advantageous by unlocking new experiences.

I can remember times when I wanted to say “no” to someone’s request but ultimately felt glad that I did not. Here are a few examples:

Attending large events
Taking on a new project
Flying to a new destination
Meeting someone new

When someone asks you to do a challenging task, carefully consider their request before refusing it. Many times, these challenges can turn into rewarding experiences with positive results, such as:

Learning something new
Crossing off an item on your bucket list
Making a new friend or work connection

5. Passive Communication Improves Stress Levels

Passive communication offers a healthier lifestyle with low-stress levels.

Unlike aggressive communicators, those who use a passive communication style are less hostile. Therefore, they experience less physical and mental stress.

Some stressful situations that passive communicators usually avoid include the following:

Making too many unnecessary decisions
Voicing strong opinions
Engaging in arguments

Passive communicators know engaging with other individuals is mentally and physically challenging, which could temporarily raise your blood pressure and create unnecessary anxiety.

Here’s a video of a TED Talk that discusses the importance of effective communication.

The Art of Effective Communication

12 Shared Qualities of Outstanding Small Team Leaders!

Upon asking leaders, employees, and soldiers, “What do you think makes a good leader?” all gave a different answer. However, when analyzing the responses of big groups of people, I have encountered some recurring themes that revolve around a few key qualities that only a leader can bring their team to success. So, which are these qualities?

12 qualities of great team leaders include excellent communication skills, excellent organizational skills, charisma, decisiveness, humility, accountability, integrity, open-mindedness, excellent observation skills, confidence, the ability to listen and accept criticism, and excellent conflict resolution skills.

To learn more about these crucial skills and why they’re so essential for a leader to possess, make sure to keep reading below. By reading through the following sections, you won’t only get to understand why these qualities affect one’s leading and managing performance so much but also what it means to be a good leader in the first place. Without further ado, let’s dive into these quintessential leadership qualities.

1. Excellent Speaking and Writing Skills

No leader or manager can succeed without knowing how to communicate properly, which is why this is arguably one of the most essential skills mentioned on this list. A great team leader knows how to express themselves verbally and through written media, so the team members will understand precisely what is expected of them.

Or, as Jocko Willink, the author of extreme ownership, would put it, you can only lead effectively from a place of clarity. Click here to read the full article!

Think about it – most of a leader’s job revolves around communication. Whether they have to explain their idea, delegate tasks, give employees a picture of what’s expected of them, or express gratitude and criticism, leaders must know how to communicate as efficiently as possible.

For example, suppose a leader uses ambiguous words when briefing on a plan. In that case, team members may interpret how the plan will be executed differently.

Success would be doomed from the get-go, no matter how knowledgeable or hard-working the team members are. The same goes for every instance mentioned above. Think about how differently a piece of criticism can be received when it’s delivered crassly, or imagine a team member not knowing what’s expected of them – that’s a recipe for disaster.

Many leaders I work with have understood the idea of giving positive feedback, But often it sounds something like this “Great job, dude.” This feedback needs to be clarified and more useful.

A much better communicator would say, “Hey Bill, the presentation you did this morning was easy to understand; you were talking at a slow pace and loud enough so even us in the back could hear.”

In this example, the leader explicitly points out what they want the employee to continue doing. This gives the leader more of the desired behavior, and the receiver of the feedback understands precisely what she did, and the audience appreciates that.

2. Excellent Organizational Skills

A good leader organizes the team’s work better.

The nature of a leader’s job is, in itself, organizational. While team members need a rich base of technical knowledge (and skills) to succeed at their job, the leader’s whole purpose is to help each member reach their professional capacity by organizing their work and ensuring everything’s in order.

The main task of a leader is to remove obstacles so that the team can perform at its highest level.

The main task of a leader is to remove obstacles so that the team can perform at their highest level.

Similarly, a good leader should know when and how to delegate to organize the team’s work better and make it more efficient. Making sure all processes and jobs are carried out in the correct order and by the right people can be the difference between success and failure.

As a leader, you should delegate as much as you can to plan and prepare for the future, allowing you to destroy obstacles before your team even finds out about them.

My experience from 13 years as a military leader tells me that individuals on the team are totally fine with a high workload as long as they know the team leader is removing as much BS from their path as possible.

3. Charisma

A charismatic leader inspires the team to succeed.

Though some people I meet think that professional potential is strictly linked to our knowledge and experience, the truth of the matter is that when it comes to leading positions, there are a few personal qualities that can greatly impact our chances of succeeding.

Have you ever been inspired by a friend to do something exciting and then a few moments later realized that it was actually a really stupid idea? This is an excellent example of charisma at work.

A charismatic leader can convince you to do something without thinking about it. Still, charisma will only take the leader so far because, as we have read above, as soon as the listener starts to think (Or activate system #2, as Daniel Kahneman would say), the idea will be scrutinized and might fall apart if it doesn’t make sense.

If the idea doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, then trust between the leader and the follower will start to erode.

Since a leader needs to motivate and inspire, they need to possess, at the very least, a bit of charisma. The good news, however, is that contrary to popular belief, charisma is a skill that can be learned and mastered, just like any of the other qualities listed in this article.

One way or another, a leader needs to have it to succeed at their job. Otherwise, having team members even listen to their instructions would be difficult, while inspiring and motivating would be downright impossible.

Leading through fear and authority has proven unsuccessful, so for a team to succeed, members should respect and look up to their superiors, which is where charisma comes into play.

4. Decisiveness

A leader must be decisive. — A leader must think quickly and be decisive.

Decision-making is at the forefront of a leader’s job description. For such a position to be adequately fulfilled, the person in it should be able to think on their feet and make quick yet thought-out decisions. Choosing one alternative among many by determining which one has the most excellent chance of success is difficult, even with no time constraints. In real-world applications, the situation can be even trickier.

Many leaders and managers have to make difficult decisions that affect not only the financial success of the company but also the lives of everyone involved in a matter of hours, if not minutes, and that’s no easy feat.

That’s why you can’t have an indecisive person who second-guesses their every move running a team, as they’d be unable to make the important choices that the position requires. In the same vein, the leader should be confident enough to run with their decision and properly communicate its implications to the team and even sell other members or higher-ups on it, a skill that’s also absent in those who are indecisive.

The big difference I see between successful and unsuccessful CEOs is the ability to “make it work.” once the order has been given to move in a specific direction, there is no longer time to discuss whether or not this is the correct decision. Instead, the focus is on moving effectively forward.

Once the order has been given to move in a certain direction, there is no longer time to discuss …

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t have reoccurring checkups where you evaluate that decision.

5. Humility

Managers should stay humble and grounded.

Being in a leading position can really challenge one’s ego, and those who fail to stay humble and let their newfound power get to their head are bound to lose the trust of their teammates and fail at one point or another.

That’s why it’s essential for managers to stay humble and grounded and never to use the power given to them for their personal benefit or to put other team members down.

I have seen this happen far too many times when new officers graduate and their first assignment is to train the recruits. Fortunately, they have senior officers around that will quickly realign them with the (army’s values (to put it mildly).

After all, a leader’s whole purpose is to ensure that the group’s collective goals are achieved, and that can only happen if the person in charge can see beyond their nose. Moreover, humility plays a significant part in how employees view their superiors and how likely they are to put their all into following their directions.

Trust is the foundational difference between a group of people and a team!

Trust is the foundational difference between a group of people and a team!

When you are ready for your team to stop questioning your decisions and start dedicating themselves to the task, I invite you to book a free discovery call with me here! Let's see if you are a good fit for the Forging Unbreakable Trust Program!

As you can see, the effect that humility has on one’s success as a leader is multi-layered, adding to the importance of this quality in a person who takes on such a demanding role.

6. Accountability and Ownership

Good leaders should know how and when to hold themselves and others accountable.

There is an extensive discussion in the leadership in the business arena regarding accountability versus responsibility.

Responsibility refers to task management, “who is assigned to complete a task.”

On the other hand, accountability refers to the situation after something has happened, “Whose fault is this?” is a common question.

Good leaders should know how and when to hold themselves and others accountable. Knowing who to keep accountable for a mistake is just as important as knowing how to best go about it.

Accountability doesn’t equal shaming or berating someone; quite the opposite – it means letting someone know where they went wrong and encouraging them to do better in the future.

Many leaders need to understand the importance of assuming complete responsibility and accountability for the team’s actions and results.

What many leaders fail to understand is the importance of assuming complete responsibility and accountability for all of the team’s actions and results.

In the military world, only one person is fully responsible for the team’s actions, and that person is the team leader.

Jocko Willink famously calls this extreme ownership; if you want to learn how to take extreme ownership, then I invite you to read this article: Extreme Ownership: 13 Lessons For Leaders and Managers!

This could be a principle you can incorporate into your leadership as well.

A good leader can always recognize their faults and take proper ownership. This will make them more inclined to want to bring the company’s vision to life. That’s the only way to generate respect among subordinates and upper management.

Employees feel that their missteps are treated the same exact way as those of their superiors, and employees feel that their workplace is fair, which can go a long way regarding their job satisfaction, as explored by this Swedish study.

7. Integrity

While on the topic of fairness and its impact on job satisfaction, it’s important to note that a leader should show unmatched integrity. Since the link between bosses and morally dubious decisions has practically become a running joke at this point, it’s essential for good leaders to earn their subordinates’ trust by showcasing their integrity and honesty in every step they take.

We trust leaders whose behavior we can anticipate and who we know will make decisions that benefit not only the organization but also team members.

We trust leaders whose behavior we can anticipate, and who we know will make decisions that benefit not only the organization but also team members.

Most of us don’t expect a leader to be perfect, but we do want the people in charge to be consequent and reliable. The same goes for our employee’s expectations of us.

Fairness and honesty must be showcased in every interaction with employees, as favoritism or discriminatory treatment can really take a toll on a group’s psyche and shift the dynamics needed to achieve success.

Ultimately, if team members feel like they can’t trust their leader, the group’s chances of success are doomed from the get-go.

8. Open Mindedness

Team leaders and managers must be flexible and open-minded.

Open-mindedness, flexibility, and adaptability are essential to a leader’s performance. The business world is highly dynamic, meaning that a manager will inevitably face an unexpected challenge or change at one point or another. The way they react to said change is the difference between a great and terrible leading strategy.

According to World Economic Forum, 69% of leaders will experience at least one crisis per five years. Being able to lead through a crisis is one of the main skill sets you need to have as a leader; here’s a great read if you want to know why leaders should have crisis management skills!

While decisiveness and determination, as mentioned above, are undoubtedly important, keeping an open mind and knowing when it’s time to change directions is equally as essential in a good leader’s performance.

By this point in history; it’s pretty clear that innovation and an open mind are the keys to success.

Overcoming unexpected obstacles always requires thinking out of the box, which is why a flexible school of thought is essential in a leader. After all, the most successful business people in history didn’t get to where they are by following the norm and rejecting new ideas – by this point in history; innovation and an open mind are the keys to success.

9. Excellent Observation Skills

Leaders must have good observation skills. — Good observation skills are essential for leaders to have.

Good observation skills often go unnoticed when discussing a leader’s most important traits. There’s such a significant importance put on one’s abilities to communicate, decide, and inspire that people often fail to mention that to do any of these things effectively, you need to know how to observe.

A person that has good observation skills goes beyond their team members’ exteriors and can dissect their inner workings, e.g., what kind of authority they respond to, how they can best understand an idea presented to them, how you can inspire them, what kind of qualities they respect in a leader, and so on.

Good observation skills don’t only strengthen the relationship between a leader and their team members but also the relationships between the team members themselves. Having some deeper insights into each employee’s personality can help a leader better organize group projects and properly divide and delegate tasks, all of which contribute to the team’s collective success.

In the Swedish army, we say “utan spaning ingen aning”. This means something like, without proper reconnaissance, you will be clueless about what to do next. Your body’s reconnaissance troops are your eyes and ears.

We must strive to observe before we can make great decisions. This also fits together perfectly with the decision-making theory called OODA, Observe, orient, decide, and act. If you want to learn more about the OODA loop, you can contact me here.

10. Confidence

A leader's confidence contributes to a team's success. — A leader’s confidence contributes to a team’s success.

Confidence is another very important skill for a leader to possess, as it ties into many of the other qualities mentioned on this list. Whether it comes to having good communication skills, charisma, decisiveness, or even humility, one needs first to be confident enough.

If you are not confident in your own ideas, how can you expect anyone else to be? And why should they?

If you are not confident in your own ideas how can you expect anyone to be? And why should they?

For example, in order to clearly and convincingly communicate the message you want to your employees, you’ll have to be very confident (though not to a fault) in what you’re saying.

Likewise, the key to a person’s charisma is their innate belief in themselves and their abilities – that’s what inspires others and makes them want to be more like you.

Moreover, in order for a person to be decisive, they need to be confident in their choices and abilities; otherwise, they’d be going back and forth on whether they could trust their intuition.

Humility comes as a consequence of being confident in their skill set; someone who largely believes they are doing a good job is more susceptible to criticism without it being detrimental to them as persons.

For a person to be able to recognize their faults and shortcomings and still believe in themselves, they need to possess a great deal of confidence.

11. Ability To Listen and Accept Constructive Criticism

While on the topic of recognizing oneself’s flaws and shortcomings, I want to touch on the importance of a leader’s ability to listen to other thoughts and ideas and accept constructive criticism.

Having the open mind, humility, and patience to listen to your team members’ input even though you have the authority to do as you please anyway, speaks a lot to a person’s ability to be a good leader who’s more concerned about the greater good than their ego.

One’s ability to accept constructive criticism directly relates to their potential to grow personally and professionally, and growth is the primary key to a leader’s success and longevity.

12. Excellent Conflict Resolution Skills

Last but certainly not least, a leader should have excellent conflict-resolution skills. Each member speaks from a unique point of view, and it’s common for two or more ideas to clash. There should be some arguments when working in a team, especially in a small team (otherwise, you probably suffer from this problem).

However, a good leader should be able to turn conflict into something meaningful that can be used to achieve collective success. So, not only is the person in charge responsible for resolving any conflict among team members amicably, but they’re also responsible for finding a way for the team to benefit from opposing ideas.

You know you have come far as a leader when your team sees conflict not only as something that cannot be avoided but as something that is necessary! Although you must remember the vital premise, conflict needs to be constructive and respectful.

You know you have come far as a leader when your team sees conflict not only as something that cannot be avoided but as something that is necessary!

Qualities	Description
1. Excellent Speaking and Writing Skills	A great team leader should know how to express themselves verbally and through written media, so the team members will understand precisely what is expected of them.
2. Excellent Organizational Skills	A leader should organize their work and ensure everything’s in order. Delegation is key to planning and preparing for the future, allowing you to destroy obstacles before your team even finds out about them.
3. Charisma	A leader needs to motivate and inspire, and possessing charisma can help. Charisma is a skill that can be learned and mastered.
4. Decisiveness	A leader should be able to think on their feet and make quick yet thought-out decisions. Choosing one alternative among many by determining which one has the most excellent chance of success is difficult, even with no time constraints.
5. Humility	Being in a leading position can challenge one’s ego, and those who fail to stay humble and let their newfound power get to their head are bound to lose the trust of their teammates.
6. Accountability and Ownership	Leaders should hold themselves and others accountable and assume complete responsibility for the team’s actions and results, encouraging team members to do better in the future.
7. Integrity	A leader should showcase their integrity and honesty in every step they take. They must make decisions that benefit not only the organization but also team members.
8. Open Mindedness	Open-mindedness, flexibility, and adaptability are essential to a leader’s performance. The business world is highly dynamic, meaning that a manager will inevitably face an unexpected challenge or change at one point or another.
9. Excellent Observation Skills	Good observation skills are often unnoticed when discussing a leader’s most important traits. A person that has good observation skills can dissect their team members’ inner workings.
10. Confidence	Confidence is another very important skill for a leader to possess, as it ties into many of the other qualities mentioned on this list.
11. Ability To Listen and Accept Constructive Criticism	It shows that the leader is more concerned about the greater good than their ego and is willing to learn and grow personally and professionally. Growth is essential for a leader’s success and longevity.
12. Excellent Conflict Resolution Skills	A good leader should have excellent conflict resolution skills to turn conflicts into something meaningful for the team’s collective success. They should be able to resolve conflicts among team members amicably and find a way for the team to benefit from opposing ideas.

12 Qualities of Outstanding Small Leaders

Here’s a quick video of Jordan Peterson talking about the important qualities of a good leader.

Qualities of a Good Leader

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2. Lack of Effective Leadership

3. Not Establishing Effective Communication Means

4. Failing To Equip Your Team With the Right Tools

5. Recruiting Mismatch Candidates

6. Lack of Team Engagement

7. Lack of Defined Goals and Responsibilities

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Jordan Peterson’s Present Authoring

Jordan Peterson’s Future Authoring

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Final Thoughts

1. Train All New Hires To Meet Organizational Standards

2. Launch a New Training Program Every Quarter

3. Improve Team Productivity by X% Within 3 Months

4. Grow the Business’ Social Media Followers by X%

5. Identify 3 Weaknesses, and Work on Them

Control Freak

Overcommitment

Stagnancy

1. Get Involved

Be Predictable

Communicate Your Honest Level of Commitment

Exploit Your Strengths

2. Be a Coach and Mentor

3. Be Specific About Your Mission

4. Share Your Vision With Your Team

5. Default Attack

6. Stop Looking For Solutions

7. Be The Change

Overcoming The Hidden Challenge of Implementing Change

Be Disruptive

Anticipate Obstacles

Celebrate Victories

8. Invest in Painful Learning

9. Be Self-Aware

10. Do Not Exploit Your Authority and Power

Final Thoughts

Why Is Passive Communication Important?

1. Passive Communication Allows Leaders to Connect with Their Teams

2. Passive Communication Can Propel You In Your Career

3. Passive Communication Improves Responsiveness Skills

4. Passive Communication Unlocks New Experiences

5. Passive Communication Improves Stress Levels

1. Excellent Speaking and Writing Skills

2. Excellent Organizational Skills

3. Charisma

4. Decisiveness

5. Humility

6. Accountability and Ownership

7. Integrity

8. Open Mindedness

9. Excellent Observation Skills

10. Confidence

11. Ability To Listen and Accept Constructive Criticism

12. Excellent Conflict Resolution Skills