Step 2 - Becoming Super Leaders - Team Partnerships

STEP 2: Create Partnerships within your Team 

In my entire career I might have worked with a handful of bosses who were spectacular at forging partnerships with us. We really felt like their TEAM, and not subordinates. Do you agree that one great boss changes our entire perspective about our job, the organization, and esp., our longevity with the co.? One great quality that makes a leader a super leader is treating the team like partners.

The Challenge: Leadership comes with a built-in mechanism that makes it distinct and pegs it a few notches above the others. It takes a sound character and solid conviction to break away from the mindset of traditional leadership. 

The Key: Remind yourself often that people are not working for you, they are working with you. Leadership is about creating positive partnerships.  

3 Practical ideas:  

Be authentic than authoritarian. I was recently invited to attend a women’s meeting, and I was struck by how honest these women were in spite of not knowing everyone there. Very soon the entire room got excited and talking about meaningful issues they wanted to resolve. Was quite a learning – be true to yourself before you expect anyone else to be honest. Partnerships thrive in an environment of honesty.

Process to purpose oriented. Have you ever been upset with an airline staff that told you your flight got canceled or your baggage got lost or they can’t accommodate your family in the same row without telling you why exactly you were being made to suffer? A genuine reason/purpose goes a long way in winning support than slapping people with policies. Ask yourself as a leader today – what is the purpose of my leading this team? What is the purpose of the work we do together? You might surprise yourself with the answers.    

Move from inactive to influential. Don’t you just love people who genuinely ask you, ‘how are you doing’, and actually care about your response? Very rarely do leaders think about such minor interactions to be influencers. Try being really interested in your team mates and the small stories they might share with you. To measure your influence observe if your team whole-heartedly buys-in to your thoughts and ideas or to the objectives you have charted out together? Influence doesn’t need you to be the CEO really. Influence comes from unspoken respect and genuine intentions that you radiate through the smallest of actions.

Partnerships last. Jobs are temporary.

Coming up tomorrow - Step 3: Exhibit unquestionable integrity