Leadership is a skill that is acquired through a process of constant improvement to achieve optimal success, and even then, it’s a continual journey.
Let’s think about a sports analogy.
The coach has the responsibility to create roles for each member, teach them how their role operates, give them the tools to maximize their performance, and educate each member on how each individual fits into the larger scheme.
There is scheduling that needs to take place, both for training and competition. Practice outlines and game plans are formulated, introduced, and taught so that the team has the best opportunity for execution.
An effective leader is a good listener as a communicator and can incorporate team members’ ideas and criticisms to best position the project for success without being reactionary.
The best plan of action for a leader to take is to make sure every member has value with the project, understands their part in the process, and how it interrelates to the outcome objectives as a whole. We refer to this process as symmetry, and it has two sides (or more) working in a similar function and resemble each other in action.
Outlining Effective Leadership
To achieve this level of symmetry within your team, you need to adopt some of the following leadership skills:
1. Develop Roles
Explain to every team member what their role will be and how best to execute the actions they need to do. A player has certain sports obligations and those mesh with the other team members’ roles. They are a part of a larger whole, and the team functions as a unit based on each member performing their position to their utmost ability.
2. Communicate Expectations
A team can only function if there is a clear understanding of its actions and behaviors. Establishing outlines for each role and subsection of a team is necessary for your team’s optimal performance.
3. Listen And Pivot
The best leaders also are some of the best listeners. Individuals who are listened to by a superior feel they have value in the organization.
Being an effective listener allows you as the leader to gain insights and perspectives different from your own. Who knows, you may have a team member that has terrific ideas on products, logistics, or other opportunities for your organization to grow.
By listening, you’re giving authority and validating that your team has something to offer to your organization and fosters an environment of “ownership.”
4. Set The Strategy
Having insights from the team is an excellent way to solidify your thoughts on a project or provide new stimulus and actions. Once you have the input, you need to be clear on the course of action you’d like your team to take, how it fits the larger concept of team members’ roles, and empowering each individual to perform.
5. Establish Small Incremental Objectives
Within your strategy framework, you need to set small, achievable objectives. The concept of incremental improvement focuses on smaller tasks that are easier to accomplish, replicate, and change if necessary.
6. Execute The Larger Plan
Once your team understands what’s expected of them, how they have input in the process, are empowered by the steps outlined, have a method to scale performance and productivity, as a leader, you are now set to implement the larger strategy into action.
These are all things in the coach’s control, but extrinsic factors affect performance.
Things not in the coach’s control are the opponent’s strategies and abilities, the referee’s interpretation within rules of the game, as well as facility and fan influence, among others.
Be Prepared To Pivot
Building a SaaS product is a similar process.
For example, if you’re in the planning stage of building coding courses for kids or some other online learning tool, you control the product design and the individual roles each team member has within the project.
You set the expectations, implement the strategy, and set a course toward building the product. You don’t control how the market may receive your product and whether it will be a barn-burner or fall flat. To summarize, Poet Robert Burns, who wrote in “To A Mouse,” the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
Some strategies can minimize this negative response, but external factors are still beyond any leader’s control. The key in both situations is for leadership to understand that focus, hard work, strategy, and execution are foundations for success but aren’t guaranteed for expected results.
The goal then is to establish a system that individual team members can understand their role in the process, have the tools to succeed, and are empowered to illustrate any potential or issues along the way.
Focus and hard work only succeed when leadership has established the parameters needed to direct that energy. The team’s success depends on the individual people’s success and the parts that make up the team.
