Build a Winning Team in Your Business

This is actually the book was written by Mike Smith, who is a former coach of the Atlanta Falcons. And the book itself is entitled you win and the locker room first. So it's really gonna be drawing a lot of his expert of Mike Smith and a management consultant that he works closely with by the name of John Gordon. So let's go ahead and get started with the seven CS. First one up is around culture organizations have to have a culture and they do have a culture.

The key thing is, is the culture intentionally led by leadership is the culture led by the employees. And when we focus on culture, this involves a lot of things around having a strong mission and purpose statement. Really? Why does the company exist as an organization and really having a set of core values that are strong and that are really focused and you actually live the core values within the organization. And that's something the leaders have to lead by example there.

And they also have to be able to position those within the organization, use this to hire people. You use those to promote people, and you can also use those to terminate people. But if you have a strong set of culture, core values, those are really gonna be the guideposts that lead you to having a strong culture within your business. The next one up is gonna be around contagious. An organization needs to have contagious leadership that focuses on the mission and purpose of the organization.

You have to lead with passion, optimism, and disbelief and, and, and belief, excuse me. Um, but actually focus on belief, believing in yourself, believing in your team, believing in your business. So that's the next one you've gotta be really focused on is really having a contagious leadership style. Being able to be seen by your, your employees being approachable.

And as we come out of COVID, this is one of the things that is really critically important within any organization and the leadership within it to create a winning team. The next one up is gonna be around consistency and being consistent as a leader. The key thing that I do, especially with clients and also in my corporate days, you've got to, I always tell newer managers, you've gotta be consist .

It doesn't matter if you're consistently bad in some of the decisions you make, hopefully you to be consistently good though, of course, but you've gotta be consistent because if you continue to change, depending on which way the wind's blowing, that is going to drive your employees crazy. That's also going to create a lot of issues around communication and a lot of issues with disengagement. So being consistent as a leader is one of the next ones you have to really focus on.

The next one up is communicate. And the whole art of communication leaders who are good leaders are really good at communication. And they're really good at listening to people. They're really good at impart knowledge with people, but one of the key things around communication, which again, I spend a lot of time with newer leaders on is really focusing on the art of listening.

If you listen as a leader, some of the best leaders I've ever worked with and have the pleasure to work with are the ones who do the least amount of talking and the most amount of listening. And that's one of the key things really focusing on your team and listening to your team, getting the pulse of your team, getting the pulse of key employees is really, really critical within the organization.

So making sure that you can be a good communicator and also focusing on listening and showing empathy is great. The next one we're gonna focus on is connect. And really the art of connecting with your employees. There was a great book that , um, radical can by Kim Scott. We actually talked about it a few podcasts ago, but really the focus is around holding your people accountable for their actions and also caring for them personally.

And that's really tough, but when you connect with employees, it doesn't mean that you have to be their best friend. It doesn't mean that you have to not hold them accountable. It's actually the contrary. You need to really create those connections with people, get to know them personally, and also making sure if they do something wrong, you make sure that you tell them they did something wrong and make sure more importantly, you tell them what good luck looks like.

So making sure you have that connection with your employees, with your leadership team and making sure your leaders also lead with that fo focus and the, the thinking of connections critical. Next one up is around commitment. You've gotta be committed to the organization and you've got to be able to lead in a way, make sure people feel like you are committed again, as we , as we talked about earlier, if you go back and forth on saying, well, we need to go this direction. Oh no, I'm just kidding.

Next week you say, it's gotta be this direction. You're not gonna be focused on showing people confidence. And you're not gonna be able to focus on being showing that you're committed. So that's one next things you have to do, which is really, really critical. Check your ego at the door, take ownership instead of blaming problems, making sure you take ownership and take personal responsibility.

If things get screwed up along the way, you should be the one who holds yourself accountable and being responsible for your actions. And also if you are responsible for your actions, guess what people will end up holding themselves accountable and their fellow employees accountable too . The next one we're gonna have. And second to last is around care and caring for your people. It really is focused around showing empathy, showing care and concern.

If you've had a really challenging time over the last couple of years, making sure you tell people that this is bothering you tremendously, and you're doing everything to turn around the company and really focus on specifics, tactics, and strategies that you're implementing to , to earn the business around. Especially if you've had a really challenging couple of financial years, that's really focusing on caring and all of that is really building great relationship with the organization.

And they're based on, you know, the value that you bring to the organization, the value you , your people bring to the organization, respecting them , uh, even loving on them, trusting them and really caring for them and doing what you can with the organization and the employees within the organization. And the final one is really focused on coaching. The best leaders are the best coaches.

And since this actually comes from a , uh , head football coach, that makes a lot of sense, but really being a good coach is a leader and coaching is making sure you explain what good looks like. And a lot of coaches were never the best when they actually performed in a sport or different type of venue, but they're really good at leading because they're really good coaches .

They listen to the people, they watch their mechanics, they watch how they practice and they make sure that they get ready. So when you're ready, when you're getting ready for that big game, you're gonna be prepared. Um, NFL football teams or other sports teams. They are very blessed because they spent most of their time practicing. But as we all know, you spend most of your time actually in the game and leading.

So making that you focus on coaching, your employees, coaching your new leaders, coaching people who are just joining your organization is really, really critical. So those are some of the key things I wanted to focus on today. So that about covers it for today. Thanks for listening for more on all things pertaining to HR. Visit our website, HRCatalystconsulting.com. Don't forget to like us and subscribe to our podcast until next time. This is Mark Mitford. Thanks for listening. Take care .

Bye-bye .