Leadership Teamwork Chemistry: Magical Resilience | #LeadMorale
by Kate Nasser | 2 Comments »
Leadership teamwork chemistry is not about an extroverted leader getting everyone to say “go team go.” This may be one expression of great team spirit but leadership teamwork chemistry is much more than that. Consider the following components and what they can do for your organization’s success.
Leadership Teamwork Chemistry: Magical Resilience! Image by UK Parliament via Flickr Creative Commons License.
Leadership Teamwork Chemistry: The Magical Resilience!
When it comes to leadership, many people wrongly think that chemistry means charisma. Yet charisma is defined as:
compelling charm that engenders devotion of others or
personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure.
(Definitions from Oxford language dictionary and Merriam-Webster dictionary respectively.)
It’s important to know the difference. Leadership teamwork chemistry is far more than one extroverted person having an engaging personality or charm. It’s all of the following components that create magical resilience and collaboration.
The Components of Great Chemistry w/ Leaders & Teams
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Respect. Basic human respect. Can you even imagine great chemistry among people without showing respect for each person? Well here are 5 disrespectful behaviors that damage leadership and teamwork and the most common moments you may disrespect people. Don’t let this happen to you and your teams.
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Dignity. One step up from respect, is the overall feeling of dignity. It’s at the heart of morale. Find and eliminate hidden bias and stereotypes. They crush human dignity. Replace disdain with valuing everyone. They must feel they belong.
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Care for each other. When it comes to leadership and teamwork, we often hear the phrase “have each other’s backs.” Well that is part of care – often referring to helping each other reach team goals. Yet leadership teamwork chemistry goes deeper than that. It means caring for each other’s mental well being. Everyone has stress outside of work. Great leaders and teams notice when someone is struggling and reach out in some way.
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Actively include everyone. This step tells everyone they are valued as humans and as team members. It sparks better contributions from everyone and ultimately better results. Show extra effort to include new employees. Onboarding must be more than filling out forms and showing them where the bathroom and dining room are. Also, watch for cliques. They destroy team chemistry by isolating and excluding people.
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Leaders must address toxic behaviors. You must also stop team bullies. Sometimes leaders fall into the trap of saying “You’re a team. Work out your differences for yourselves.” Well, for that to happen, you must use team building exercises to develop that team skill. Until then, don’t assume people can just get along. Your inaction may be protecting toxic behaviors and keeping them alive. Team members will think, well if the leader is speaking out against it, how can I?
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Give your all. Great leaders and teams understand different levels of skill; they resent different levels of commitment. Show your commitment to the team! Constantly showing up late and slacking off undermine leadership teamwork chemistry.
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Honesty and integrity. These go to the heart of trust. Without trust, leaders and teams falter badly.
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Openness. This includes being open to learning, open to respectful criticism, open to collaboration, and open to new ideas and change. Develop your self-awareness and self-confidence to be more open to others. As you stay open, you will also develop a better sense of what others need. A wonderful career skill for any leader or team member. Heck, it will even help you in your personal life!
Proactive action!
Commitment.
Teammates understand different levels of skill; they resent different levels of commitment. ~ Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
Openness is key!
These eight components create magical resilience for leaders and teams. They sustain each individual and their commitment to the team. Respect, dignity, trust, inclusion, care, and openness buoy teams all the way to the finish line.
Getting Started: Leadership Teamwork Chemistry
Leaders, if you want better chemistry in your organization, ask the team for their ideas. How is the teamwork positive and what needs to improve in your leadership and in teamwork? Specific examples will help you build a bigger picture of how to improve it overall. See other articles on this blog including the ones noted below for additional help!
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
Related Posts:
Essential Leadership Steps for Leading High Morale
5 Easy leadership Shifts to Lead People in Tough Times & Sustain Morale
10 Ways to Work w/ Emotionally Unintelligent Teammates
21 Reasons People Can’t Automatically Get Along
©2022 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
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Great insight. It is always obvious that toxic people have to be dealt with just as you said. I find it harder to deal with the team members who only do the minimum. They do a great job, but they are not totally engage to participate in anything that requires strategic planning to grow. While I don’t think this is outright “toxic”, I do think it slows the team momentum. How do you propose dealing with lackluster team members??Thanks in advance.
Hi Kendreia,
Very interesting question you pose! Leaders do ask me this when I am consulting to them.
Step #1 – Define a bit more what you mean by ‘doing the minimum.” You mention they do a great job but don’t engage in anything that requires strategic planning to grow. Differentiate if it’s lack of skill or lack of commitment. Team members understand different levels of skill; they resent different levels of commitment.
Step #2 – If it’s a skill issue, then as a leader, engage them in how to participate in strategic planning type of activities. It may sound strange, but many people wait to be asked. Yes, it would be great if they showed more initiative. Yet the more useful measure is whether they do a great job once you invite them to engage.
Step #3 – It’s it’s a commitment issue (not a skill issue), then the focus switches to what you, as leader, expect of *every team member. It’s very valuable to have the entire team create a list of behaviors that define a “valuable team member.” You as leader would add your thoughts as well. Once the list is created, review it to make sure it is free of bias or any other skewed words or expectations.
Step#4 – Once every team member is aware of these behavioral expectations, you can coach along the way. Ultimately, if certain team members do not live up to these expectations, check with your HR dept. on appropriate steps for separation etc…
Kate