Mold your star team in six weeks

Every leader's dream is to have a star team. A high-performing team, highly talented, that works well unsupervised, consistently delivers on expected results by excelling in their respective roles, is supportive and trusting of one another, has unconventional thinking during crisis situations, and isn't afraid to challenge the status quo or the boss's idea as long as it gets the job done without compromising their values.

Does such a team seem too good to be true?

The Navy Seals are highly skilled warriors with extreme levels of trust for each other are such a team. As a result, their prowess in the field as they execute successful mission after mission is used in many leadership schools.

Molding a star team requires careful planning, leadership, and a conducive environment.

Thorough planning entails carefully evaluation and comprehensive preparation, resulting in lower execution times due to the depth of preparation, as well as establishing and adhering to the purpose.

The leader might change the actions but the goal should remain consistent.

Great Leadership understands that people who feel valued deliver better results than those who work under the influence of fear.

Effective leadership that provides guidance, support, and inspiration motivates employees to perform their best and contributes to a positive work environment.

Conducive environments could among others be created by encouraging open and honest communication among team members and between employees and management thus fostering trust and transparency. A collaborative culture, work-life balance, an inclusive and diverse environment and diverse workplace where all employees feel respected, valued, and included.

Implementing fair and effective conflict resolution processes encourages constructive dialogue and helps address issues before they escalate.

Simon Sinek, an authority on leadership, expresses that “under poor leaders we feel like we work for the company. With good leaders we feel like we work for each other”.

“The leaders who get the most out of their people are the leaders who care most about their people.”

A star team will remain a star team regardless of change in leadership only if the Leader is trusted.

The leader need not necessarily be the most intelligent but should definitely be one the team can Trust for their genuine professional growth and personal safety in an out of the workplace.

The world has seen organizations results dwindle when leaders are changed. Same team, same ecosystem, different results.

Understandably, different leaders have unique leadership styles, but some fundamentals of exceptional leadership should hold true across all leadership styles: Visionary thinking, strong communication skills, empathy, high emotional intelligence, integrity, ethics and servant leadership.

When a team feels their leader is lacking in the softer aspects of leadership skills such as empathy, emotional intelligence, leading with fear instead of inspiration, they resort to quiet quitting.

Employees are physically present but emotionally detached or resigned.

Signs of quiet quitting include but are not limited to; applying minimal effort where employees do only the basics of their job, nothing more; reduced initiative, employees stop volunteering for new tasks or projects; social withdrawal and avoiding social activities at work, lack of enthusiasm for their work and companies goals, less engagement such as participation in meetings and discussion decreases or decreased work quality with more errors or missed deadlines.

Thus, it is imperative that a leader focuses on ‘molding a star’ team that not only achieves its goals consistently but also inspires others and sets new standards of performance and success.

This can be accomplished through having a collaborative spirit, fostering innovation, encouraging continuous improvement, joy at work, open communication, positive culture, strong leadership, results oriented and trust.

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Lynda Nabayiinda Were is a certified transformational coach from Coach Masters Academy Singapore and Managing Partner with Ascenify Uganda Limited a Management and Consultancy firm.