Girl Boss: Leading a Team

In today’s edition of Girl Boss, we’re going to chat about what it means to be a leader of a team. In a previous post about What Makes a Good Leader, I spoke about the vision required to be an effective leader. Today, we’ll chat more about the people skills that every great leader needs to have.

A leader cultivates a team

John C. Maxwell, a renowned leadership author, said “a leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others”. As a supervisor, leader in a community organization, or parent, one of the most important things you do is building your team. In the case of parenting, that looks more like building up your children with values like integrity, faith, humility, service, etc. But for a team that is selected, it is an intentional act of getting to know your team, figuring out their passions, skills, and employing those in ways that benefit their journey and builds towards the team’s ultimate vision. Cultivating a team takes practice, time, and effort.

A practical step to this is to schedule a short meeting over coffee to get to know each team member. After meeting with each individual, set a time to facilitate team building activities during a retreat or workshop.

A leader inspires others

The evolution of becoming a leader who inspires others takes tremendous care and cultivation. Inspiring others comes first from living in alignment with your values and second, from setting an aspirational vision.

In order to live in alignment with your values, it’s important to define what your values are! Psychology Today has an amazing article on choosing your core values. Once you are clear about your core values, do a short exercise in how that shows up in the team you lead.

To set an inspiring vision, use your organization’s strategic plan and mission statements as starting points. Facilitate a SWOT analysis on how your smaller group fits into that and then a brainstorm on possible routes to go with your small group’s mission. Share it out and constantly get feedback from the team.

A practical action step is to take this Life Values Inventory, which was recommended in the Psychology Today article above.

A leader values diversity AND inclusion

Diversity is a buzzword we hear all the time in corporate settings. But having diversity and valuing diversity are different things. A leader who knows about the existence of diverse groups within their team is aware but nothing more. A leader who acknowledges the diversity of their team, actively works to tear down structures of inequality, and build an inclusive environment is an active participant. They are the type of person who continuously educates themselves on gender inclusivity, privilege, homophobia, etc. and they implement policies and procedures that advocate for an inclusive environment.

An action step here would be to pick a topic of inclusion and dig a bit deeper. Here’s an article from Spencer Stuart on fostering inclusion, Gender-Inclusive Guidelines from the University of Pittsburgh or this blog by Jamie Utt on Things Allies Need to Know.

So, what do you think? Do you have other ideas on how to lead a team effectively? Share them with me  - I’m @PatriceSumpter on all social media!