Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
~Michael Jordan

A few weeks ago, I attended an awards ceremony held by a particular organization. Let’s call this organization Team A. At the end of the night, the ceremony had rave reviews from people who enjoyed the event. From the music to the ambience to the food, everything was done well.

Just a week later I went to an event that was held by a different, unrelated organization. For argument’s sake, let’s call them Team B. Everything seemed to go wrong on the night of this event. There was confusion about the program for the evening, some entertainment acts were missing, and the event started and ended late.

What happened?

Simply put, there was a big difference in how well each team worked.

For some people, working in a team creates nothing but challenges, while for others, the idea of working with others is both enjoyable and productive. Whichever applies, when working in an organization, you can be certain that teamwork will be required to get your job done.

Good teamwork is highly prized because of a number of benefits that putting employees into teams can provide. These benefits include:

• Increased productivity through synergy of effort
• Increased customer satisfaction through improved customer service
• Increased job satisfaction through increased employee empowerment

Of course, teamwork doesn’t always go as planned, and at times working in teams actually hinders productivity.  For example, with Team B above, it could be argued that they were less effective as a team than they would have been if they were working as independent individuals.

How to reap the benefits of a team

You can avoid the pitfalls of bad teamwork and reap the benefits of a more productive team by taking the time to understand how a team works and then making available the tools that will help your team function.

Here are five ways to help your team to become more efficient and productive:

1. Have clear goals

For a group or team to work effectively, you must ensure that goals are clearly expressed and explained. By outlining your goals, it will be much easier to track progress and make people accountable for progress towards those goals. With clear goals, progress can be broken down to monthly, weekly and even daily milestones to ensure that everybody stays on track.

2. Establish clear communication

A team’s overall effectiveness and productivity depends greatly on how well the team members communicate. Communication between your team members should be clear, and you should use agreed-upon methods and schedules to achieve maximum efficiency. Without good communication, it’s easy for misunderstandings to take place, which will greatly affect the efficiency of any group. With clear communication, issues that arise are addressed as quickly as possible, and little time is wasted. For example, Team A’s clear communication meant that each person knew their role in organizing the handing out of awards. On the other hand, it is likely that bad communication on Team B’s part led to confusion over responsibility for tasks and responsibilities on the night of the event.

3. Time frames and deadlines

Establishing time frames and deadlines is critical to ensure the effective running of a group. Each team member should have a deadline or time frame for each action or deliverable for which they are responsible. These deadlines will help the group to deliver the overall or larger goals within the groups agreed schedule.

Deadlines are necessary because they give focus to both the overall group and individual group members and they allow people to plan and to manage their time properly to deliver the best work possible.

4. Proper assignment of roles/successful delegation

Proper assignment or delegation of roles or tasks to team members is another important aspect of good team dynamics. Each team member should be assessed in terms of their knowledge, skills, and expertise in order to find their strengths. Tasks should then be assigned to team members as best matches their skills in order to achieve the team goal in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

By matching skills to tasks, you are ensuring that each task is completed to its maximum potential.

5. Learn about your team members

Another tried and tested method of improving group dynamics is to learn about your team members. In particular, it is important to identify the positive and negative group roles that your team members may play in order to help plan for possible issues in the future.

In addition, by using team-building techniques, you build and nurture healthy relationships with group members.

Working in a group doesn’t have to be a nightmare. With a bit of knowledge about how groups work, you can achieve more and aspire to greater achievements.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Good body language is the underestimated art of using your body to enhance your message. Whether you are talking to one or one thousand, your body language can support or deduct from your message. Like a book being read aloud, your audience can hear your unspoken words via your body language.

Here is a question for you. Who would you select for a job?

A.  A person who slouches while giving a presentation, speaks timidly and looks down to the ground when they are approached?

Or

B. A person who stands up tall, looks at you in the eye when talking to you and speaks loudly and clearly?

If you chose B, then you are in the majority. Most people would pick the later candidate because of the effective body language.

Good communication

While you may have thought that what you say with words matters, there is a substantial part of your intention that remains unsaid but is spoken without words. Some have said that up to 53 to 93% of all communication is exchanged through non verbal cues. I am not going to argue about percentages. However, I can assure you that those who have mastered the art of deliberately using your body during communication get ahead and remain ahead. Excellent communication skills which includes body language is essential for effective leadership.

Importance of body language

Your body language can betray your true intentions. However, you can also use you body as a means of making more impact with your message. Let me show you how you can do this.

5 simple tips for using your body language to communicate better.

#1. Smile more

Something as simple as a smile can improve your own mood and make you get along better with the people around you. When you smile, your brain and nervous system adapts your emotional state to mirror your physical state, thus putting you in a better mood.

Your smile will communicate the feeling that you are more approachable, cooperative and trustworthy. Others are encouraged to smile back at you and there facial expression will trigger a positive feeling towards you.

#2. Hand gestures

The parts of the brain that you use for hand gestures are the same ones used for speech. By using hand gestures while speaking, you stimulate the parts of the brain used for speech and get it more active. Research has shown that while using physical hand gestures, people get clearer thoughts and their verbal content improves. In other words, by using your hands, you not only get your message through nonverbally, but you also become a better speaker.

#3. Get people to like you by mirroring them

When people copy your body language, they are non verbally saying that they like you or agree with you. By mirroring others body language, you can make the other person feel better understood and accepted. This helps to build a better relationship.

#4. Boost your confidence with power poses

Research has shown that holding you body in a “power poses” such as leaning back with your hands behind your head can have a major effect on your hormones and behaviour. Holding your body in power poses can stimulate testosterone which is a hormone linked to power and dominance. Not only that, but this power positions will also lower your level of cortisol, a stress hormone. These hormonal changes have been linked to better performance and more confident and assertive behaviour. In addition to you feeling better about yourself, you will have a bigger impact with what you are saying. This is because it has been found that people are influenced by how you feel about yourself.

#5. Maintain eye contact

Eye contact is an important part of communicating your message effectively. Eye contact makes the other person feel special. They get the feeling that you are talking directly to them and as such will give you their attention.

When I can see your eyes, I know that you have nothing to hide and so I can trust you, like you and I am more likely to be influenced by you. You will however need to consider the cultural setting in which you are as it is unacceptable in some cultures to look directly at people.

Why not try to one of these simple tips and see if it makes any difference in you getting your message across. Leave a comment below with your feedback.

The ability to be truly creative is a prized and cherished asset of a leader.

According to a study of corporate executives around the world, creativity was found to be the most important leadership quality needed to succeed in todays business world. This view is supported by what is experience daily in the workplace. You regularly have to come up with novel ideas and solutions to challenges at almost a moment’s notice.

However, for many people the creative mood is not something that can be generated with the snap of a finger. It seems that creativity strikes when we least expect. And when we want to be creative, we find it difficult to summon that creative mood.

Thankfully, there are ways in which creativity can be nurtured and you can increase your ability to be creative at all times.

So here are 7 methods for increasing your creative spark.

#1. Get Regular Exercise

Studies have shown that exercise has a major effect in boosting creative thinking, and that this effect can last for several hours.

It is believed that the ability of exercise to put people into a positive mood is linked with the promotion of creativity. Whatever the case, engage in regular exercise to get both the physical and creative stimulation that your body and mind needs to get the creative juices flowing.

#2. Idea-Storm

Another way to boost creativity is to come up with as many ideas as possible about the issue or challenge you are examining. Don’t worry about whether or not these ideas are applicable. Your primary objective is to come up with as many ideas as you can dream up.

The more ideas you come up with, the more you are likely to find a creative solution to your challenge.

#3. Take a Break When Stuck 

You can jump start the creative process by taking a break whenever you hit a roadblock. When you return to the problem you will suddenly be able to approach it with a fresh point of view. This is known as the  incubation effect, where illumination or insight often takes place on resumption of a task that you have taken a mental break from.

The next time you are in a creative rut, take a break from the task at hand, and you will be surprised to realise that you suddenly have a creative solution to a problem that you previously found challenging.

#4. Adopt a Creative Community 

Creativity can be infectious. The more creative people around you, the more likely you are to catch the creative bug.

By surrounding yourself with people who are themselves creative, and by promoting creativity in the workplace and other environs, you too will be inspired to become more creative.

#5. Grow Your Experiences 

Having a wide range of varied experiences can make you more creative.

Steve Jobs believed that you can draw creativity from experiences you have personally gone through. It follows therefore that your creative potential will increase with an increase in the number and diversity of your personal experience.

Seek out new experiences. Put yourself in different environments and suddenly your creativity will flourish.

#6. Embrace Absurdity

By letting your mind run wild and by thinking of radical or even absurd ways of addressing an issue, you can jump start creativity.

Because of the restrictive rules and norms that have been imposed on us by society, we often limit our creativity unconsciously. Using your imagination and not letting yourself be bound by every day limitations allows your mind to shift and you see things in novel ways.

#7. Project Yourself Into The Future

Projecting yourself or your issue into the future is another way to boost your creativity. By visualising yourself in the future with the problem solved, you can connect the dots and creatively figure out what you need to do to achieve your goals.

Creativity isn’t something that can be studied in a book or memorised. Your creative mind must be used and exercised regularly to enable it to continue turning out solutions to your everyday problems. These 7 simple steps will help you unleash your creative potential. And your ability to lead your team and your business will increase.

For more information, check out this course that will help to build your creative muscle.

Being an inspirational leader is important in unlocking the potential of your team in achieving shared goals. Within the workplace, inspirational leaders motivate employees to work harder and become more efficient at their jobs.  In addition, workers are happier and they receive enjoyment and intrinsic satisfaction with their increased output.

Because of these benefits, it’s easy to see why leaders would want to become inspirational. However, it isn’t always easy to become an inspirational leader, and many people try and fail to successfully inspire their workers.

Thankfully, the ability to become an inspirational leader is something that can be developed. Here are 7 things you can do to becoming a more inspirational leader:

#1. Engage Your Team

Successfully engaging and connecting with your team is critical in developing your inspirational skills. By engaging your followers, you will ensure that you are constantly communicating with them in order to hear their concerns and gain feedback. Your regular engagement will establish a deeper connection  which leads to a better understanding of their needs and feelings.

#2. Be a Role Model

To inspire people, you must display the same behaviour and work ethic you would like to see. It is almost impossible to inspire others from a distance, or without you openly displaying the same behaviours you would like others to emulate. By being a leader who is on the front lines and engaging in necessary but undesirable tasks, followers will in turn be inspired to do the same, and will raise their output in order to match yours.

#3. Display Energy

People are naturally inspired by others who display a high level of energy and enthusiasm. They will often be driven to perform by being inspired by the energy and enthusiasm around them. Research has shown that leaders displaying high levels of energy can be directly responsible for increasing sales and productivity. By openly displaying high energy levels, your employees or followers will be inspired to get fired up and work harder.

#4. Develop a Vision

To be an inspirational leader, you need to have a vision about where you would like to take your team or organisation. The vision will focus on the future. The vision should present an image with words of the desired future. By focusing on the future and developing a vision, you have a goal which everyone can aspire to achieve.

#5. Be Enthusiastic About What You Do

You must be passionate and enthusiastic about your leadership position in order to inspire that passion in others. If you are not passionate, it will be difficult to inspire others. Team members will sense that you are not authentic and may become distrustful of or demotivated by your efforts to get them to be more productive and efficient. However, by committing yourself to your role as a leader and by believing in and loving what you do, then you will find that others will be naturally inspired by you.

#6. Use Positive Reinforcement

By paying attention to what your workers or followers are doing right and rewarding them for it, then you will be able to inspire them to be more productive. While the reward doesn’t have to be material, providing positive reinforcement for a job well done will encourage your workers to push even harder in doing their tasks well.

#7. Turn Your Work into a Story

By turning what you need your followers to do into a compelling story, you will be able to give your worker’s efforts a bigger meaning. By turning your work into a compelling story, your workers can see themselves as important within the whole process of the work or business. In addition, they will also get a sense of meaning and purpose in their jobs as they see how they can make a material difference through a powerful story.

Being an inspirational leader isn’t always easy. However, truly inspirational leaders are often fulfilled by the fact that they have inspired other to contribute more to their cause. By being an inspiring leader, you are able to influence others to achieve your common goals quickly and effectively. This leads to higher levels of professional development for both yourself and those you are leading.

Once you are in the field, emotional intelligence emerges as a much stronger predictor of who will be most successful, because it is how well we handle ourselves in our relationships that determines how well we do once we are in a given job ~ Daniel Goleman

Far from being an unimportant aspect of leadership, Emotional intelligence  is an essential skill for a well rounded leader. Daniel Goleman, the world renowned authority on Emotional Intelligence in his study of over 200 large companies found that the effective leaders are distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. So what is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognise and understand the emotions in yourself and in others. This awareness is then used to manage your behaviour and relationships.

Emotional intelligence is said to be twice as important as IQ and technical skills for excelling at your job. The higher and more influential your position is, the more critical emotional intelligence is at excelling in your work.

A high emotional intelligence presents a range of benefits for you as a leader. It boosts your chances of career success, enhances your entrepreneurial potential and increases your leadership effectiveness. In addition, a high emotional intelligence will increase your ability to manage stress and reduce your chances of suffering from stress induced diseases.

Improving Your Emotional Intelligence

Improving emotional intelligence should be a priority of every leader and aspiring leader. So here are 7 simple ways to improve your emotional intelligence:

#1. Practice Self-Awareness.

Increased self-awareness is the foundation for improving you emotional intelligence. To connect with others on an emotional level, you must first be aware of your own emotions. Self-awareness helps you discover your true self. And this can be an unpleasant exercise because we almost alway present a masked version of ourself to the outside world.

Here are some things you can do to increase your self-awareness:

• Know who and what pushes your buttons
• Stop treating your feelings as good or bad
• Keep a Journal about your emotions
• Stop and ask yourself why you do the things you do
• Spot your emotions in books, movies and music

#2. Get an Emotional Intelligence Coach

Emotional Intelligence coaching has been shown to make a significant impact in recognising and managing your emotions. With coaching, you are able to improve your interpersonal skills, negotiation skills and social etiquette. Coaching will increase your ability to manage stress and improve your leadership performance under pressure.

#3. Get Accurate Feedback

People looking to improve their emotional intelligence need to have accurate feedback on their improvements. Measuring your own progress yourself will undoubtable introduce some form of bias. So you need an impartial source of feedback and information to help track progress and initiate necessary changes.

Using personality tests or seeking opinions from unbiased persons about your emotional competency is a great way to know what aspects of your EI that needs working on.

#4. Be Willing to Change

To increase your emotional intelligence and improve your relational effectiveness, you must be willing to change some of your behaviours. Many of the interventions designed to build your emotional intelligence will be ineffective if you are simply unwilling to make the necessary changes. It is a known fact that those who need the boost most are those who are unwilling to change. By accepting the fact that there are areas of your emotional intelligence that can be improved will make a big difference in your success in raising your emotional intelligence.

#5. Put Yourself in Other’s Shoes

Putting yourself in other’s shoes or empathising will help you build your emotional intelligence. Try to put yourself in someones situation and examine how you would feel if you were in that situation. Think of some of the different issues that person may be going through.

Now try and figure out how you would appreciate being treated if you were in that situation. All these actions will help in empathising, and go along way in developing your emotional intelligence.

#6. Write Your Thoughts

Writing down your thoughts and feelings is another way to develop your emotional intelligence.  We may not always be consciously aware of our moods and feelings, but by writing things down, we examine what goes through our minds and how and why it gets there.

Writing your emotions down allows you to spot patterns of behaviour and serves as a guide to what needs to change and when changes need to be made.

#7. Effective Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

Effective communication is needed to for developing and improving emotional intelligence. Learning to identify and respond appropriately to nonverbal cues is important. This is because nonverbal communication often conveys more information than verbal communication. Observe peoples body language and facial expressions to get an insight into their thoughts and feelings.

Having a high Emotional Intelligence is important in your life as a leader and as an individual. High emotional intelligence provides a number of benefits at work and in social settings.

By adopting some or all of these seven simple steps, you can raise your emotional intelligence and contribute to your own success as a leader.

Are you emotionally aware? Why not leave a comment below.