The difference between high performing teams and teams that lag behind or fail is leadership. As Jocko Willink says, there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.
So, to increase your team’s performance, develop leadership skills. The good news: you can build your leadership skills and improve team performance at the same time. In fact, the best way to build these skills is to try them on your team and see what works.
Below is an overview of the top skills for increasing performance, why they work, and where to start today.
Start with Trust
Trust is the defining characteristic of high performing teams. It is the foundation for better performance. Learning to listen to and support your team is a leader’s first task.
That’s counterintuitive for many people. So, a lot can get in the way of trusting your team. For example, you may feel your team isn’t up to the task, so you manage closely and tell them what to do. That’s micromanaging—and ironically, it often makes team members perform worse. Errors can also erode trust. However, errors are inevitable. How you deal with them makes the difference between more or fewer mistakes.
If you’re ready to start building trust on your team, start here:
- There are No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders
- How to Get Your Team to Make Fewer Mistakes
- Trust in Leadership: How High-Trust Cultures Drive High Performance
- Trust: The Most Important Way to Boost Team Performance (with three steps to start now)
Build your Confidence
Everyone wants a leader who is confident. Leaders who lack confidence are often triggered into a stress response—fight, flight, or freeze: raised voices, leaving meetings, or going silent. This can be a major distraction from performance.
A lot of things can get in the way of confidence. If you are rising quickly in your career, you may sometimes doubt yourself when faced with new challenges. Perhaps you have a negative inner critic or are hard on yourself unnecessarily.
The truth is, everyone feels self-doubt sometimes. True confidence comes from self-regard, which means accepting yourself fully, the good, the bad, and everything in between. It’s an emotional intelligence skill that everyone can learn.
Here are some resources for building better confidence now.
- Why Self-Regard Is the Bedrock of Emotional Stability, Confidence, Trust, and Resilience
- How to Be a Confident Leader and Beat Imposter Syndrome
- The Best Ways to Understand and Cope with Stress
- Explore more: confidence
Build Respect
Respect is a precondition for motivation. To put it another way, no one is motivated if they feel disrespected. Think about it: would you be motivated if your boss didn’t respect you?
Respect is always mutual. When you demonstrate respect to others, you begin to earn their respect in return. For example, listening is the most important sign of respect. Giving your full attention to your team when they are speaking will start to build a foundation for mutual respect.
Here are some resources for builing more respect now:
- Empathy in Leadership: Why It Matters and How to Practice It
- Empathy: One of Six Behaviors that Build Trust and Respect
- Respect
- Empathy
Start Increasing Your Results Today
With these three skills—trust, confidence, and respect—you can start getting better results with your team today.
Next steps
- Take my Leadership Skills Audit to see your baseline and get instant, personalized tips you can use now.
- Sign up for my FREE workshop, One-on-Ones that Motivate.
- Join Leadership Essentials, my group coaching series covering core skills.