High-performing teams have a synergistic driving force that fuels them.
Leaders who develop a conducive collaborative environment are responsible for such performance enhancements. An environment where innovation and productivity thrive is what every business owner is seeking. And, this can be achieved by leveraging on the different skills and aptitude of each team member.
Synergy is what happens when people with different strengths and skills work together effectively. The role of the leader in this process is to act as both a facilitator and a catalyst, creating an environment where team members feel empowered to contribute their best work.
Leaders employ three characteristics to achieve the collaboration they need to inspire and engage their teams. Values, veneration, and vision are these three elements of synergistic leadership.
Used together, these concepts create a powerful synergistic force that can turn flailing organisational environments into profitable and marketable workplaces. This synergistic force is the difference between organisations that succeed, and those that stutter. Using values, veneration, and vision, you can create a synergy, which will allow your team to accomplish higher levels of productivity, better morale, improved customer service, and hence, leading to increased profits.
The synergistic effect of strength-based leadership has far-reaching benefits that include:
Increased innovation
Once team members with diverse strengths begin to collaborate habitually, they bring unique viewpoints and insights to the table. This diversity of thought drives creativity and innovation, leading to better ideas and overall results.
Adaptability
A team with a wide range of strengths is better equipped to adjust to fluctuating conditions and deal with new challenges. Synergistic leaders understand how to tap into the specific skills and talents of their team members to steer through uncertain times, and find pathways in even the toughest environments.
Resilience
The synergistic effect of this type of leadership fosters resilience within teams. By focusing on individual strengths, and encouraging a culture of support and collaboration, teams are better placed to overcome setbacks and maintain momentum in the face of difficulty.
You achieve this by leveraging on the three elements of leadership; values, veneration, and vision.
Values
Values are the foundation for all of us. It is important that you first look at defining and understanding your own values. Once this is done, then look to define your organisation's values. What is it that you really stand for? What are you willing (and unwilling) to do to get new business? These questions must be answered before personal and organisational leadership can progress.
Companies with strong core values do not change their principles when times are robust. Their leaders look for ways to change the application of their core values. Even as industries progress, product lines evolve, market sentiments vary, and customers change; a constant core value system must remain as your foundation of strength for long term success.
Your values are the rules by which you play the game. It is easier to decide on anything, when you have a well-defined value system on which to base your decisions. Define your personal values and your organisations values.
Veneration
Management experts have proclaimed time and again that once a team member buys-in to what you envisage with deep understanding, they will start performing. Understand your team. By doing this, you will be able to serve them, and allow them to reach their potential. As you do this, you will realise and recognise that there are differences among your team members. And, you begin to value these differences.
In many organisations that I train and coach, employees do not feel like they are part of a team. They do not feel valued. They feel as if no one understands their goals, desires, or ambitions.
"Veneration" or "respect" means forming the right work atmosphere. It is critical that leaders create a work environment that promotes creative thinking, an openness to change, and rewards effort. Fear must be driven out from the workplaces. Team members must feel that they can try new ideas without the risk of persecution if they do not achieve success. Only then will you truly see the potential around you. And, this is the only setting that promotes growth.
Vision
Just as individuals need goals and a personal vision, every organisation needs a vision too. This is an integrated picture of what everyone on the team is striving to achieve. The clearer the idea, the more likely your team will achieve their goal. You need a common vision for your employees, and as a leader, that vision needs to be regularly communication with passion and enthusiasm.
The entire team needs to know what they do; how they do it; and for whom do they do it for.
It is your responsibility as a leader to take these concepts and apply them to your organisation. With synergy, leaders create the future, with and through their people.
*The writer is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller "So, You Want To Get Promoted?"
