In the book Extreme Property , Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, retired Navy SEALs, explain that there are “no bad teams, only bad leaders”. These 10 highly successful entrepreneurs share their top tips on how to successfully lead a team.
Related: 10 leadership lessons you'll learn on the job
1. Stay true to your vision.
An exceptional leader balances two opposing skills:external sensing and internal conviction. Be very sensitive to external signals from customers, employees and competitors. But at the same time, have the internal conviction to push a visionary agenda, even when it's unpopular. The trick is to constantly cycle between the two modes.
– Irene Chang Britt , former President of Pepperidge Farm and Director of the Board of Directors of Dunkin’ Marks (Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins)
2. Communicate clearly and often.
Great leaders aren't in the weeds making day-to-day decisions; rather, they communicate the mission and big ideas of the organization to their teams and clear roadblocks so their team can execute. Keeping everyone in the same direction is more critical than ever. Thanks to technologies such as Salesforce, Google Analytics and Slack, information arrives at the front line of the organization.
Remember that repetition promotes excellent communication. Keep relaying your big ideas and your mission because not everyone will hear you initially. This is something brilliant leaders struggle with. They feel that their team only needs to hear something once to understand. This is clearly not the case. It's not that people don't understand; they're just busy.
– Spencer Rascoff , CEO of Zillow , co-founder of Hotwire.com and co-author of New York TimesBestseller ZillowTalk
3. Improve yourself and those around you.
I have always cultivated an environment of personal and professional development. Our leaders organize daily motivational trainings to improve their skills. Once a month, I do a hands-free meeting that includes personal development. We regularly send all team members specific YouTube trainings with Entrepreneur articles , SUCCESS and Lifehacker . We send our teams to conferences. And every year we complete an extensive goal-setting workshop.
When someone works on themselves, they transform their personal life and bring enormous value to others. When they improve, everything around them improves. I have made it my mission to support, encourage and create opportunities for my team to achieve what they want.
—Tom Ferry, Founder and CEO of Tom Ferry International , ranked #1 in real estate by the Swanepoel Power 200, and New York Timesbestselling author of The life! Intentionally
4. Be humble.
You will screw up, and your team will know when it happens. Own it and give credit when it's doing well. It lays the groundwork for truth and humility within your team instead of scapegoating and placing blame. You set the pace. Your team wants to follow someone human, someone they believe in, and someone who believes in them. Humility has charisma. Arrogance can be repugnant. Be boldly humble.
—Mike Zeller, Founder of Elevate United ; launched businesses in five sectors, which have generated more than $100 million
5. Check your ego at the door.
Everyone has an ego, but most people mismanage theirs. From Greek mythology to the Bible, humans have been warned of their greatest enemies:pride and ego. A virtuous mantra is to remind yourself of your goals and that "it's not about you". As President Reagan said, “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit. Keeping your ego in check will pay dividends, and the impact can be profound. Recruiting a talented and experienced team is a good example of this:the desire to hire people better than you makes a great leader.
– Joe Kakaty , co-founder and president of Poker Central
6. Fill in your gaps.
Good leaders employ great people. Take me, for example:I'm dyslexic; my spelling is shocking. I have ADHD, I can't read or use computers very well – not the qualities of a great CEO. How do I lead five high-performing companies?
I attract, recruit, nurture and nurture the people I hire to lead my companies. I thought our customers were the most important element of success. I now know that this distinction belongs to my staff. The more I appreciate them, the more the profits of my companies increase.
– John Hanna , author of Path of the Rich and CEO of Fairchild Group
7. Keep your people passionate.
Last year, our team worked with a local non-profit organization to provide sustainable footwear for children in South Africa. The infectious level of passion and purpose this project has created in my team has transformed the way we think. This has created an increased purpose for our work and our individual contributions to the world.
Passion is the hallmark quality of a masterful leader. It is essential that leaders focus on activating the hearts of their people. Too often I see company employees showing up and carrying out the tasks at hand. A leader's responsibility is to enable their employees to find passion and purpose in their work and life. In business, our employees are our advantage. When you can tap into the hearts and minds of your people, that's where the magic happens.
– Allison Dunn , Chairman and CEO of Deliberate directions and award-winning executive business coach
8. Always learn and drop stubbornness.
Persistence, constant communication and self-improvement are the things I cultivate, both in myself and in others. It's a learning curve:I will never finish learning or perfecting. No other quality mimics the impact of constant growth, learning, and facing your fears. Stubbornness can only serve a leader for so long; communication and education last much longer.
—Jay Georgi, Founder of Nadvia and coach operations / management / profit retention
9. Leverage the strengths of your team members.
I care about every member of my team and they know it. I make sure everyone knows our overall goal through simple and concise communication. I observe individual abilities and coordinate my team effectively knowing everyone's strengths and weaknesses. I don't set people in check. I put them in a position to succeed and achieve more than they thought possible. Success breeds success – as each team member gains confidence in their abilities, they contribute to the overall success of the team. Great leaders observe this and work to maximize the collective strength of the team.
– Jim Mathers , CEO of North American Energy Advisory, Inc.
10. Get everyone on the same page.
As a sales professional who works with C-suite leaders for a living, I've learned that a big role I play is helping business leaders explain both mission and Why to P&L managers who oversee execution.
Many C suites have an incomplete picture and limited situational awareness. Raising awareness up the chain of command overcomes the all-too-common culture of reactive, anti-change management and allows you to focus on executing the mission.
– Craig Lake , CEO of ENERGI and creator of Performance-Based Health Plans ®
Related: 9 tips for becoming an intentional leader
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