Sometimes we think we need to provide some grand gesture to help out, but we often don’t have a lot to give….

Before I stepped into a formal leadership position, I thought that every employee was automatically engaged. Maybe my personality allows me to see how my work impacts the mission and vision of the company, so I assumed that everyone would be as engaged as I would be.

It turns out that is not the case. Every individual is motivated by a different factor to show up at work: money, recognition, “stability,” influence.

So I had to quickly re-calibrate my engagement strategy to increase the engagement of the team I oversee. Otherwise, my style of leadership and unrealistic expectations would not sit well with the staff and I might fail them as a leader.

Leading in your strengths is the best thing we all can do for ourselves and our teams. We need to be aware of our strengths and the strengths of others so we know what we are bringing of value to the table.

The great thing about building a team full of specific strengths is that it encourages a well rounded team versus a well rounded person. The pressure is off of one person to be super woman/man, when they can be the best version of themselves. By them living in their best, they will be confident and the team will be strong as well.

Check out the importance of having a team working in their strengths and what leaders can do to gear their team members to develop their strengths.

I had a wonderful meeting with an executive in my organization one afternoon. It kind of came on a whim.

I was thrilled and wanted to be sure that I respected his time, but was able to pinpoint what it was I was looking to get out of that conversation. Here were some of my key takeaways that I found for me to carry out personally and to create space for other leaders on their quest towards their professional development….

Within our work spaces, let’s start creating networks for leaders to work together and support one another in their efforts to lead well. The opportunities to build community in that way could benefit anyone looking to impact their teams greatly. Help make someone else’s experience better than yours by guiding them through the process.

We need activators because they can make it happen. Activators have the ability to see a need, problem, issue, and create ways towards addressing it. A team of activators take ownership in continuously improving their circumstances that they face. This takes the pressure off of you in being everywhere at once or the bottleneck in getting initiatives moving.

Yet, this is not an easy trait to develop within everyone. I recognize that being an activator isn’t an automatic trait that we share.  

As a leader, here are a few actions that you can take in developing a team of activators…

Before, I thought that there only two things that you could control whenever you are faced with a challenge or issue: your effort and attitude. However, I would like to expand on that.  I believe there are 3 additional items that we have control over whenever faced with a problem that needs to be addressed.

Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash