A leader plays the key role in setting the culture of the organization. If as a leader you want your team to flourish, there are certain things you must “gift” to them.
People on any team will often wait until they feel they have permission from leadership before they move forward.
10 Things Every Leader Should Gift their Team
1. The right to dream. Leaders give the team permission to dream the seemingly impossible. The lid of possibilities will often be when the leader’s sense of pragmatism trumps their sense of imagination.
2. The freedom to fail. People need to know they can make mistakes and still have another chance on the team.
3. Encouragement to have fun. Let’s get this party started! Work hard, but take time to laugh along the way. Great leaders encourage this.
4. An openness to experimenting. It might work. It might not. Let’s give it a try.
5. Permission to ask questions. People only know what they know. Great leaders allow people to ask questions about anything of which they are unsure?
6. A culture of collaboration. Isolation leads to destruction. The more we can get people working together the stronger our teams will be.
7. Welcoming individual recognition. This sounds like an anti-team mentality, but it’s not. What I mean here is that when the leader owns all the acknowledgement a team receives it limits what people will attempt to achieve. People need to be able to receive recognition for their individual work.
8. An expectation to be challenged. People usually perform up to the expectation set for them and seldom beyond.
9. Shared ownership. Ownership leads to stewardship. The more we give people a seat at the table the more responsibility they will assume for overall results.
10. A path toward individual creation. Original thoughts should be welcome on a team.
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This article originally appeared on RonEdmondson.com and is reposted here by permission.