The whole point of being an effective leader in the workplace is to connect with the members of your team in such a way that motivates them to give you their all. Get this right and your coworkers will provide you with an endless stream of massive productivity and success. Get it wrong and your days as the leader around the office may be numbered.
To make sure you connect with people in your workplace in the most effective way, you are going to have to develop a few strategies that help people accept you as their leader and give you the respect and cooperation that you deserve. With that in mind, here are a few strategies that can take you from being on the outside to being tightly connected with every coworker on your team.
Give Genuine Praise.
If you want to get the attention of your team members and get them on your side, giving them genuine compliments will do the trick. No one likes to go through life not being noticed for the tremendous effort they put into their work. Leaders who refuse to give genuine praise for good work send the message that their coworkers are not able to please them no matter how much effort they put forth. Leaders who take the time to notice an honest effort and hand out praise when it is deserved without coming off “plastic” in the process, already have the respect and loyalty of their coworkers. A hand-written note is still one of the best ways to send praise to a coworker when you want them to know you were truly impressed with something they did.
Everyone has Their Price.
While most leaders try hard to motivate their coworkers to let them in, they often ignore a simple rule that works every time. That rule is that you have to give in order to get. If you want to get your coworkers to connect with you, you must be willing to give something to motivate this.
This may sound like a bribe and it should not be mistaken for anything less. Bribing your coworkers is a very effective way to not only build a tight connection, but to make them depend on that connection as well. You just have to ask probing questions to learn the things you can do for them to motivate them to want to connect with you.
Give them the right incentives and the connection will be rock solid. Knowing these motivating triggers can also help push a lagging member of your team into high gear performance mode. Never underestimate the sheer raw power of a good bribe to get what you want out of your team members.
A Leader Can be Fun, Too.
People are highly attracted and motivated by fun experiences. When people are having loads of fun the vibe is truly contagious. A leader should be able to make their coworkers feel like connecting with them is fun to do as much as possible.
If you are a stick in the mud around your coworkers, they will not feel invited or comfortable around you. If you are loads of fun, yet able to maintain a professional air while making them laugh and enjoy themselves at work, they will see you as the leader that deserves their attention- not the leader from whom they recoil.
Get Down to Business.
When it comes to advancing your skills as a leader who properly connects with your team, obtaining senior leadership training and experience is a key method of improving how you reach out to your coworkers and make a meaningful connection. Often this level of training can be facilitated at a leadership team development retreat, where you and your team have an opportunity to not only bond, but also learn to function more cohesively by learning new skill sets like conflict resolution, effective problem solving, and business planning strategies. These skills will help improve the overall performance and productivity of your team around the office.
Connecting with the coworkers on their team is something that every leader will have to do at some point in their career. While some members of the team will be easier to connect with than others, it is important to realize that a broad spectrum of approaches works to connect with a wide variety of people. Just because one approach fails to get your coworkers to open up and give you their best, that does not mean another approach will be met with failure. Since good leaders conquer where others fail, you must be willing to try a lot of things to make that connection happen and get your team operating like a well-oiled machine.
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