Leadership is an activity - one that never ceases for the leader. A leader who gains the respect of his or her followers is often a leader who spends time considering the needs of the followers. We have referred before that true authority and respect are granted by followers rather than imposed by structures or power. Keeping followers satisfied within reason is key to strong leadership support.
We need to look at the basic needs of a team or group of followers. Most groups tend to have the following as needs:
- A common goal
- A sense of belonging and value
- Participation by all members
- A group feeling of success
You need to pause regularly to test whether your team activities and the way you are leading them is helping to meet the 4 basic needs as listed above. If not it is essential to work out how to change or adapt your decisions and the group activities to positively build the groups sense of satisfaction in these areas. Each of the above basic needs should be looked at in detail to choose the correct intervention to support and nourish them.
Often creating a feeling of success when things go wrong may seem implausible - but watch how skilled coaches refer to losing a game as ' a chance to correct the basics' or even 'this has shown us what we need to do going forward' - but of course it has to be done sincerely. The skill of the leader is to look for and utilize all opportunities to help the group fulfill it's needs.
Till next week
Key take-outs:
- Check out your groups needs regularly
- Constantly look for opportunities to boost the group as a group
- Spend quality time massaging the group dynamics to keep it energized and motivated.