What Environment do You Create for Your Teams?

I was considering the best boss I’ve ever had and what it was that I valued about them. I then questioned if I followed their approach and tried to cultivate the same environment for my teams.

This thought came to me after I had a discussion about one of my managers with his team.

He had a small team of 6 people, and when I was asking them how they were getting along with their boss, they said they didn’t have any private one-on-one meetings with him to share information, to get a better understanding of what was going on, or private coaching opportunities.

In my next one-to-one with him, their boss, I asked him why he didn’t have one-to-one meetings with his staff.  He said it was because he didn’t get anything out of the meetings, in fact, they were a waste of his time, and he had too many important things to do.

I asked him if he appreciated our one-to-ones, and he said yes he loved them, he got lots of advice, support and coaching, and they really helped.

So I asked him what he thought I got out of these meetings.

He looked at me and said, “Ok I get it, the meetings are not about us, they are about our teams and what they get out of them.”

I have been fortunate to have a few good bosses, and the things that I appreciated the most about them were:

• they looked to inspire their teams;
• they provided clear direction;
• they allowed people to take calculated risks;
• they pushed their teams to try new things;
• they defended their teams when the risks didn’t quite pay off;
• they gave their teams the space to do things the way they felt best;
• they provided positive feedback and public praise;
• they showed trust in their teams;
• they listened to what the experts had to say and didn’t have to be the expert themselves;
• they shared the credit for success;

Not all these good bosses did all of these things, but they did many of them, and it helped to create a positive working environment, in which teams could be happy, productive and successful.

Given that these are things that I appreciated, that allowed me to flourish, enjoy the job, and be successful, then these are the things that I look to try and create for my teams.

Too often I see people who create environments that they themselves would not like.

I believe that as Leaders we should create an environment we would be happy to work in.

What things do you like about your current environment that you would recreate if you were in charge, and what things would you look to stop or get rid of?

Let me know, I would be very happy to learn.

If you want to learn more about creating highly engaged teams or being a better leader click the link to make an appointment to talk about how I can help.