Effective Workplace Leadership

Are you a business owner struggling to build an effective workplace? If so, then this week’s topic is for you. Nathan is joined by the CEO and founder of Quantum Leap Global – Marianne Hynes, to discuss the importance of leadership and how to create an effective work environment that can improve business results.

Some business owners think that the only way to grow their profit is to increase revenue and decrease expenses. While this is important, there is more to it!

How can a business owner also be a good leader?

Marianne mentions that one of the first and most important aspects of being a leader is managing your wellbeing. Now more than ever, with Greater Sydney’s most recent lockdown, many business owners are under an awful amount of stress and struggling to maintain their wellbeing. To be a good leader and to positively impact your employee’s wellbeing and work environment you also need to make sure you are taking care of yourself.

The foundation for a high-performing team is psychological safety:

In simple terms, psychological safety is where team members feel safe to engage in interpersonal risk‐taking behaviours in the workplace. These behaviours involve feeling safe to communicate openly, challenge the status quo, speaking up, and constructively disagreeing with others to improve business performance. Additionally, they feel that they will not be shamed if mistakes are made, creating an open and thriving environment for performance, growth, creativity, and innovation.

How to you create psychological safety:

• Replacing hierarchical/transactional leadership with values-led, open, and authentic approach.
• Embracing mistakes as learning opportunities.
• Leaning into tough conversation and replace blaming and shaming with curiosity.
• Develop a shared vision and goals and discuss them regularly as a team.
• Create a culture of accountability, feedback and continually growth.

What makes a high performing team?

Besides the obvious of teams meeting or exceeding their targets, building and sustaining high performing teams require ongoing focus and commitment.

Here are some essential steps to take to build a high performing team.

• As a foundation, you must build a psychologically safe and inclusive environment. An environment where all people can bring their authentic selves to work. Marianne has written several articles on this topic.
• Develop a clear team strategy that connects to the broader business strategy, including objectives and priorities.
• Ensure all team members understand their role in delivering on the strategy.
• Agree on what success looks like and track progress regularly, course-correcting as needed. Remembering that accountability is a key component of performance.
• Be deliberate in building your team’s culture by agreeing on the values and behaviours the team will live by and hold each other (including leaders) accountable.

What are some goals to work towards better leadership?

The first part of being an impactful leader is knowing yourself. What do you stand for as a leader, what are your core values and what is your motivation?

Good leadership requires constant development, so engaging a suitable coach is beneficial. Having a coach or mentor can make all the difference when trying to improve your current situation. They are there as a support to reach your goals, to mirror, amplify your strengths, and shed light on your blind spots and hold you accountable.

As a leader you are there to be of service to your team. A successful leader will create a psychologically safe environment that helps employees thrive and develop. Teamed with performance standards and accountability you create a high performing environment which will improve your productivity.

Additionally, as a business owner it’s important to remember that high performing individuals don’t necessarily make a high performing team. The power is in the people working together. Therefore, ensure that you are hiring team players that align with the values and vision you seek for your business.