Lyndsay Dowd

Your teams won't take risks unless they know it's safe to do so. How you handle failure will determine whether your team will raise their hands to try something new. Providing an environment of growth, trust and psychological safety will model to your team that not only will risks be rewarded but you will be able to reap the rewards when the risks are met with results. Ask your team, "What haven't we tried? Who haven't we connected with?" Listen to their answers! Share on team calls and open a dialogue. Encourage their ideas and open the conversation to think critically about how things can be done. If someone comes with an idea, give them the opportunity to run with it! Celebrate the wins and learn from failure.

One of the greatest gifts a leader gave me was shortly after being promoted she asked,"How do you want to run the business?" Such a simple question but rarely asked. Leaders can take that question and point it at their teams and instill confidence by sharing that they have been doing the job longer and must have ideas.Try asking, "What haven't we tried? Who haven't we spoken with? What is a game changing move we could make?" I loved giving my teams the space to try things that were new to them.When they approached me with ideas I loved to share them across the team so we could have a brainstorming session.This exercise created psychological safety and invited risk taking. Failure inevitably happened but so did incredible success.

The biggest lesson I learned in leading big organizations was that you need to help your team see the value in each other. So often they come with prescribed goals and especially in sales, reps tend to get tunnel visioned on what they sell. When you can help people see how their missions are related, they can support each other. This can be done through online games over zoom and sharing recognition across the team. Providing reasons for connection is your job as a leader. When people care about each other, it takes their daily duties from just a job to a career they enjoy. Fun is a critical part of connection and the leaders who get that will almost always yield better results.

Never underestimate the impact of autonomy on your team.The leaders that are demanding that their people be in the office to be productive have missed the plot. Giving your people the flexibility and space to get their jobs done will earn you trust.Nobody has ever been inspired by micromanagement and while there are jobs that require you to be in the office, I'd argue most can be done from home, on the road or anyplace that has WiFi. When you ask the question,"How can I support you in this role?" You will get varying answers from everyone you ask. Some people love to get their work done early others prefer a morning workout.Whatever their preference you need to ask yourself what obstacles can I remove to help them perform at their best?

TRUST IS YOUR CURRENCY. Without it, it will remain just a job to the people you manage. When you build trust you have a moment to create psychological safety. And when that exists your people will do incredible things. But how do you do it? You start small. Share, be vulnerable and hone your POWER SKILLS (We don't call them soft skills around here because they are far too important.) Make sure you are having 1:1s with everyone on your team. Ask them about their goals and what they believe they do really well. Give them opportunities through delegation to shine. And if they fail, don't EVER let them take the blame. That is on you. Your team is watching you. Don't be the star of somebody's bad memory. Be the leader you wish you had.

Building a personal brand is something EVERYONE needs to do. In a world where there is little company loyalty anymore, you need to build career security for yourself. By sharing your expertise with the world, you can establish yourself as a strong, knowledgeable voice. Don't forget your LinkedIn profile is your landing page. It's the first thing that comes up when you are googled. There are many things you can do to optimize your profile and taking the time to do it, will help others understand what you stand for and why.