Building a winning team involves more than ensuring you hire the right talent; it also requires the correct leadership strategy. By embracing the seven C’s, it’s far easier to head in the proper direction. Here’s a look at the seven C’s and why they’re critical when building an exceptional team.
Coaching
Coaching involves more than giving instructions; it’s about supporting the growth and development of your team by providing sound guidance while also letting them expand their capabilities. Autonomy can come with coaching, as it creates room for exploration and the ability to learn from successes and missteps. Ultimately, the approach is about steering employees without outright issuing orders, ensuring they meet expectations while they take their own unique journey.
Character
Your character often sets the tone for the overall team dynamic. With good character, it’s possible to breed trust and loyalty. Generally, that means demonstrating integrity, being accountable, exhibiting compassion, embracing transparency, and offering forgiveness. Coming through when you make promises is similarly part of the equation, as well as ensuring that the efforts of team members are recognized by upper management when there’s an achievement.
Communication
Clear communication is the foundation for success in any workplace. It’s critical for ensuring expectations and priorities are understood, as well as facilitating collaboration. Plus, prioritizing communication creates opportunities for giving and receiving feedback, supporting the growth of team members while improving your own capabilities.
Commitment
Demonstrating commitment to your role as a leader is essential for building a winning team. By showing that you’re willing to work hard to manage your responsibilities and achieve goals, you’re modeling the behavior you’d like the team to use. Additionally, commitment to your team is critical. When you’re willing to do what it takes to support them, you create a “we’re in this together” mindset, which is often incredibly inspiring.
Contagious Energy
When leaders are optimistically energetic, it positively impacts the team. It shows that challenges don’t inherently mean defeat. Plus, it demonstrates that a manager trusts their employees to push through and perform well, even in the face of adversity. By maintaining that attitude, teams are less likely to steer toward defeatist thinking, making them more resilient during periods of stress and more hopeful in regard to potential outcomes.
Caring
Ensuring your team knows that you care about them as individuals is vital for success. Demonstrating concern and offering support – even in areas that aren’t directly related to work tasks – allows them to see that you recognize they’re whole people with lives beyond what they do at work. Often, that leads to stronger connections, as employees feel seen and valued on a deeper level. In turn, that breeds loyalty, leading to heightened productivity.
Consistency
When a leader is consistent, there’s predictability about their expectations, how they act, how they make decisions, and what they’ll do during challenging times. With consistency typically comes a sense of security. Employees aren’t left guessing about how a manager will react to various scenarios. As a result, it’s easier for your team to work with you and may even allow them to start anticipating what needs to happen to overcome challenges or meet expectations.
Ultimately, the seven C’s above are essential for building a winning team. If you’d like to learn more about effective leadership or need candidates to fill vacancies and create a high-performing team, The Squires Group wants to hear from you. Contact us today.
