Part Of Planning For A Strong 2023 Means Your Team Culture Is As Strong As Can Be!
Team culture is often an overlooked, yet an important, factor in any team's success. Yet when it comes to planning for a strong 2023, having a strong team culture can be the difference between success and failure. With this approach, your team will be ready to take on any challenge and succeed. It also provides the necessary leadership and guidance to ensure everyone is working together, with a clear plan of action.
By focusing on these key elements of communication, trust, leadership, collaboration and goal-setting your team can build a strong culture that will enable them to work together towards common goals and be successful. With the right strategies, your team can be well-positioned for success in 2023 and beyond!
Your team can build a strong culture that will enable them to work together towards common goals and be successful. With the right strategies, your team can be well-positioned for success in 2023 and beyond!
From communication and trust to leadership and goal-setting, understanding the key elements of a successful team culture can help businesses lay the groundwork for long-term success. Today, on the ECBME podcast we will talk about
Debunk two mindset myths when it comes to being a leader.
Share 3 of my early mistakes for you to avoid.
Create an effective plan for 2023 by strengthening your team's culture with strategies for communication, trust, leadership, collaboration, and goal-setting.
Debunk two mindset myths when it comes to being a leader.
Today I want to address a very common myth, so you can shift your mindset and grow a supportive team and work community! One of the biggest fears I hear all the time is, "I wouldn't be a good leader" or "I'm not management material." I have quite a few thoughts on this, so let's dive in!
No one is born a good leader. Leadership is a skill that can be grown and developed just like any other! I have most definitely had to build my leadership skills when growing teams with all of my businesses.
You also don't need a certain personality to be a good leader. It's often thought that you need to be charismatic and have a big personality, but that's entirely not true!
What makes a good leader are traits that you carry (traits that can still be learned and refined). Good leaders are great listeners, empathetic, solution-oriented, and try to find the win for not only themselves but everyone in the company.
Just remember that no one is born an amazing leader, that you can always grow your skills, and that is a good leader is not based on a certain personality type. By keeping these facts to heart and refining your leadership skills, you'll feel more confident in building a successful team to help you grow a powerful asset: your business.
Share 3 of my early mistakes for you to avoid.
As you think about planning for the new year, we need to make sure we avoid a few key leadership mistakes and lay a foundation for nurturing the team culture and building you will be planning for the new year.
I want to start by sharing my leadership mistakes with you. You see I started at KinderCare before I even graduated from college. And I started in a leadership role. Barely 22 years old and having to tell other twice my age what to do. Not to mention I have always looked very young for my age so that was not a plus!
I went through quite a few learning curves before I started to really see some of the mistakes I was making. I want to share those with you so you can avoid making the same mistakes I did. No matter how long you’ve been in business, you’re bound to make mistakes. I Know I sure did and still do. But you really want to avoid these mistakes at all costs!
LETTING YOUR EGO GET IN THE WAY
Yep. I am pretty real around here! I am going to lay it out right away for you. One of the biggest mistakes leaders have is making it all about them and NOT their team. This can lead to micromanaging your team, it can threaten your team culture, and it can truly put a huge barrier to the growth of the organization.
For me I was so wrapped up in proving myself. This is where I learned the more others around me shined, the quicker I climbed the ladder. I was in a senior management position before I was 30. I attribute this to learning early on that taking a vested interest in the growth of others made me successful.
NOT SETTING REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS
If you don't have a lot of experience being a leader or manager, you may not be good at setting expectations. The idea is simply asking what it is that you want them to do, and how would you evaluate or measure that? What does success look like?
When I would go into troubled centers with an action plan to turn them around, I would make the mistake of engaging the team by giving them direction, without telling them the results we're looking for. That can be a huge stumbling block because your team doesn’t really know what your needs are. Not to mention I learned that there were amazing team members who had even better ideas than I did. And again, losing the ego, their great ideas would make the end result even better for everyone, especially the business.
NOT HOLDING YOUR TEAM MEMBERS ACCOUNTABLE
This one usually ties into setting expectations because it's also about creating accountabilities– setting up frequent check-ins to see how things are going, talking about them after they're done, making sure they were done correctly, etc. So it's important that you're holding people accountable to those expectations because without accountability the expectations are never checked in on. So why create them in the first place?
This has been a HUGE one that I continue to struggle with even today. I have people that have been on my team for more than 18 years. It is easy to think everyone knows what they are doing and coast along. Until that little fire, you thought they could handle turns into a raging one.
Putting in accountability measures does take a little time. But when you do, your experienced team members feel nurtured and cared for. They feel less stress about having to always be on and knowing exactly what to do. And your newbie team members learn from you and those around them. It is a win for your business but more importantly a huge win for nurturing your team culture.
Create an effective plan for 2023 by strengthening your team's culture with strategies for communication, trust, leadership, collaboration and goal-setting.
Now moving onto planning. In order to have an effective plan for 2023, it is essential that the team culture within a company or organization is as strong as possible. As leaders, we understand the importance of team culture. Teamwork fosters collaboration and communication that make it easier for team members to excel. Team Culture is what holds your work community together.
A strong team culture can be developed by focusing on key elements such as communication, trust, leadership, collaboration, and goal-setting. These components are integral in creating an environment that is conducive to success and productivity.
Communication is essential for successful team cultures, as it enables members to share ideas and opinions openly and effectively. It also allows teams to work together better, by ensuring everyone understands each other’s roles and responsibilities.
Trust is another key factor in developing a strong team culture. Without trust, teams will be unable to collaborate and reach their goals. Leaders must foster an environment of trust by setting clear expectations and demonstrating respect for team members’ ideas.
Leadership is also a key component in creating a successful team culture. Effective leaders are able to motivate and inspire their teams to reach their full potential. They should also be able to recognize each team member’s unique contributions and provide the support needed for them to succeed.
Collaboration is another important element of successful team cultures, as it allows teams to work together in a unified way. Teams should strive to create an environment where everyone brings their own ideas and experiences to the table, and work together to come up with solutions and strategies.
Lastly, setting goals is an important part of the process. Setting attainable goals gives team members a sense of purpose and direction. This enables teams to track their progress and make necessary changes as needed in order to reach their 2023 objectives.
Finally, I want to share with you a few practical strategies when planning for the new year and how to keep your team culture thriving in order to reach desired goals for the new year.
1. Define your team culture
Start by defining your team culture for your EC business. Keep in mind that team members’ actions, interactions, and attitudes shape the effectiveness of your team’s success. Involve your team in defining your culture. Having a positive mindset in everything you approach will lend to a more successful outcome. This is critical because by fostering strong team synergy, you create a work environment that minimizes conflict and maximizes success. Differing ideas become problem-solving collaborations, and shared visions bring the future into better focus.
2. Find inspiration & set the tone
When looking for new ways to solve old problems, explore how other companies do things. As your team culture evolves, consider incorporating ideas from organizations you align with. Your team culture is a reflection of your strengths. Share your heart as you develop team collaboration. Let your passion inspire team energy, and your purpose guide you.
3. Define your core values and mission.
Core values are vital to successful team culture. Define yours by sitting down and writing them out. Ask yourself these questions:
What are your most important personal values?
Are they the same values you place on professional success?
Do you look for these qualities in the people you hire?
What would you never tolerate in the workplace?
Your answers set teamwork standards for everything from job performance to customer service. From there, craft your company's mission. Develop it as a written statement that defines and communicates your business purpose. Use it to strengthen your team culture.
We have an amazing resource, the Early Childhood Business CEO Vision Planner that will help guide you through all of this if you haven't identified your mission, core values, brand promise, hidden assets, mission, and more. You can find this at kelleypeake.com.
4. Clear expectations
It's important to share with your team what you expect from them 100% of the time. Establish pillars that are easy to reference on a daily basis. Some examples:
Honesty at all times.
Personal accountability.
Professional commitment.
Sincere conflict resolution.
Pride in always doing your best.
Preserve your team culture by addressing when team members are not upholding the pillars.
5. Always be building
Building a team culture requires practice and consistency in positive reinforcement. A few of the ways you can maintain a healthy team dynamic are:
Encouraging team gatherings.
One-on-one connection times.
Team involvement within the community.
Incorporating team members’ families as an extension of your business at gatherings.
6. Lead with heart
The best team culture creates a business-wide sense of responsibility. Build team unity on the foundations of respect, responsibility, patience, and honesty. Building and celebrating positive attitudes for winning team culture. When team members are happy, they share that energy with their school families and they are happy. Becomes a strong circle of trust and culture.
Final Thoughts on Planning for A Strong 2023
In order to achieve success in 2023, businesses need to invest in their team culture now by focusing on key elements like communication, trust, leadership, collaboration and goal-setting. By doing so, teams can create a positive environment that encourages trust and open communication between team members.
Just remember that no one is born an amazing leader, that you can always grow your skills, and that being a good leader is not based off of a certain personality type. By keeping these facts to heart and refining your leadership skills, you'll feel more confident in building a successful team to help you grow a powerful asset: your business.
With effective leadership and an atmosphere of collaboration, teams will be better equipped to set realistic goals and work together towards achieving success in 2023 and beyond. With the right strategies in place, businesses can create an effective plan for 2023 and ensure their team culture is as strong as it can be.
Resources
Be sure to checkout our WORK+LIFE Strategic Planning Bundle
Give Yourself The Gift Of MORE TIME In The New Year You Know All of Those Little Things You Never Have Time To Do? It’s Time to Tackle Those and Get to Achieving Your Bigger Dreams! The Work+Life Strategic Planning Bundle is for Early Childhood Business Owners and Managers Who Want to Build a Strategic Plan and Set the Stage for Work+Life Success in 2023. Lead your team with clarity and confidence to start 2023 from a position of strength.
Be sure to get on our email list so we can send you more information about our Shine Membership for Early Childhood Business Owners/Managers that is now Open!
We give Early Childhood business owners/managers the operational strategies and tools they need to grow their profitable businesses with more joy, confidence, clarity, and less overwhelming.
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As we are moving into the new year we have been thinking about some fun and meaningful ways we can support our team. So we wrote down some of our ideas to share with you. This is our Holiday Gift Giving Guide.
