Useful Tips for Team Building and Leadership
We have all heard of the quintessential story about the farmer and his four sons – where the farmer, on his deathbed, gives four sticks to each of his son to break, which they accomplish easily.
However, when he gives them a bundle of four sticks to break, they heave and haul in vain. While we all deduced the moral out of the story – that unity is the key to success, little did we realize that this was also our first lesson about teamwork and leadership!
For those wondering how these two appear in this simple story, read the story more carefully. The father, even though on his deathbed, fulfils the role of an expert leader perfectly. He does not lecture his sons, nor does he have to speak to them individually to make them understand the importance of unity. He gives them a perfect practical example that drives the point home wonderfully. Just like a leader should! The father displays exceptional leadership quality and encourages a sense of team building in his sons.
The sons, on the other hand, learn a valuable lesson in team building – a lesson that will go a long way to help them work united.
That was the first lesson most of us learnt. However, the stick method does not work much for leadership and team building, especially in the corporate scenario. Corporate organizations have to employ better and much more comprehensive methods to inculcate the feeling of teamwork and enhance leadership qualities.
Important tips for leadership and team building:
1) Share a common vision: Any task becomes much more appealing when there is a goal to be achieved. Every corporate organization has a certain goal of to achieve, and the best way to get your team members on-board is to share the goal with them and make them realize how important their role is for achieving the goal.
2) Facilitate communication: This is the solution to all problems, the key to all locks and the perfect way of getting two people see reason! If a team indulges in healthy communication, there will be no or minimal disagreements and arguments. Clashes of ideas are normal, but with a healthy rapport, two people can put together individual ideas and come up with something even better!
3) Lead by example: The first and foremost rule of leadership is to lead from the front! A competent leader is the one who set high standards and examples by his own behaviour. It takes a good leader to make an ideal team!