Open interaction with your team is a vital ingredient in a successful, efficient workplace. If your people can?t speak honestly with you, you miss out on their perspective. Further, you create a divide between leaders and employees that unnecessarily limits everyone. Use the best methods of encouraging open dialogue to create a united and productive team.

Define an Open Door Policy

Even if you?ve got one and your team is well aware, have you made it clear exactly what people can expect when they come through your door? Simply stating you have an open door policy without defining it, may mean no one uses it at all. Worse, they may come to you with things that waste your time. Define whose door is open, when and for what types of conversations.

Consider an anonymous method of contact to include in your policy, so that team members won?t hold back out of fear of retribution or job security. Make sure that your whole team, however small or large, has the details of your policy. Consider putting your open door policy in writing, so it?s both clear cut and easy to disseminate.

Differentiate Between Dialogue and Discussion

When your team needs to make a decision, you should have a discussion. People can weigh options, argue their points, and so on. However, when you want to foster an open dialogue among your team, you can use a few tools to keep it from veering into discussion territory. Acknowledge what each person has to offer. This will help everyone focus on each member of the team and value what is being said.

Connect related or similar input put forth by multiple team members. If you can demonstrate the connection with examples, even better. This helps pull ideas together and give momentum to the dialogue. Ask questions to help clarify ideas, not only for yourself, but the whole team. Encourage others to do the same. While you shouldn?t be the main speaker in these situations, you can help steer dialogue to make it more productive and cooperative.

Be Part of the Team

Similar to keeping your door open, behaving as part of the team, instead of an authority figure will help foster an environment where open communication is the norm. Your team will be less likely to feel unsure of approaching you with pertinent concerns or ideas if you approach projects as a team member. This means being more hands on. It may require you to adjust your management style a bit. Also, be conscious of maintaining some boundaries. Building team cohesion is worth the effort you?ll put into keeping a balance.

Compliment and Critique Effectively

To foster communication, your team needs your input as well. Praising employees who share great ideas or approach issues with a positive attitude will encourage them to continue doing so. Be sincere, prompt, and if it?s appropriate, praise your people in public.

Though it may seem counter-intuitive that critiquing employees would improve communication, it does. You must deliver it in a way that benefits you and the team member, without being condescending or demeaning. Don?t criticize when you?re emotional. Anger negates any benefits. Cool off, then take the team member aside to talk privately. Avoid making it personal by focusing on the action that needs changing. Include solutions or suggestions when you critique someone.

Fostering communication within your team costs you nothing and is rewarding for everyone. Work to provide a respectful, cooperative environment. Your people will see you as an ally and feel confident in giving their best to the team.

One necessary skill among effective team leaders is strong problem solving skills. Not every person is naturally good at finding good solutions. Even those who are, need to practice the skill. How can you improve your problem solving abilities?

Work On Visualization
It?s vitally important to have a clear understanding of the problem before you attempt to work out a solution. Visualization is one of the most powerful tools you can employ to get a solid impression of the problem that needs solving. The method you use to visualize an issue will, of course, depend on what the problem is. A concrete example of this is in mathematics problem solving; students use diagrams to visualize a problem, making it easier to find the solution. For financial hurdles in your business, you may employ graphs or charts to compare data in a visual way.

For less clear cut problems, using your mind to work around the entirety of a problem is still helpful. You must approach a problem from different perspectives, so asking others for their input may be helpful. Considering how others might be affected by the problem can help you get a better understanding of it.

Brainstorm and Anticipate Roadblocks
Once you have a clear idea of the problem, you?ll begin brainstorming solutions. Remember not to discount ideas to early in this phase. You must keep an open mind, entertaining solutions from different perspectives. It?s also helpful to consider the costs and benefits of each idea to the various parties if affects.

Not just coming up with a list of solutions, but a rough idea of all the implications of each, should include the expectation of barriers. Every action involved in solving your problem may come with a barrier or potential roadblock. Expecting these from the get-go, enables you to brainstorm ways to deal with them. This will help you eliminate surprise delays in implementing solutions.

Evaluate Before You Implement
When you approach problem solving as the means to finding just one solution, then putting it into action, you miss the opportunity to evaluate many solutions. Sure, you don?t want to spend too much time on this. However, doing a little mental test-run of a few solutions lets you consider the barriers and potentially unexpected outcomes from your best ideas. The brainstorming time lays the groundwork for solid evaluation.

When you improve your evaluation skills, you can streamline your problem solving. The best solutions are the simplest. The last thing you want in a solution is to create more work or more problems. As you consider potential solutions, be on the lookout for ways to cut down steps, remove barriers, reduce costs, and so on.

Follow Up On Solutions
Implementing a solution isn?t the end of problem solving. Following up will tell you how your solution is doing and help to inform you the next time you?re working through problem solving. Important questions to ask include: Is there an easier way this could have been accomplished? What, if any, were unexpected outcomes from implementing your solution? How have all involved parties been affected by the solution? Finally, has the problem been completely resolved? The answers to these questions, of course, help you understand how your solution is working out, but will also help you see where you need to improve your methods.

Some people think the ability to solve problems quickly is important for leaders. Instead of worrying about speed, practice ways to craft the best possible solution for a given problem. The more your practice, the better you?ll get at solving problems.

Managing a successful team doesn?t mean just being a boss. The most effective leaders know they must identify the needs of their team, and address those needs, to keep their people productive and happy. You should know what you need from your team to succeed, but how can you figure out what your team needs from you?

Trust me.? The time you take to figure it out is worth it.

Get A Little Personal

Some people believe that knowing your employees on a personal level is unimportant or even unethical. We?re not suggesting that you form inappropriate relationships or get entangled in your employees personal lives. But knowing what your team needs from you, means you have to know your team very well. You will better understand where your people are coming from when you know whether they have a family, what their hobbies are, how they choose to spend their free time, and so on.

Corporate team building excursions are one way that managers can get to know employees better, while building stronger team bonds. If you?re a small business owner or leading a small work group, something as simple as a weekly lunch where no one talks shop may help you get to know your people as individuals.

We are lucky in the direct sales industry that we can develop more personal relationships with team members.? However, always have your guard up because you just never know when someone will betray you.

Just Ask

Many managers make use of simple surveys to assess the climate their employees work in. Gallup Q12? is one such survey, which uses 12 elements of engagement that best predict performance. Items such as, ?I know what is expected of me at work,? may be defined by your team and discussed. You may have team members rate their feelings about the team itself, the work project(s), and work environment overall. Any of these will give you a window into how your team is operating as a group and as individuals.

You must also ask your people to help you define an ideal work situation. No matter how big or small the input, it?s all important. ?We need more staples,? and ?We need to streamline communications,? both help to paint the picture of the best environment for your team. Put aside budget concerns while assessing these needs. You can always brainstorm ways to achieve these goals without spending lots of money.

Assess Barriers

Why isn?t your team already operating in the best possible conditions? This is where you can try to find ways to work around budget limitations. Specifically address how you can get from where things are now to that ideal situation. With your team, begin mapping out how you will address their concerns. Of course, you can?t ask for their input, then ignore it because it sounds expensive or difficult. By the same token, it?s in their interest to work out ways to get what they need. Work as a part of the team to create a plan of action.

People are empowered when they know exactly what is required of them. It is imperative for leaders to create clear cut expectations both for individuals, teams, and the scope of work to be completed by both. If confusion about responsibilities contributes to some of your team?s shortcomings, you may find this is the time for redefining or clarifying expectations for specific roles.

Follow Through

When you?ve assessed the needs of your team and figured out a way to get them what they need, act on it. Asking your team for their input goes a long way in building bonds and creating a positive work environment. Delivering what they?ve asked for is the most important part. You?ll show your team that you value and support them, giving them the added confidence and motivation to succeed.

When thinking about personality traits that make someone a strong, effective leader, the word kindness may not be on your list. The old adage, ?You can catch more bees with honey than vinegar,? holds true for leaders. While it doesn?t mean you never have to be tough, kindness is a very important trait in a strong leader.

Kind is Not Weak

Kindness is not a sign of weakness, nor is it always nice. Being kind doesn?t mean getting run over by others. It?s not about giving everyone what they want. So what is kindness? It begins with simple respect for your employees or team members. Every person deserves to be spoken to with kindness and respect. Degrading your team by treating them with less than common courtesy serves no one.

Some leaders believe that showing kindness to employees makes them appear unfair. They may be concerned that compassion encourages a personal connection with employees that is beyond professional. This is why it helps to define exactly what kindness in the workplace looks like and how it benefits you as a leader as well as your team dynamic. Let?s explore exactly what kind leadership behavior looks like and how it makes you better.

• Compassion

Kind leaders are truly compassionate. You must listen to your team, understand where they?re coming from, to be able to sympathize. That compassion and sympathy lets you deal with problems before they negatively impact team morale and productivity. You?ll be more adept at solving problems in the best way for everyone when you can fully comprehend how they affect everyone.

• Honesty

Be truthful with your team. When it comes to criticism, make sure it?s constructive and respectful. Bosses who mistreat their team, demoralize them. If you give someone actionable criticism, you?re providing them tools to improve. By the same token, be honest in the way you reward hard work. Give personal, specific recognition to team members who truly deserve it.

• Gratitude

This relates to the point about honest recognition. Show your team your gratitude. Leaders can only do so much to encourage and support a team. The actual work being done and the overall environment are up to the team members themselves. Encourage your team to value each other as well.

• Culture

Cultivate a kind culture in your workplace. From planning team volunteer days to encouraging random acts of kindness, get everyone on your team practicing kindness. Groups are far more likely to work together, be productive, and stay motivated if everyone is treating each other with courtesy and respect.

• Communication

Clear, reliable means of communication prevent misunderstandings and wasted effort in the workplace. Establishing clear goals, frequency of project updates, and a means of communicating with everyone on the team will encourage participation from everyone. Develop and enact the best methods for your team shows them you value your time and effort enough to make sure it?s not wasted checking messages all day or working on projects with ever-changing goals.

Whether you?re the type of leader who manages with an ?iron fist in a velvet glove? or a pillar of compassion and empathy all the time, know that treating your employees with the kindness and respect you?d like from your boss will go far in creating a positive culture and a productive team.

When the end of the year rolls around and the Holiday season begins, we like to go out with a bang. Meaning that a lot of times, we are indulging in feasts, drinks, good company, Holiday parties, less work, and more play. But after Christmas is over we all kick it back into motivation mode and start compiling our New Year?s Resolutions. We all are working towards that next big step in our career, our killer bod that we made a resolution for in 2013, or just making some positive changes for the new year to come. Often times though, we set unrealistic goals; trying to cram everything in to our busy schedules and being disappointed in ourselves when we didn?t follow through with our plans. But it is completely normal that this happens and very healthy to keep your positive visions for the future. The best new you in 2014 is totally attainable if you don?t give yourself more than you can handle, you?re realistic about what you can achieve and most of all, you believe in yourself. Here are a few tips that will help you set and reach your goals for the New Year!

Make a List

Make a list of some goals you have in mind for the New Year. First just start with a simple, bulleted list of things you have in mind. This could range from a new mindset to new habits, family life to career life, whatever comes to mind. Post the list on a social network. Declare it. Tell the world that this is what you will accomplish. You will be surprised what the accountability does for you in terms of motivation.

Be Specific

Specifying your goals is the easiest way to keep them realistic and attainable. For example, if you are setting weight loss goals, don?t be vague and say I wanna be skinny. A realistic goal for that is to break it down and be specific. ?I want to lose 2 pounds a week? or ?I am going to work out 5 days a week.? This way, it is easier to keep track of what you?re actually doing to reach your goals. Post your progress to your friends daily. Again accountability is key to push you into the next day.

Keep a Chart or List to Measure your Progress

With most of us leading busy lives and chaotic schedules, things easily slip our mind or get forgotten and swept under the rug. Make a chart or list of some sort and put it up somewhere that you are going to see it every day. Seeing that list each day and being able to chart your progress is a definite way to ensure that you are keeping up with your goals, while seeing how far you have come.

Be Creative

Make a dream board. Fill it with pictures of that dress you?re gonna wear when you reach your goal weight, or that car you?re going to get when move up in your career, the time you will be able to spend with your family, etc. Visually seeing these reminders will only push you further into working for your goals! Again, share your dream board with your friends or better yet have a dream board party.

Give yourself Time

Good things take time and for most of us, so do our goals. Don?t stress yourself out and try to get everything done by the end of January. Giving your full attention to one goal at a time versus spreading yourself thin and trying to accomplish everything at once, is much more efficient in being able to check one goal off your list and move on to the next one. Give yourself an estimated amount of time for how long it might take (don?t be hard on yourself if it takes a little longer!) Patience is a virtue and progress is gradual, so keep on going and do what you can. Don?t quit!

Reward Yourself

You can choose whatever you want as a reward for any of your goals. It isn?t necessary but it is definitely extra motivation to achieve what you want. Maybe you can go out to a movie, have your favorite meal, or give yourself a ?me time? day. Either way, you deserve a pat on the back and recognition for your efforts and progress. Whatever reward is more pleasing to you is just another form of motivation. Write this on your dream board!? Some examples of a reward is “I will buy new jeans when I am a size (fill it in).”? “I will buy new jeans when I have paid of “x” credit card.”

Be Positive

This is the most important aspect of setting any goal in your life. If you are having any negative thoughts or giving any of your energy to worries, it makes it harder on yourself to reach your goals. There is no harm in giving 100% positive thoughts to your goals. The more optimistic you are, the better vision you create for yourself.

Every leader knows you can?t force your team to be more productive. Productivity needs to be cultivated and nurtured. Support and mutual respect are two of the ingredients of a productive team. What can you do to inspire your people and keep your team productive for the long run?

Listen

All great bosses and leaders have learned how important it is to listen to their team. No one knows what they need more than they do. You cannot address their needs and create a motivated work place without listening. This doesn?t just mean listening to the people brave enough to approach you with criticism. It means encouraging an environment where your entire team feels comfortable coming to you. This starts by addressing concerns that have already been raised. Offer anonymity to those who prefer it (think: suggestion box).

Don?t Rely on Email

Email is fast and easy, but it?s not always the best way to communicate. It can become especially confusing when people are replying to a group. If you want honest input on a project or the team needs to converse back and forth about something, make time for teleconferences, video conferences or in-person meetings. It will cut down on time spent checking email, eliminated missed emails mid-project, and allow you and your team to work out fine details much more quickly than emailing.

Eliminate Non-Productive Weekly Meetings

While hashing out project details in person is effective and saves time, standing weekly meetings may be just the opposite. If you find your weekly meetings are forced, little is discussed, and it?s really just a retelling of the week, nix the boring weekly meeting. The time spent preparing for and holding the meeting is time your team could be spending working.

Award your Team Wisely

Whether your whole team works in one building together or you manage a group remotely, recognition is a powerful motivational tool. However, a simple ?Good job,? is too generic. Handing out printed certificates for every little thing loses meaning fast. How do you use this strategy effectively? Be honest. Recognize individuals for specific actions you are thankful for. Be personal in your delivery, whether it?s a handwritten note, thoughtful email, or brief speech in a meeting.

Volunteer as a Team

This helps bring a team together in a way that no other function really can. Giving back to the local community is an especially powerful tool. It shows your team that together they can effect change. If you?re team is remote, this may be a little more difficult, but you could still put together something like a fundraiser where everyone can participate remotely. Friendly competition, like creating two volunteer teams of employees who challenge each other, also strengthens those team bonds.

Streamline Boring or Laborious Tasks

No matter what business you?re in, your team will undoubtedly have those tasks that must be done, but everyone dreads. Filing a report, updated contact lists, submitting invoices, and so on. Make sure you?ve got these tasks streamlined so they can be completely efficiently and with the least pain for your team. If you?re unsure whether there might be a better method, ask the people responsible for doing it. They may have great ideas. Falling into the mindset of doing things the way they?ve always been done is a real morale and time killer.

Set Clear Goals

Project deadlines, team goals, and even basic workplace expectations should be very clear. They should also be realistic. Giving your team and impossibly short deadline for a project might make them work hard to accomplish it in the short term, but it undermines the community of mutual respect and support your team needs to be productive long term.

Do you feel like you have what it takes to be a leader? You are trying to build a business and you want to find the best of the best, your elite group that will help you lead a successful business.

What are the qualities that are most important to you? Leading isn?t always something you are just born with, it is multiple traits that you can package all in one. You are always learning and always evolving as a leader, pushing yourself to be the best version of you, so you can bring out the best version of others.

I want to talk to you about some of the traits you need to be a leader.

Traits Of A Leader

Independent
How important is it to be someone who can motivate yourself? When you?re a leader, you are the one who is delegating tasks. You don?t want someone to tell you what you need to do, so being able to be independent and take initiative with what needs to get done is imperative. You will need to have guts and need to make decisions on your own that are going to benefit your team and sometimes they won?t be popular with everyone.

Optimistic
Nobody, I repeat, nobody wants to be around a Debbie Downer. I have never worked with a negative person that I wanted to be around. When you lead, you need to make sure you are bringing your best foot forward and that means being optimistic, always seeing the bright side and helping others to do the same thing. Sometimes you will have to dig deep to portray an optimistic view point on something, but as leaders that is just what we need to do. Even if we aren?t particularly feeling it.

Self-Starter
As a leader, you know that you need to be a self-starter and that is something you will need to show to others. When you are someone who is in a leadership position, people will look at you and try to mimic you, so showing that you?re a self-starter and someone who takes action is an amazing trait to have.

Reliable
Things come up and that is understandable, but when you are a leader, making sure you are reliable is huge. If you have to do presentations, sign up clients and/or train others, you want to make sure that you are there when you need to be.

You just have to make sure you?re going to do what you say to do. Action is more important than words.

Confident
How can you lead without confidence? When I look for someone who is leading, I look to see how they present themselves. Are you sure of yourself? Do you have confidence in your ability to lead and teach others?

Knowing that you?re good at what you do and showing others how to be good at what they do is true leadership. Confidence is infectious. I know that when I interact with happy and confident people, it makes me want to be a better person.

When you are first taking steps in to leadership, sometimes you have to ?fake it til you make it?. Many leaders go through this and it is totally normal.

Compassionate
Showing that you truly care about others and want what is best for them is important in ANY business. Businesses don?t become successful without people. In life and business, people want to know that they are being heard, so really listening and showing that you care will not only reflect good leadership, it will show that you are a compassionate person.

When you are communicating with your peers or team, be engaged in the conversation. Don?t allow yourself to be distracted.

Fearless
Okay, we?re not talking about skydiving, unless you really want to! But in order to be successful you need to think outside the box. Sometimes you need to be able to think fast and take risks that you wouldn?t normally take, but that comes with leadership. You win some, you lose some but it?s how you play and lead that will determine your success.

These are a few of the most important traits I look for when it comes to leadership. What are the traits that you look for? What traits do you think will help your business grow?

I have been fortunate enough to go through momentum with two different companies. This first was in the late 1990s with Starbucks and the second time is now with It Works Global. When a company grows at such a fast rate, creating communities within the company is so important. It allows people to not get lost in the growth and makes for a much more enjoyable ride.

In both the offline and online world there are a few things that are very important when building communities within a large group.

Have a Purpose

The bigger your organization gets there will be a need to departmentalize it. This can be done based on things like management teams, stores, geographic location, people that have achieved the same thing, maybe a certain award. You get the idea. This community should have a mission or a purpose for their members. Are they all trying to achieve something? Are they helping each other? What is the ?why? of the members? Define the purpose of the group and how members can help each other achieve their goals. Do this early on and make sure new members understand it.

Choose Positive Leadership

This might be the most important thing that you can do for your internal communities. People need a leader. If you pick the wrong one, members may not want to participate. Just like a real town or community, there has to be a sheriff or a leader. Usually this will be the person that starts the group. The leader must be consistent and engage the group in discussion that is beneficial to the purpose of the group. This might be reminders or posts about updates or other important information that people need to know.
The leader should be of service to the community and often act as a host, while maintaining authority. They should create a positive energy and be able to listen to members needs. The leader should have integrity and be able to take action quickly when needed.
If something goes wrong people will be looking to this person for answers.

Community Manager

Sometimes the leader of the community needs help managing it. Consider appointing a community manager that can help with monitoring posts and moderating questions. This will take some pressure off from the leader and make the members feel like they are always being heard. It?s important that when members ask questions or have needs that they are answered in a timely manner. This could be overwhelming if there is only one person in charge of that.

Community Identity

Creating a name, slogan or logo can be a cool way for people to associate themselves to the community. If you are online you can also create #hashtag for your members to use so they can always follow what is going on.

Be Organized

Members will become restless if they can?t find what they are looking for. Work with your community manager to create a system to store information and then make sure your members understand how to find things.

Set Rules

Rules can be set so people feel safe there. Some types of rules can be related to privacy, tone or even posting. Let?s look at a few examples:
Privacy- what happens here stays here. There has to be a trust that anything said in that group will be confidential. It is critical that this rule not be broken and if it is the member of the group needs to be removed or held accountable for it somehow.
Tone ? Online or offline a negative tone is not beneficial to the group. Nip negativity in the bud.
Posting ? It?s important that posts be made with a purpose and an intent to communicate something of value. We are all busy and if there is someone constantly posting frivolous things, the members of the group will get restless. Members must respect each others time.

Encourage Engagement

While groups will always have bystanders, you want to encourage engagement in your community on or offline. Ask questions that will people thinking. Ask for help. Ask for suggestions. Do contests.
When you can trigger positive engagement in your group you will have a stronger team. Engagement triggers positive energy. It gets people excited and makes them proud to be a part of your community.

Communicate Consistently

Have a schedule of when and what you will be posting for your community so they can grow to count on it. If things go quite the members can lose interest and may not want to bother with it any more.
On and offline people need to hear updates about what is going on in their community. Work with your community manager to strategize what your members needs are and how you can help them get what they need to achieve their goals.

Recognition is Key

Recognize members that have achieved something outstanding and make a big deal out of it. People will take pride in this and you will be helping to build a strong foundation to your community. Once you start recognition within a community you must be organized and consistent about how you do it. If you forget someone they could turn negative one you.

Eliminate Toxic People

The tone in a community should always be positive. Negative comments can become toxic and create frenzy from your members as well as making some feel very uncomfortable. This will happen. You will not be able to please everyone all the time and at some point you will come across a member that needs to be warned or even just removed from the community.

Organize Group Meetings

Online meetings can be help via Google+ or other webinar type programs, while offline meetings can be organized daily, weekly, monthly or whatever works best for your group. However you organize your meetings make sure you are valuing the member?s time and providing them with a positive experience. Online members that get to meet each other in real life helps with the bonding of the team. If there is a way to do this try to arrange it.

Empower Your Members

Encourage members to answer questions when they know they answers. Again this will make your foundation stronger. When your members go out of their way to answer, make sure you recognize them publicly.