The word “Leadership” is an important topic in private and public organizations. But what is leadership?
I will tell you what it is not – RANK. Being a leader is not about a rank or a title. In a perfect world they should go hand in hand, but unfortunately as I see on a daily basis it does not.
First, what is leadership? Based on my education and experience as a leader in believe leadership is about inspiring and encouraging a team or group to accomplishment a goal or mission in conjunction with the organization’s mission and values. So how do organizations get there? It’s not as hard as you think, and you can start as soon as you finish reading this article.
Know Your Team
One of the best things any leader can do is get to know everyone on their team on a personal and professional level. This will build a key aspect in good leadership – TRUST. By getting to know your team, they feel valued and supported. Think of the best supervisor you ever had and what made them great. I would guess in addition to knowing their job well, they had shown an interest in you personally and valued what you brought to the team.
Getting back to your team, ask yourself, do you know things like their birthdays, a hobby they enjoy outside of work, if they are married or single, any family crisis, and who is more creative and who is more analytical. When you know your team well, you can assign certain tasks based on what you know about them so they will succeed benefiting the team and ultimately the organization This segways us into the next category.
Assign The Right Task To The Right Person
Any good leader understands their team professionally and personally. Therefore, they know how to assign the right task to the right person. As an example, imagine you have a robbery case and there is a possibility of vital data that could be found online through social media sites. Out of everyone on your team, you have an investigator or detective who has attended training on social media investigations and enjoys “the hunt” online. At the same time outstanding witnesses related to the case were known to hang out at a certain park. You have other investigators who know that area well and have a rapport with some of the locals in that part of town.
By assigning the right task to the right person the case will move forward and critical information will be discovered quickly and efficiently. If you switch the roles in this situation, the task may not get done as well or may not get completed as needed. Think of your teams and identify their personality types, abilities, and skill sets. Have the foresight to assign specific tasks, projects, or cases to the right person or the right team that will yield the best results for the team and organization.
Team Consciousness
In my experience I’ve seen how teams are made up of smaller teams or just independent people who do not share their work or tasks with anyone else. Imagine if your team was in a boat and everyone is rowing in their own direction – you barely move or not at all. The goal here is to get your team rowing together toward a common goal. Here is one example; the venue and beverage are not important.
Take your team out to coffee where you can all sit and talk away from the office. Ask everyone to go around and give an update on all their projects, cases, or challenges. This give everyone the opportunity to know what everyone else is doing which creates a “Team Consciousness.” Inherently, team members will start collaborating and helping each other without you prompting them.
You may need to be a catalyst at first but eventually the process with “run itself” and your teams will start automatically helping each other and combining similar tasks. I have seen this work well with my teams and it is really rewarding to watch the process work without any intervention.
Bottom Line
These simple techniques work in any industry and can empower your team to be more efficient and increase organizational success. Give these techniques a try, and see how it improves the efficiency of your teams and organizations.
The author, Jay P Farrington is a supervisor investigator and has a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership. His thesis project was on Leadership Development for Future Law Enforcement Leaders. He has a combined 25 years in law enforcement from San Diego Police Department and the San Diego District Attorney’s Office.
