Leaders & Team Development: 15 Ways You Can Create Loyalty & A Desire To Follow You

Article source: http://www.time.com/. Used with author's permission.

Recently, a senior executive asked me how a leader can build loyalty and a desire to follow him in his teams. I thought that was a great question. This was what we discussed:

People need to:

• feel proud of, connected with, and excited about their work.
• be valued, acknowledged, and included.
• feel part of something "bigger than themselves".
• feel that what they do matters;
• be rewarded for good work;
• feel that what they do is a contribution to others.
• believe that they are operating at their best.
• have confidence in and trust their leaders.

These same principles work for both team leaders and team members to build loyalty to one another; and to have their boss be loyal to them!

The 15 Ways You Can Create Loyalty & A Desire To Follow You are:

1. You build their trust in you, and you demonstrate your trust in them.
2. You articulate, promote, and breathe life into a vision and mission the team can align with and be proud of. The team members feel they are part of something bigger than themselves. This helps then to realize their own potential greatness
3. You articulate the values and objectives that achieving the vision and mission will fulfill.
4. You articulate the values and behaviors that they and you will use when implementing the mission.
5. You live by the values, vision and mission. You don't need to be perfect; you do have to demonstrate commitment and determination to the values, mission, and vision.
6. You demonstrate confidence in yourself and them.
7. You actively encourage and are responsive to feedback; acknowledges your mistake; and do "course corrections" when you are off track or conditions change.
8. You are perceived as "real"; that is your demonstrate credibility and character.
9. They believe you have the competencies needed to do your job:

   Skills and Expertise
   Drive and Commitment
   Intelligence
   Courage

10. You listen to your people, and actively invite their input. You include and consider their input in any decision that affects them.
11. You trust in and believe your people. You are proud of them; even before they have earned it.
12. Consistently create a sense of "we can do this if everyone does their part" and that everyone is important to achieving success.
13. You appropriately defend your people and represent their needs.
14. You hold them to their greatness. You don't let them be less than who they are.
15. Exceptional leaders who inspire loyalty really do make the needs of their employees a higher priority then their own needs. If your employees believe this is true of you, they will offer their own loyalty in return.

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. ~Theodore Roosevelt

Loyalty is an essential ingredient in being an exceptional leader and in developing other leaders and high performing teams. Do these 15 behaviors from integrity and you and your team will immediately see and increase in loyalty and effectiveness.

© Copyright © 2004, Art Giser (415)-282-2221 All rights reserved. Feel free to copy it, and forward it on to others, as long as you include this copyright and include a link to http://agdevelopmentgroup.com

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