Uniting Individuals with Leadership: A Discussion on Improving Team Performance

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Ready to transform a group of individuals into a powerhouse team? Joins us as we share invaluable strategies that will elevate your team's performance to unprecedented heights. By harnessing the synergy of trust, communication, and fair play, we illustrate how leaders can foster an environment ripe for growth, innovation, and collective achievement.

This episode is a treasure trove of actionable advice, revealing the secrets to creating a cohesive and dynamic team. We bridge the gap between individual potential and collaborative success with Stephen's guidance, leaving behind the perils of micromanagement and favoritism. Your journey to leadership excellence begins here, and the path is illuminated with the wisdom of a true connoisseur of team-building. Tune in to experience a masterclass in cultivating a work culture where everyone thrives and the sum truly is greater than its parts.

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For more resources, please visit Finance Leader Academy:  financeleaderacademy.com. 

1. Please download the Goal Setting Workbook that follows Episode 115: here
2. On the website, you can download the Become a Finance Leader Guide. You can use this guide to build your Finance Leadership skills so you can help senior leaders develop and execute the strategy.
3. I also offer a course, Advance Your Finance and Accounting Career: Developing a Promotion Strategy that Sets You Apart.

Episode Transcript

Stephen McLain (00:04):
Last week I summarized the 10 key leadership
principles that we each need togrow and develop. And this week
I'm expanding on that list bytalking specifically about
improving team performance.
There are so many factors toconsider especially specific
conditions for your situationwhen trying to help your team
improve a little better. But wecan work to bring our team

(00:27):
together to break down thecommunication barrier and
deliver greater results. Throughleadership and better team
engagement. We can build a teamthat trust each other, and can
perform greater beginning today.
Please enjoy the episode.
Welcome to the finance leaderpodcast where leadership is
bigger than the numbers. I amyour host, Stephen McLain. This

(00:50):
is the podcast for developingleaders in finance and
accounting. Please considerfollowing me on Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram andLinkedIn. My usernames and the
links are in this episode's shownotes. Thank you. This is
episode number 121. And I'll betalking about improving team
performance. Helen Keller saidalone, we can do so little

(01:12):
together, we can do so much. Ilove leadership. But I also love
building teams that worktogether well, and that perform
at the highest level. It's agreat challenge. It takes
communication, and it takesinvesting in yourself and in
your team. We grow ourselves wegrow our leadership, and we grow
our team members and that willgrow our overall performance.

(01:35):
Often, improving teamperformance means a better
system. Though I do believe thisis true. It also means you set
up your team through effectiveleadership, clear and consistent
communication, treating peoplefairly, giving your team members
opportunities to grow and exceland providing a team environment
that allows for discovery, risktaking growth and learning. We

(01:59):
can achieve all of that and italways begins with us. In the
last episode in Episode 120, Italked about my 10 key
leadership principles to helpguide you on how you build a
team that matters. And that canperform at a high level
leadership is a mindset thathelps us overcome obstacles to
achieve some amazing things. Ifyou missed the episode. Please

(02:22):
go back and listen because Ibelieve it will help you in your
own leadership, development andjourney. You must begin with
building trust. Trust is theglue that holds great teams
together. When you have realtrust on the team, you have
people who will take more risk,which results in more growth and
development. A team who trustsand appreciates each other will

(02:46):
collaborate more and help eachother more. We must be careful
on competition though, youshouldn't be competing against a
standard not against each other,and we must show no favoritism.
When you lead based onaccountability, merit, fairness,
and how well you perform, theteam will understand how
decisions are made. Teamengagement matters because you

(03:09):
must be involved with your teamto bring out their best and at
the same time. Give them theroom to do their work without
excessive control andsupervision. Let them grow. Let
them make mistakes, also knownas teachable moments. Build a
team based on inclusion, meritand opportunity give people the
opportunity to show you whatthey can do based on potential.

(03:33):
I always recommend that leaderscheck their biases as they lead.
So they are aware how theypersonally view people and
situations. The more you knowabout yourself, the better you
can lead and be an example ofleadership, bring everyone
together and give opportunitiesto show off what they can do.
Those who are consistently doingwell get more opportunities for

(03:56):
greater responsibility, andtheir career will take off. What
can we automate and what can weeliminate? I believe in
automating the routine andeliminating any unnecessary task
or process. What is your teamdoing that can go away by
automating it or stopping italtogether? I always like to ask
my team especially when you takeover a team, what regular

(04:20):
reports, emails and data theyare sending and what is your
current weekly meeting schedule.
There's usually something theyare working on routinely that
can be easily be automated oreven eliminated altogether. We
talked about communication inthe last episode in depth
because it is so important toget right in the beginning.

(04:43):
Clear communication eliminatesconfusion and brings people
closer together. There isclarity when your team
understands their tasks, thedeadlines and the expectations.
You will also have more buyingin when You share relevant
information quickly, so there isno guessing and no propensity
for gossip, share andcommunicate what is happening.

(05:05):
The moment communication stopsis the moment you lose your
team. As a leader, avoidmicromanagement and rid yourself
of people pleasing. a peoplepleaser leader will seek
validation from their peers andmore senior leaders while
simultaneously treating theirsubordinate team members the
worst and will micromanage andbe little those they lead. Let's

(05:28):
avoid both these tendencies,because they will destroy the
team dynamics trust in anychance to perform at a high
level. The people pleaser mayenjoy short term results while
leaving a path of destructionbehind them, meaning their team
members will feel used andunappreciated. I want to see
this community do better. Leadwith integrity lead with

(05:51):
purpose, lead with character andif Mistakes happen make a plan.
Don't be little lift others upinstead. Please remember to sign
up for the mid year goalchallenge coming in June. I want
you all to achieve the goals youhave set for yourself. This year
the bar is set high and we mustfollow through on what we want

(06:12):
to accomplish. So please sign upat finance leader academy.com.
The link is in the show notes.
Our team's performance is oftenlinked to our leadership and
personal investment in the team.
We need to positively engagewith everyone individually and
collectively to bring out thebest to create an environment

(06:32):
for trust and then on toexcellence. Now let's talk about
improving your team'sperformance. Number one,
building trust and flexibility.
Creating a team environment thatfosters growth begins with
trust. Do your team memberstrust each other? Do they trust
the company leadership and dothey trust you? honesty,
fairness, leading withintegrity, showing up with the

(06:54):
right attitude and forcingaccountability across the team
and much more helps to buildteam trust. Number two, hiring
and team alignment. When gettinga new leadership role. We often
inherited a team in placealready, we have to fit in and
then begin to create theenvironment for everyone to win
together. We need to learn thecritical tasks and requirements

(07:17):
and begin to set a standard ofexcellence. We want to hire and
build teams based on inclusionand merit. We provide
opportunities for all to Excelbut it is up to each person to
grasp the opportunitiesavailable to grow and to show
off their potential. We givemore opportunities based on
merit, results achieved attitudeand willingness to expand their

(07:41):
skill set and abilities. One keytask you have to accomplish
early is to determine if therequired tasks, projects and KPI
metric portfolio is distributedproperly does it make sense?
Number three team engagement. Tobe a leader means you have to
engage with your team, you haveseveral key tools as a leader,
to engage with your team toalign your expectations and to

(08:04):
encourage more collaboration.
The routine one on one meetingwith each person is invaluable.
It is precious time to talk overissues. It gives your team
members time and opportunity totalk over projects any obstacles
they may have any assistancethey may need and any pertinent
personal issues like plan, PTO,or anything else of

(08:27):
significance. If you are notdoing the routine and one on one
meetings, please startscheduling them now. You will
not regret it. One moreimportant tool is the weekly
team meeting. We don't want moremeetings. But we do need the
most important meetings to alignthe team to address issues to
enhance communication torecognize top performance and

(08:48):
many other important issues. Theweekly team meeting when done
effectively actually works toimprove overall performance. And
then anonymous feedback throughemployer surveys is another
helpful way to know how tobetter engage and grow our team.
Feedback requires us to reflecton our own performance, our
attitude, and our approach.
Number four task and timemanagement. We are often buried

(09:12):
in endless tasks, projects andad hoc requirements and the
everyday fires that must be putout. So it is good to have a few
tools to help with managing ourto do list. This is where
leadership helps a lot. Imentioned it in the last
episode, as that you should besetting priorities for your team
to help focus on the mostimportant automating routine

(09:34):
tasks is our first job. reportsthat must be submitted on a set
day and time can be set up to berun. I recommend working with it
to see what can be automatednext is to determine what tasks
can be eliminated. I found manytimes over the years that
reports that were beingsubmitted on a routine basis are
often not even required anylonger. This is a huge time

(09:57):
saver. When you dig into what isbeing submitted by your team,
and another key tool at yourdisposal is delegation. I
personally use the EisenhowerDecision Matrix to help me
decide on priorities, and whento delegate a task and when to
delete or eliminate a task, Irecommend it to everyone. There
are many styles of tools likethis out there. But this is the

(10:19):
one that is simple and so easyto use. And again, it's the
Eisenhower Decision Matrix.
Don't forget that you have todelegate so you also can focus
on what is important for yourlevel. Number five development,
I believe that every team memberincluding the leader should have
an individual development planto identify goals, training

(10:41):
requirements, skilldevelopments, and any CPE that
needs to be earned. The IDP isan investment document for your
team, you and the organizationis investing in each person to
grow that person and to helpthem achieve their goals.
Development also includesopportunities to Excel by way of
assignment to key project teams.
This can develop key skills andgive an opportunity for FaceTime

(11:03):
with senior leaders so you canshow off your abilities and
skills. Number six,accountability. The best level
of accountability is when theteam holds each other
accountable. And it doesn'talways require the leader to do
so. This requires a higher levelof trust and expectations. What
is your team's expected level ofperformance? And does each

(11:24):
person buy in to that vision andensure you keep everyone
accountable? No favorites here,everyone must measure up to the
standard. And finally, numberseven, clear and consistent
communication. I talked aboutthis in the last episode. clear
and consistent communicationpaves the way for excellence.
When your team knows what isexpected on a task. It is so

(11:44):
much easier, your team becomesmore confident and ready to
accomplish even more. Now foraction today. What are your
thoughts on how your teamperforms? Do they meet
deadlines? Do they meet theexpectations for the quality of
work they are submitting? Doesyour team work on developing
critical skills? Are they readyfor greater responsibility? Are

(12:05):
they collaborating when theyneed to? Or are they always
operating alone? Not everyone isat the same level. So you need
to work with each person to helpthem achieve what you expect
them to accomplish. And set thestandard for excellence which
begins with your own performanceand mindset. Please go to
Finance leader Academy for moreresources. I offer a self paced

(12:26):
online course called advancedyour finance and accounting
career. Developing a promotionstrategy that sets you apart you
will also find several freeresources to help you again
that's finance leaderacademy.com. Today I talked
about improving teamperformance. Last week, I shared
my 10 key leadership principlesthis week, I wanted to enhance

(12:48):
that list with areas to furtherhelp team performance. I want to
see you grow in your leadership,and also your ability to improve
how your team performance. It'simportant that the team works
together to achieve common goalsand to move in the same
direction. When you enhance andimprove your communication and
set priorities. You have wonmost of that battle. I hope you

(13:10):
enjoyed the finance leaderpodcast I am focused on helping
this community to become moreconfident finance leaders
capable of transformingorganizations. You can find this
episode wherever you listen topodcasts. In this episode helps
you today. Please share with acolleague and leave a quick
written review. Until next time,you can check out more resources

(13:31):
at finance leader academy.comand sign up for my weekly
updates as you don't miss anepisode of the podcast. And now
to lead your team and I'll seeyou next time. Thank you