Great leadership should be about building up your team, trusting and empowering them, and giving them the freedom to contribute their expertise. Indeed, it takes great leaders to build strong teams, whether in the community, professional sports, or workplace. Building a strong team requires a keen understanding of your people and their strengths and motivations. Here's how to create strong teams through great leadership.

1. Respect Each Team Member 

Respect in the workplace is something that everyone should practice, regardless of their level of seniority. Studies show that respect from leaders can positively impact employees more than recognition, career opportunities, or personal development. If employees feel respected by their leaders, they will more likely be motivated to give their best.

As a leader, you want your employees to work like a team. However, you need to understand that these individuals have their own life to live. They achieved this far in life without you and have things to attend to outside their work responsibilities. Leaders should not consider their employees as mere bodies who will perform a task at their every command. A strong team is one where every individual is respected and recognised for their unique skills and contribution towards the organisation.

Respect can be shown in many ways, whether respecting staff who cannot work overtime, allowing flexible working hours to reduce work pressure, or relaxing some company rules. Anything that displays a sense of trust and respect can make employees feel more respected. A work environment built on respect can increase employee engagement and satisfaction.

2. Have a Clear and Accessible Plan

When building a robust team, leaders should establish a plan that includes a clear and measurable goal for what they want to achieve as an organisation. Everyone can be more effective with their roles if they have shared goals. Knowing how to achieve these goals requires proper planning.

One of the roles of a leader is to establish a future vision. Everything that the organisation will do must be to achieve both long-term and short-term goals, which the leader will develop. Getting input from every team member is valuable, but the leader's vision ensures company progress and development. Determining the organisation's goals and how to achieve them are some of the most important jobs of a leader since most of the work that everyone does in the company will flow from these goals.

Having a clear and accessible plan means seeing the bigger picture and all the aspects that makeup such a big picture. Leaders can make big decisions and devise a path to move forward by understanding how things work. The leader's vision will also encourage individuals to help the organisation achieve its goals.

3. Use Bespoke Leadership Training 

Leaders should consider undergoing online interpersonal skills training, which helps to give them an idea of things they need to do for the organisation and how they can help others in the team. It brings the best out of every leader, whether they are CEOs, managers, or team leaders.

All leaders are different, and there is no "one size fits all" leadership style. Therefore, there is also no "one size fits all" leadership training program. A bespoke leadership training is tailor-made to fit every leader and their organisation's needs. These customised training programs are uniquely designed for your business and created to intellectually engage you, helping to shape any underlying leadership attitudes and encouraging you to think, feel and act differently.

Regardless of the size of your business or the kind of industry that you belong to, these bespoke leadership training programs can help you find your way forward. It helps to secure your leadership pipeline by developing a curriculum that matters the most for your organisation's unique culture and context. The program allows you to establish your leadership capacity throughout the organisation through a systematic approach.

4. Allow Open Communication 

Open communication is essential for creating a strong team in an organisation. Creating a work environment that allows people to share their views openly and freely discuss their struggles can help to strengthen the team. By being open to each other, employees will be more aware of each other's preferences, communication styles, vulnerabilities, and challenges.

When implemented right, open communication shows employees that their colleagues respect and accept them regardless of who they are and what they can offer to the organisation, which goes a long way to developing trust and establishing better relationships. On the other hand, close communication can make everyone appear manipulative, deceiving, and intimidating. As a result, employees will protect themselves by building emotional walls.

Open communication is an effective way to foster creativity amongst the team. Since it encourages team members to share their ideas with the team, they can build off their colleagues' thoughts, allowing them to think of innovative solutions. By encouraging employees to share their thoughts, you are showing them that you trust them to think of solutions to help you move forward and achieve your goals.

5. Establish Values and Goals

Leaders should establish team values and goals by evaluating team performance. They have to talk with each member about their progress towards achieving their goals. That way, employees will get a sense of their achievements and the challenges they could face.

It's not enough that you set values and goals for the team. You must also provide them with what they need. If your employees do not have the right tools or training, they will not feel capable of achieving their goals. Whether they need training or a reliable computer, provide these. That way, your team can move forward with confidence. If your team expresses a need for something to help them achieve their goals, and you are unable to provide it, they will not be motivated to work towards achieving the organisation's goals.

Avoid micromanaging if you want to develop a strong team. Once you have an assigned task, explain why these tasks are essential, then provide the tools they need to carry them out. After that, step back, and let them do their thing.