Andrew Jobling is a leading motivational speaker, author and writer and coach. He has played in and led elite high-performing teams in both the business and sporting world and is passionate about helping people to create positive long-term change so they can live a happier, healthier and more dynamic life at home and in the workplace. I asked Andrew to reflect on the leadership of teams that he has witnessed over the past 25 years at elite levels and to reflect on his own coaching and leadership of teams.
What makes a good leader of teams?
- A leader needs to be passionate about what they’re doing. Just because a person has a good track record or has been successful in an industry or has been the top of their field, doesn’t make them good leaders. A leader needs to ask themselves: Is this something that I really want to be doing? Is this something that really excites me? Am I enthusiastic about getting up and going, or am I just doing it for the money? If leaders are not passionate or answer no to these questions, it will show in the performance of the team and ultimately in the bottom line and the end result.
- A good leader creates a vision for the team, leads from the front and helps the team to take responsibility for having the right attitude towards what they need to do.
- A great team leader continues to do all the little things necessary to move towards their vision for the organisation. Leaders take simple steps that compound over time.
- A leader is someone who can make people feel good, lift people and catch them doing the right thing rather than always telling them to do the right thing.
- A leader acknowledges that people make mistakes and helps them learn. If people are scared to make a mistake, they will not take any chances, and in my experience football clubs that did this had limited success.
- A good leader really cares more about a person than an end result. They stop to ask, ‘How are you? How are things?’ and if a person is not performing, they feel comfortable approaching them to understand rather than telling them what to do.
- A good leader is able to identify the strengths of people in their team and make sure that they’re doing things that are working with their strengths rather than forcing them to do something that is not a strength.
- A good leader will always sit down and find out what the person wants, how they want to be involved in the team, and put them in a position that suits their skills. If there is no position for that person, then so be it. Again, it’s a really about communication, listening to people and finding out what’s important to them.
In summary, Andrew says: “Coaching and leadership in teams today is about passion, understanding people and helping them get the most out of themselves, putting people in the right position, listening to them, making them feel good about mistakes and helping them grow and learn.”
