This video is part three in the five part series that details five simple steps a new leader can take to assert himself, earn the trust of his teammates, and begin to lead effectively. Here we discuss the importance of establishing communications, and cover a few techniques that will help get communication up and running while at the same time strengthening the credibility of the leader early in the game.
Transcript:
We’re looking at the five steps you can take as a new leader to quickly assert yourself and begin to build the trust you will need to be effective. In our scenario, your group is having its first meeting. In the initial videos, we talked about the first two steps you can take as you open the meeting and start to get organized. These involved positioning yourself as the leader, and clarifying the roles of your team mates. Now we’re on to the third step, which is to Establish Communications.
- Establish Communication. You can’t lead others if you can’t communicate, right? So it’s worth the effort to make sure that you can. Think about how you will need to interact with the members of your group, then establish or reinforce how the group will communicate. This should be both for future meetings and events, and for contacting group members between meetings.
You might want to pass out a copy of the future meeting schedule to everyone. Another good idea is to pass around a contact information sheet and have everybody fill in their data. Even better is if you have your Secretary do this, then give everyone a copy at the end of the meeting. Be sure to let him know that you want him to do this so he can come prepared. It might go something like this:
“OK, so for the future, we’ll plan to meet every Tuesday at 4:00 in this room, just as we have done in the past. I’ve already confirmed room reservations for the next six months. Here’s a copy of our meeting schedule. If there is going to be a change to the time or location I’ll get word to you ahead of time by email and we’ll post an update on our team’s web site. We need to make sure we can contact each other, so I’ve asked Bob to circulate a sheet for you to give us your most current information. Once it’s filled out, Bob, could you make a copy for everyone?”
Teams can only function if they can communicate, so this is a top priority, and you are demonstrating competence by making sure you can communicate. Notice that you have also delegated someone else to do this function – this shows your intent to require people to fulfil the duties of their positions, but that you have also coordinated this in advance so that he can arrive prepared. Finally, notice that everyone ends up with immediate physical evidence in their hands that you are getting the group organized in a way that will help them as individuals.
Figuring out how to communicate early on in your time as leader is critical to success and will help the group work together to achieve its goals. It took a little advance coordination, but now you have a good start on that task, and it’s time to move on to the next step: setting the vision and goals of the group.
Thanks for watching.
Credits
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