Building and managing a team is no walk in the park. The ability to effectively work with different people of different personality, responsibilities, and time zones (if you have an offshore team), and make sure everyone stays efficient is a big challenge.
I’m sure you have explored many leadership strategy on how to manage and build teams and we would like to share another way that can help you build yours -.
The K.I.W.I way – Kindness, Integrity, Work ethic & Innovation
The KIWI way is not only a leadership strategy but can also be adapted to a company or team culture that aims to bring out the best in each individual that makes up your empire.
Let’s slice the KIWI and explore a bit more of each –
Kindness
Kindness may sound overrated in the business industry, but no matter what type of industry you’re in, an icy authority is not always key especially since a team is made of individuals that has different needs.
Kindness is being sensitive to what your team member has to say, especially if they’re going through a challenging time. It may also take many forms. It may be in the form of showing leniency or consideration, lending an ear, a polite response or offering help if you can.
The best practice of Kindness would be having it as a culture so it’s not one way, and for your team to adapt this would be for you, as a leader, to set an example.
Integrity
Integrity in leadership pertains to being trustworthy, liable, transparent and being true to your word.
A leader who practices what he preaches to his team, and is liable to admit to his own shortcomings (we’re all human) without passing blame, is leadership with integrity.
These characteristics not only build trust to your team members, but also to clients which will yield greater benefits and returns in the long run.
Work Ethic
Observing appropriate conduct and values at all times as a leader, in words and in deeds, is essential in building a positive work ethic culture.
Aligning your values with your conduct builds trust and promotes open communication that will cultivate a professional branding in your company.
The trust and openness will help in encouraging each member to participate and share their ideas that leads to productivity.
Innovation
A single idea turns into a valuable innovation by improvements that can be made possible when you have more than one set of eyes looking at it, and being a leader, you’re lucky to have them always ready.
Be open to your team by sharing your ideas with them, ask for their feedback and inputs. It’s worth to see things in another perspective and will also promote confidence in your team to be more communicative.
Conclusion
You and your team’s ultimate aim should first and foremost be to work on a mutual goal, which is to work and together to move your company towards growth and progress, and leading with K.I.W.I is another way to achieve this.
Kindness, Integrity, Work Ethic and Innovation aims to create a positive, progressive and unified team that will take your empire to success with hard work, cooperation and effective communication.
A slice of KIWI will take you a long way!
