Come to Meetings with Recommendations

When you do this, you save time and effort from everyone involved. Instead of requiring everyone in the meeting to contextualize and determine next steps, your recommendations provide a frame of reference. Your recommendations aren’t mandatory, but they are a head start. Side benefit: if you keep up the initiative, your influence will grow as well.

Anticipate Information Needs

“Who needs the information our team possesses?” It’s an easy question to ask. The hard part is making others’ needs a priority. Unfortunately, many leaders aren’t very aware of the organizational priorities outside the team, which severely limits their influence. When you identify an information need, do everything you can to meet it before being asked.

Ask for Input from Key Stakeholders Before Planning Season

Failing to plan may equate to planning to fail. But failing to consider what your key stakeholders will need from you during planning sessions is almost as bad. Planning isn’t just about your goals. It’s about proactively meeting the needs of the organization as they occur (not afterward).

Play to Your Teammates’ Strengths

We all bring a unique set of strengths to the table. Gallup research shows when we work in our areas of strength, we are six times as likely to be highly engaged. But in order to help your teammates work in their areas of strength, you have to know what those strengths are. Invest in a strengths assessment, such as StrengthsFinder.

Understand Your Teammates’ Goals and Motivations

I’m familiar with my goals. But what about yours? What about the rest of the team’s? It’s a huge mistake to assume everyone is “in it” for the same reason. Take the time to understand what winning looks like for your teammates. Then help them get there.

Share Resources

What tools have you used that others could benefit from? A leadership book library? A project planning template? A list of helpful vendors? Let your team know what you have in your inventory and frequently offer to share with them.

Share Good Ideas

Many people share their good ideas at the water cooler, but few take the initiative to submit them through appropriate processes. If you see something, say something. Not all organizations will be receptive, but for some, your idea may make all the difference in the world.

Share Your Network

You don’t need to be a socialite to be a connector of people. It doesn’t cost anything to build a Rolodex. Don’t let it go stale. From time to time you’ll encounter someone who “needs a guy (or gal)” to help solve a problem. Offer to make the connection.

Share Key Learnings

It’s a shame how much investment goes into individual training for employees compared to the collective knowledge gained. Set the example by sharing what you’re learning from your coursework, conferences, books and on-the-job experiences. Ask for a few minutes to share in team meetings. Host a lunch and learn. Email links to helpful content.

Set Your Teammates Up in Big Meetings

No one wants to look stupid in meetings. That’s one reason why some people are so slow to speak up. Imagine the reaction when you allow a teammate to deliver the big punchline at a crucial meeting. You might shock them. Guess what: you don’t have to imagine it. You can do it if you’re willing to share the glory.

Provide Constructive Feedback

Not all feedback is constructive or helpful. In fact, unsolicited feedback can be risky. Ask permission to give feedback. Recently, I had the chance to provide feedback to several leadership teams before they presented project recommendations to a group of senior executives. My job wasn’t to try to correct them – it was to help them to look good in front of their bosses.

Remember, your words have power. Use them wisely – but use them.

By the way, if you need some, here’s how to get great feedback for yourself.

Give Public Credit

When we’ve achieved success, it can be tempting to hog the credit. Don’t give in! Share the praise. Highlight the contributions of others. Be good at making others look good.

I hope by now you’ve noticed all the incredible ways each of us has to influence not only our teams, but our organization as a whole. I’ve said many times that you don’t need to be especially skilled or qualified to be a leader. Just take the opportunities you already have in front of you. They’ll take you much further than you think.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

My first thought was that Coach K must have really messed up his black suit hugging a really sweaty guy (probably a sign that I’d make a terrible basketball coach). The second was how evident the bond between the leader and the followers was that day. It wasn’t an expression of victory, but one of commitment.

In case you didn’t know, “Coach K” is the winningest coach in Division 1 college basketball with over 1,000 wins. He played and coached under Bob Knight at West Point. He’s won four national championships at Duke University. And he’s coached several Team USA men’s basketball teams to Olympic gold.

But Coach K will be the first to tell you that winning it all is too shallow of a goal to play for. Instead, the focus should be on building teams that can consistently be in a position to perform at their very best. Coach K knows how to build winning teams. Here are just a few of his teamwork strategies.

Inclusive Language

According to Coach K, something sacred happens when our language changes from “I” to “we,” from “my” to “our,” and from “me” to “us.” All of a sudden, there’s no longer such a thing as “my” team; only “our” team. And if it’s “our” team, that means every part of the team is equal in value, regardless of the individual roles. The bottom line is this: teams win or lose together.

Collective Goals and Responsibility

At Leadercast 2013, Coach K shared his famous fist analogy which goes like this: any one fist can defeat any one finger. In other words, the best team can always defeat the best individual. That’s why individual goals only work in the context of overall team goals. Only a group mentality can create a team identity. When leaders take responsibility for their own actions and mistakes, it sets a powerful precedent for the team. But leaders need to take responsibility for the performance of the team as a whole – and own it collectively. At that point, commitment takes on a whole new meaning. “When you love your team and are committed to them, you can’t let them down. You might let yourself down, but you won’t let your team down.” The result? A shared confidence – one that is better than a confidence only in yourself.

Trust

We hear a lot about trust from most teamwork or relationship experts. According to Coach K, a team commitment has to be be based on trust, which in turn is based on telling the truth. The quicker teammates tell the truth to each other, the faster they can get and stay on track. When teams trust one another, confrontation is a constructive, not destructive, experience because it is based on the team’s commitment to their collective performance. True friends tell each other the truth, so why shouldn’t true teammates? Confrontation can’t break a relationship that is bonded by trust. Without trust, a team is defeated by within instead of by the competition.

Building Relationships

What stood out to me about the court-side hug between player and coach was that it was simply an expression of a relationship that had been established long ago. Coach K shared in his book Leading with the Heart that “the only way to lead people is to understand them. And the only way to understand them is to get to know them personally. That’s why you need to invest time with each person.” Why? Because people don’t follow a leader who has his own agenda or doesn’t ever show his “real” side. Too many leaders are afraid to show their real side, which is exactly what they need to show to connect with their teams.

Even though I don’t root for Duke, I root for what Coach K stands for. I want to be on a team like the ones he creates. I’d like to create those kinds of teams as well. Here’s the good news: it’s possible. What’s the next step for your team?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.