In last week’s post, I wrote that one of my most important responsibilities when in a position of leadership is the people on my team. As I also commented, supervising a team is an honor that no leader should take for granted. Empowering team members to work from their strengths, help them grow and develop, and celebrate their accomplishments are all paramount.

This got me thinking about experiences I’ve had supervising student and professional staff over the last 16 years, major “aha” moments and lessons I learned along the way, and great supervisors I’ve had in my career that have influenced how I lead. In all of these, the major theme that kept coming up is the environment we can help co-create as leaders.

This week I want to share two of the practices myself and fellow leaders use that have helped co-create this environment:

Invest time in getting to know your team members: In so many ways this step is getting to know their story, where they’ve been and where they want to go. In getting to know them and in the process of working together, I want to understand their work style, what factors help them work best, and how I can help them work on and meet goals. I want to know their thoughts about future career interests, further education, and how I can support these and other areas of professional development. I also want to know what working from their strengths looks like to them. As a strengths-based office, CliftonStrengths (CS) is one of the items on our onboarding list. Their “Top 5” CS talent themes also give additional clues into how they work, the type of projects that light them up, and how I need to adapt my own style as we work together. This last point could also be phrased “supervise people the way THEY need to be supervised to feel supported and be successful in their work.”

Create a work environment people want to come to: It’s important to remember we spend an equal amount of time at work as we do at home, and it’s so important that people can come to work every day as their authentic selves and where the diversity of their identities and work styles are embraced. In my current leadership role, it’s always important to myself and fellow Managers to create spaces where a strong team culture is fostered, where we collaborate across portfolios, problem solve challenges together, and celebrate our successes. This also includes creating environments where there is transparency and trust. In the office I work in, we also have a birthday calendar that gives us the chance to celebrate our colleagues on their special day how they want to be celebrated. We also hold potlucks, have created themed snack challenges, participate in friendly interoffice competitions, celebrate weddings and baby showers, and support each other when someone experiences a loss in their family.

Today’s post will also be the first in a series of blog stories over time on this topic, so stay tuned!

Coming Up on Next Week’s #WhatsYourSparkBlog
Connecting into the theme of rewriting narratives post-pandemic, I’m delighted to welcome my former colleague and friend Veronica Groat to share the story of her decision to leave communications work in Oil and Gas, start Groat Communications, and focus on what’s most meaningful.