Have you ever sat down and thought about all the ways our lives were changed by the COVID-19 pandemic? Our personal lives, sure, but also everything from the way we interact with our coworkers, the tools we use to collaborate, and even our expectations from the places we work at have fundamentally shifted since 2019. Not only has work-life balance become an increasingly used buzzword, but the emphasis on team and corporate culture has noticeably increased. An extremely integral pillar of fostering a healthy team culture is the right leadership. So why is it important, and how do we get there?
As a global software development partner to clients from across the globe, our teams work on projects in different industries, time zones, and technologies. This comes with its share of high-stress situations where requirements and expectations are fluid, timelines are variable and teams are ever-expanding. It also makes it all the more important that team culture and a positive work environment remain consistent to improve productivity, and team morale and retain valuable members of the team. In my experience, strong leadership can go a long way in making that happen. Let's get into it.
Understanding and embracing empathetic leadership
The first building block to creating a positive team environment is understanding and appreciating the individual value, perspective, and experience that each member brings to the table. In understanding their individuality, we are also able to understand the unique nature of the challenges they face, how they cope with difficult situations, and how to push them to be their best self. A lot of this trust is built at the time of joining or onboarding which makes it extremely important that strong interpersonal relationships are formed at that time.
Fostering open communication
All healthy relationships are founded on open and honest communication. And for the smooth functioning of a team that you will be spending at least 1/3rd of each day with, setting realistic expectations around communication is extremely important. Especially for tech teams where each party is working on one piece of a whole, challenges, blockers, and important decisions must be communicated timely and clearly. Open communication cannot be limited to just meetings or verbal interactions. Everything from commenting and reacting to messages to ensuring the team is updated on your availability counts towards good communication practices. This is why we encourage every team member to update their availability on Slack and share notes and comments asynchronously.
Promoting diversity and inclusion
There is nothing worse for a tech team than homogeneity. Having a team of people who have had the same experiences, think unidirectionally, solve problems similarly, and never disagree is quite possibly the death of ingenuity. And when you're putting together a team to design a digital solution to a very real problem, you want ingenuity, creativity, and a lot of people who push each other to be better. This is only possible if the people you hire and choose for your team have had a diverse range of experiences, are skilled in different types of technology, and approach the same problem through different lenses.
This isn't all, we have a whole blog written on this topic where you can explore more tips with real-life examples. Read now!
This blog was originally published at https://arbisoft.com on November 7, 2024.
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