Lifting Your Team

Dear Uncommon Leaders, 

I hope this "Playmaker" series has been helpful to you and you've been able to reflect on the mindset you bring to your role as a leader.

Leaders, keep showing up intentionally and have a winning week! 💪

This Week's Qustion: 

What do you do as a leader to “lift” your team?

This Week's Challenge: 

For the past two weeks, we’ve been looking at the mindset of a Playmaker and how it relates to leadership.

First, we talked about learning to “see the floor.” Great leaders stay aware of what’s happening around them so they can positively impact the environment.

Last week, we talked about prioritizing our focus. In the busyness and complexity of work, great leaders use filters to determine what deserves their attention next.

This week, let’s look at what the very best playmakers do:

They lift their team.

They make the people around them better.

I saw the importance of this again and again during my years working restaurant shifts. Stressful periods were going to come. We’d get slammed, something would go wrong, or the team would simply get tired.

In those moments, the leader mattered.

If the leader wasn’t intentional about lifting the team, things could spiral quickly. But a leader who brought energy, encouragement, and focus could change the entire shift.

Here are four ways we can lift our teams:

• Encourage them. Notice effort or progress and say something about it. Remember- everyone needs encouragement.
• Preach hope to them. In the middle of a challenge or difficulty, people can get down or go negative. The best leaders remind others that things can get better and hard seasons pass. The best also know that when things are hard, their best leadership is needed the most.
• Challenge them. Sometimes lifting people means letting them know that they can do it and that there’s more available from them. Challenge given professionally helps people rise up. Side note- challenge not given professionally or in a helpful way can make things worse. Dial in your challenge-giving if you want to be uncommon.
• Serve them. When the pressure is on, jump in. Great playmakers don’t just direct the action—they help their team and dive into the battle with them.

Your challenge this week:

Look around your team and ask: “Who needs a lift from me right now?”

Look for opportunities every day. Then do something about it.

See the floor.

Prioritize what matters.

Lift the team.

That’s the mindset of a Playmaker—and that’s uncommon leadership.

Have a great week. Let’s go be Uncommon.

This Week's Quote to Ponder: 

"Often the deciding factor between winning and losing is having an effective playmaker in the game.” -Anonymous

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Until next week,

LET'S GO BE UNCOMMON!

W. Kevin Harrison

Founder and Executive Coach

Uncommon Influence