The SMART Leader's Digest

Sunday, October 11, 2026

🥇Ten Surefire Ways to Build a Team of Winners

Want to become an excellent leader—the kind who inspires people, clears roadblocks, and helps a team do its best work? It is one of the hardest and most important jobs in the workplace. That is also why genuinely effective leaders are about as common as a meeting that ends early and needs no follow-up email.

If that sounds intimidating, good. Leadership should make you think. If it sounds motivating, even better. Here are ten practical ways to move from “person with the title” to “leader people willingly follow.”

1. Say It—and Mean It: “My Job Is to Help You Succeed”

This does not mean giving everyone Friday off while you finish their work. Tempting, perhaps, but not sustainable. Your job as a leader is to remove unnecessary obstacles, provide useful resources, and make it easier for people to do excellent work.

For example, suppose a customer-service representative spends an hour every day copying information between two systems. A strong leader does not simply advise, “Try to copy faster.” The leader works with IT to automate the step, simplify the process, or eliminate it altogether. That hour can then be spent helping customers rather than playing spreadsheet ping-pong.

Ask regularly: “What is slowing you down?” Then listen carefully. Sometimes the answer is a missing tool. Sometimes it is an unclear decision. And sometimes it is a weekly meeting that could have been a three-line email.

2. Build Camaraderie Through Shared Success

After-work socializing can help people connect, but forced fun has limits. Nothing says “team bonding” quite like twelve adults wearing name tags while pretending to enjoy an icebreaker. The strongest camaraderie usually grows when people tackle a meaningful challenge together.

Imagine a team facing a major product launch with a tight deadline. Marketing clarifies the message, operations handles the logistics, sales prepares customers, and support anticipates problems. When the launch succeeds, the team has more than a completed project; it has a shared story: “That was difficult, and we pulled it off together.”

Give your team a worthwhile goal, define how each person contributes, and celebrate the collective win. Shared struggle—when it is purposeful and well led—can turn a group of coworkers into a genuine team.

3. Recognize the Big Wins—and the Small Ones

People appreciate praise, and they notice when good work disappears into a black hole of silence. A grand annual award is wonderful, but recognition should not be reserved for the person who lands the largest account or saves the building from a meteor.

Suppose an employee submits an accurate report on time for three straight months, helps a new teammate learn the system, or calmly resolves a difficult customer issue. A handwritten note, a public thank-you, a small gift card, or even a playful certificate can reinforce the behavior you want repeated. “Most Likely to Find the Missing Attachment” may not belong on a résumé, but it can still make someone’s day.

Recognition works best when it is timely and specific. Instead of saying, “Great job,” try: “You anticipated the customer’s concern, involved the right people, and kept everyone informed. That protected the relationship.” Specific praise teaches as well as encourages.

4. Challenge People to Grow

Strong employees usually want to improve. Your responsibility is to challenge them with honesty, support, and clear expectations. Be kind, but do not confuse kindness with avoiding difficult conversations. “Everything is fine” is not a development plan.

For example, a talented supervisor may know the operation inside and out but dominate every meeting. Rather than offering vague advice to “be more collaborative,” explain the impact: “Your expertise matters, but when you answer every question first, others stop contributing. In the next meeting, ask three questions before offering your solution.” That is specific, observable, and coachable.

Stretch assignments also help. Ask a promising employee to lead a project, present to senior leaders, mentor a new hire, or solve a recurring problem. Then provide feedback—not the kind delivered six months later during an annual review, when both of you are trying to remember what happened in October.

5. Address the “Just Enoughers”

Every workplace has encountered the “Just Enougher”: the employee who does exactly enough to avoid formal consequences and not one ounce more. Their unofficial motto is, “Technically, I did the thing.”

Before assuming someone is lazy, diagnose the situation. Are expectations clear? Has the employee been trained? Is the workload realistic? Does the person understand the impact of missed commitments? For example, if a technician repeatedly completes service notes late, explain how the delay affects billing, customer communication, and the next technician’s preparation. Set a measurable standard, provide support, and establish a follow-up date.

If performance still does not improve after fair coaching and clear accountability, act promptly and consistently. High performers quickly notice when low performance is tolerated. Nothing drains a strong team faster than watching one person carry a coffee mug while everyone else carries the workload.

6. Hire Slowly and Carefully

A great team is built one thoughtful hiring decision at a time. Skills matter, but so do judgment, curiosity, reliability, and the ability to work well with others. A résumé can tell you what a candidate has done; it cannot always tell you whether they will return the shared stapler.

Use realistic questions and job-related scenarios. Instead of asking, “Are you a team player?”—to which every candidate since the invention of interviews has answered yes—ask: “Tell me about a time you disagreed with a teammate. What did you do, and what happened?” Better yet, give the candidate a sample problem and ask them to think it through.

Include future teammates in the process, check references, and resist hiring merely because the position is open and everyone is tired. A rushed hire can create months of disruption. Patience at the front end is usually cheaper than repair work later.

7. Give People a Purpose Worth Getting Up For

Goals matter, but meaning creates energy. “Increase quarterly output by 7 percent” may be necessary, yet it rarely causes anyone to leap out of bed and salute the dashboard.

Connect the work to people who benefit from it. A logistics team is not merely improving delivery time; it is helping customers keep promises to their own customers. A hospital maintenance team is not simply completing work orders; it is creating a safe environment for patients and caregivers. A payroll specialist is not “processing transactions”; that person is helping families pay mortgages, buy groceries, and avoid awkward conversations with their banks.

Choose an ambitious goal and keep linking daily tasks to its larger purpose. People work harder when they understand that their effort matters beyond the next status report.

8. Talk Up Your People

Tell others what your team does well. Share their accomplishments with peers, senior leaders, customers, and—yes—the security guard. Recognition becomes especially powerful when employees hear that their leader praised them when they were not in the room.

For example, instead of telling an executive, “The rollout went well,” say, “Maya identified the scheduling risk early, Carlos redesigned the handoff, and Priya kept the customer informed. Their teamwork kept us on track.” That gives credit where it belongs and helps decision-makers see the talent on your team.

Be generous with credit and stingy with blame. When things go well, point to the team. When they do not, take responsibility, learn, and improve. Leaders who grab all the applause eventually find themselves performing a solo act.

9. Set High Expectations—and Provide High Support

People often rise toward the expectations placed before them, especially when those expectations are clear and accompanied by trust, tools, and coaching. Simply announcing, “I expect excellence,” and walking away is not leadership; it is motivational wallpaper.

Suppose a new manager is preparing to lead a difficult client review. Set a strong standard: a clear agenda, accurate data, anticipated questions, and confident recommendations. Then help the manager rehearse, offer feedback, and make sure the necessary information is available. High expectations without support create anxiety. High expectations with support create growth.

Let people know you believe in their ability, and hold them accountable to the standard you have established together. Respect is not demonstrated by making work easy; it is demonstrated by believing people are capable of meaningful achievement.

10. Be Worthy of Their Best Effort

If you want a team of champions, keep improving the person who leads them. Model the habits you expect: preparation, follow-through, humility, curiosity, and accountability. If punctuality matters, arrive on time. If candor matters, invite feedback. If learning matters, admit when you do not know something. Try not to faint when an employee offers a useful suggestion.

Ask yourself: “Would I want to work for me?” Then resist the urge to answer too quickly. Seek feedback from your team, peers, and manager. Choose one leadership behavior to improve and practice it consistently. You might listen without interrupting, delegate outcomes instead of tasks, explain the reasoning behind decisions, or recognize good work more often.

You will never reach a point where you have mastered leadership completely. That is not bad news; it is the work. Every day offers another opportunity to remove an obstacle, coach a skill, clarify a goal, or show someone that their contribution matters.

Keep at it, and your people may eventually brag about you—to their peers, your peers, your boss, and perhaps even the security guard. When word makes its way back to you, you will be proud—not because you became the star, but because you helped a team of talented people shine.

Now go build a team that wins together, grows together, and maybe even ends a meeting early once in a while. Keep leading, keep learning, and keep helping your people become the next best version of themselves!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com or Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Sunday, October 4, 2026

Stop Telling. Start Asking. Five Questions That Move People Forward 🏃‍♀️‍➡️

The language of leaders is questions—not monologues, lectures, or the classic “quick thought” that somehow lasts 27 minutes. Asking the right questions can spark curiosity, unlock creative thinking, and create those “aha!” moments that keep conversations fresh and useful.

When conversations become a lively exchange of ideas, people stay energized and problem-solving starts to feel like a team sport—ideally one with fewer whistles, fewer bruises, and no one hiding on the bench.

By asking instead of telling, leaders work with the way people naturally process information. The result is usually more engagement, stronger ownership, and fewer blank stares that say, “I’m nodding, but I have no idea what you want me to do.”

Here are five short questions that do the job remarkably well—no leadership thesaurus required.

How so?

Whenever someone’s meaning is unclear—or they make a sweeping statement with all the detail of a weather forecast that says “conditions may vary”—use this two-word question to learn more.

Example: In a 1:1, someone says, “This project is going pretty well.” Rather than accepting “pretty well” as a fully audited performance metric, ask, “How so?” Their answer can reveal exactly what is working, why it is working, and what you can repeat in the future.

“How so?” often opens the door to a much richer conversation and a clearer understanding of what is happening, why it matters, and how the organization benefits. Not bad for two tiny words.

What's an example of this?

Leaders often find themselves discussing something that is not working. Shocking, I know. When that happens, this question helps everyone understand the problem and move toward a solution faster.

Example: An employee says, “I’m having a hard time getting cooperation from the marketing team.” Asking for a specific example moves the conversation from a foggy complaint to something you can actually examine—preferably without convening a task force.

Sometimes the example does not match the original description at all. That is useful because it lets you calibrate on the real issue before charging heroically toward the wrong solution.

How will you know you’re on the right track?

Leaders regularly help people improve in areas that are not easy to measure. “Get better at communication” is admirable, but it is about as measurable as “be more awesome.” Defining milestones in advance makes progress easier to recognize.

Example: Instead of simply asking someone to “improve communication,” help them identify a visible sign of progress: “You’ll know you’re on the right track when team members consistently meet Friday deliverables because you’ve clearly explained the expectations.” Now everyone knows what success looks like—and Friday gets a little less dramatic.

Almost anything becomes measurable when you identify the milestones in advance. Even “better communication” can graduate from a hopeful slogan to observable progress.

What’s the next step?

Some of the best learning begins with simply starting—a revolutionary concept for anyone who has ever spent three meetings planning the meeting before the kickoff meeting. This question helps people identify where to begin and what will get them moving.

Example: After an employee walks you through a complex problem, end with, “What’s the next step?” The answer clarifies what they will do, keeps the work moving, and reinforces that they own the situation—not you, your calendar, or the emergency snack drawer.

Asking someone to name the next step makes complicated work feel more manageable. Mountains are climbed one step at a time; projects are completed one sensibly assigned action at a time.

What’s one thing you’d suggest?

Leaders need feedback, yet many discover that “Do you have any feedback for me?” produces silence so complete you can hear the office printer reconsidering its life choices. Instead of asking someone to judge your past performance, ask for one suggestion that could improve the future.

Example: Employees may hesitate to answer a broad feedback question because they are busy deciding whether honesty is safe, wise, or career-enhancing. Asking for one future-focused suggestion lowers the stakes and makes a useful response much easier.

Do not ask for a sweeping verdict on the past. Ask for one practical idea that can make the future better. It is simpler, safer, and far less likely to trigger the facial expression people reserve for surprise performance reviews.

Whether you are asking for a next step, a concrete example, or one fresh suggestion, remember: progress is often just a good question away. Use these simple prompts and watch conversations become more engaging, problems become more manageable, and the path forward become clearer—with fewer speeches, fewer assumptions, and, if all goes well, fewer meetings about why there are so many meetings.