Your team is facing tough challenges. How can you use your leadership presence to guide them towards success?

As a leader facing a challenging team, empathy is key. Actively listen, communicate empathetically, create an open dialogue, take perspective, validate emotions, provide support, celebrate successes, and lead by example. By embracing empathy, you can create a positive and supportive environment that empowers your team to overcome challenges and achieve success.

As a leader, you can guide your team through tough challenges by embracing empathy, understanding their concerns, and showing genuine support. Communicate clearly to align the team with goals and expectations. Lead by example, demonstrating commitment and resilience to inspire others. Foster collaboration by encouraging teamwork and shared solutions. Build resilience by promoting a growth mindset and learning from setbacks. Encourage innovation by supporting creative problem-solving and taking calculated risks. These strategies help create a supportive, aligned, and motivated team ready to overcome obstacles and achieve success.

When I have been the new team leader with a challenging team. I have learned very quickly that one has to listen, hear, and respect what is being said through empathy. There has to be a key foundation of communication, trust and honestly throughout the team in order to understand the challenges that you all face together as a whole.

To effectively lead your team through tough challenges, communicate clearly, be direct and honest, use simple language, be consistent, provide regular updates, encourage open dialogue, actively listen, provide clear expectations, give constructive feedback, and celebrate successes. By doing so, you can create a positive and supportive environment that empowers your team to overcome challenges and achieve success.

To lead by example during tough times, demonstrate resilience, maintain a positive attitude, be a role model, take ownership, encourage collaboration, seek continuous improvement, and celebrate successes. By doing so, you can inspire your team to overcome challenges, build trust, and achieve success.

A lot of SNCOs like to push a schedule but won't be present. The biggest piece of advice I got from my mentor when I took leadership of a division was to always be there when there were major evolutions. Be accountable if something goes wrong. If everything goes well, push the credit to your Sailors and get them recognized with accolades. Lead by example, be present, and give the credit to your people.

To foster collaboration in challenging times, create a shared vision, encourage open communication, build trust, value diverse perspectives, facilitate teamwork, recognize and reward collaboration, and address conflicts constructively. By doing so, you can create a positive and productive work environment where your team can overcome challenges and achieve success.

Staying calm and resilient helps instill a sense of stability reassurance among team members. Many a times we as leaders feel by keeping a distance from our subordinates helps conceal certain matters but it’s quite the contrary. As much as we know our teammates they read us too. Something as simple as not wishing them a good morning as heading straight to your desk doesn’t go unnoticed.

To encourage innovation in challenging times, foster a culture of curiosity, empower your team, celebrate failure, value diverse perspectives, provide mentorship and coaching, recognize and reward innovation, and collaborate with others. By doing so, you can help your team overcome challenges, stay competitive, and achieve long-term success.

Encouraging innovation is key to being able to expand your footprint in order to achieve set goals. A leader has to give examples of what has worked for them in the past, in order to harness the ideology of thinking outside of the box, understanding the limitations of a project, and moving past them. A space in for trial and error, for creativity also has to be built to expand ones thinking. This ideology has never failed me through some very difficult times when I served in the US Navy, Firefighting and working in Social services.