5 Reasons Why You Need a Team Leadership Charter

In a world that changes so fast, and where competition for resources increases every day – You can’t afford to be left behind.

So, recognising emerging trends and getting in front of the curve is ultimately the path to success.

Leadership improvement techniques over the last few decades have not changed much. However, how we work and who we are as individuals has.

Evidently, the drivers of motivation, performance, behaviour and influence have shifted.

But we seem to be mapping and motivating our team with techniques that date back over 10 or even 20 years.

Effective leaders have the ability to

Communicate well
Motivate their team
Handle and delegate responsibilities
Listen to feedback, and have the flexibility to solve problems in an ever-changing workplace

Employers seek these skills in the candidates they hire for leadership.

The Company Team Leadership Charter

However, many organisations do not include their leaders in the development of the company “Team Leadership Charter”. Therefore, many leaders either don’t know it, or have little “buy in” as it’s not their creation.

A Leadership Charter should be developed by leaders, for leaders. It will outline the behaviours identified as most important to the department to achieve goals and create a positive workplace.

To Create a Team Map and Leadership Charter for Your Business

Think about these crucial 4 points:

Do you have a Leadership Charter that aligns to your Vision, Mission and Values?
Do you have a Leadership Charter that is aligned to your business?
When is the last time you have reviewed this?
Did your leaders play an active role in creating your company “WHY”?

What is a Leadership Charter?

A Leadership Charter represents:

How the department’s executive leadership  group wish to be known.
How they want to lead with a common set of tools and language to relate to each other, stakeholders, and staff.

Why Do You Need a Leadership Charter?

It is highly recommend creating a Team Leadership Charter to collectively define the purpose of the team.

As well, this will also clarify factors that will lead to success for the team – team goals, deliverables, milestones, key values and behaviours. 

The Team Leadership Charter acts as a vision for the team, helping to get crystal clear on why the team exists and on their focus. Ultimately, it serves as a touchstone for decision making and day to day behaviour, and how to collectively lead and grow the business.

Additionally, it is the first step in the development of mapping your team’s performance.

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The benefits of a Team Leadership Charter are numerous, including:

Ensuring buy-in from all team members
Holding all team members accountable
Clarifying roles and responsibilities within the team
Demonstrating the team’s purpose to the rest of the organisation
Providing clarity and reducing confusion in cases where conflicts may arise

A Team Leadership Charter is created collectively

Therefore, it encourages buy-in and support from every member of the team.

Moreover, it motivates, inspires and energises providing the clarity around the who, what, and why of the team. Fundamentally, when team members come and go – it is important to review and revise the team charter to allow new team members equal contribution, support, and buy-in.

We have developed many Team Leadership Charters and seen them in action, and watched teams flourish. 

One of the best examples of a Team Leadership Charter is a big, bold and colourful laminated page.

Additionally, it needs to be proudly displayed in a prominent position for all team members and others in an organisation to see. 

This acts as a constant reminder to team members of their purpose. It also allows others that interact with the team. Ultimately, this will lead to an understanding as to why your team exists and what drives it to succeed.

Sample of Team Leadership Charter

A List of Values for a Leadership Charter for Virgin and Alibaba with their logos

Team Mapping

When you agree on your Team Leadership Charter, your leaders are then ready to map their teams. Consequently, they are now prepared to develop a unified approach to increasing performance across the business.

A team is defined as:

“A small group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable.”

When it comes to a team – performance and accountability go hand in hand.

And for this to be successful, a team needs to be united. Unified Team management is the ability of an individual or an organisation to administer and coordinate a group of individuals to perform a task. 

Team management involves: