 Great teams are about more than great leaders. We all need to be great followers, too. Welcome back and congratulations on taking one more step towards becoming one of the great leaders of tomorrow. Great teams aren't just all about great leaders. We've got to be great followers, too. And today I've got four tips for you on how to be a great follower and team player. And stay tuned to the end. I'm going to give you a link to download our free leadership development plan workbook. That'll help you set your career goals for the next two, five, and ten years and build a plan of action to achieve them. Last week, we talked about how managers and leaders can understand the millennials on their teams and build a strong working relationship with them. But because working relationships and respect are a two-way street, this week I'm going to talk about some tips on how to be a great follower and team player. And these tips are important for everyone, no matter what generation you're from, whether you're a millennial, baby boomer, or Gen X. These tips are going to help you be a great team player, whether you're the boss, whether you're just working on the team, or whether you're expiring to be a great leader. And let's face it, we all have someone we need to answer to. Even if you own your own business, you still have to be responsive to customers, clients, and possibly even investors. So I'm going to have four tips for you today on how to be a great player on whatever team you're on and how to show really good followership, which is the core of good leadership. Tip number one is to know and understand your organization's mission. We all get really head down sometimes working on our tasks and trying to get them done, and sometimes we can divert off into a direction that's not really productive because we're not focused on the organization's mission. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the details that we forget we're doing this for a bigger purpose. That's why we're part of a team, to do something that's a higher purpose that we couldn't do on our own. So recognize what your organization's mission is, understand it, and try to keep all of your efforts focused on enhancing that organization's mission. And don't be afraid to share if you think an idea doesn't enhance the organization's mission or isn't going in the same direction. Work with the people around you to get all your ideas and all your efforts focused on achieving your organization's mission. Tip number two is to know what your boss is held accountable for. If you're not the team leader, you don't always know how your team is being measured for success. So you may have a stated mission that your team is trying to accomplish, you may be working towards all those things like we talked about in the last tip. But what you may not understand is that your boss, your team leader, might be accountable for things outside of what you know about. Your boss's boss may be measuring the success of your team and the success of your leader on other factors that are outside. So get to know what your boss is being held accountable for and may not just be what's going on on your team. And understand the metrics by which your team is measured and how your boss's boss and the leadership of your organization measure the success of your team. So that in addition to working towards your organization's mission, your team's mission, you can also be keeping track of the things and showing that you're making progress in the areas that your senior leadership expects. Tip number three is to show initiative. There's always a lot of things that need to get done in any organization and the people who step up and get them done even if they're not part of their job description are greatly appreciated. And to be honest, those are the people we look at in terms of leadership qualifications and who we're selecting to be team leaders in the future. So even if something's not in your job description, if you see it needs to be done, do it or put together a small team inside your team to get it done. But try to get those things done. Again, this comes back to what your boss is held accountable for. If there are things that are falling by the wayside, because people just don't have time to do them, show some initiative, get those things together, get those done for your boss and show that you're senior leadership, that you're exhibiting good leadership by exhibiting good followership and showing initiative to take care of the things that need to get done as soon as they need to get done. Finally, and this is the most important of these tips is to present fully formed ideas to your boss when you have them. That's tip number four. Last week, we talked about how managers and leaders in the organization with their millennials should be doing some coaching and guiding and mentoring to get young millennials to fully form their ideas before they present them. Not to say no to them, but if someone brings a non fully formed idea to do mentoring and coaching. So expect this mentoring and coaching from your boss, but also try to meet your boss halfway. Try to be as thorough as you can when you put together your ideas to pitch to your boss. That means recognizing what the impacts are going to be, not just to you, but to your team as a whole and not just to your team as a whole, but to other teams. And is that in terms of dollars and money? Is that in terms of time? If you make a change in your team, you decide to not do a product of a document that you do on a regular basis, not do a regular report, which I'm all for cutting out the number of reports we need to write. It's crazy what we do right now. But if you don't do this report because it doesn't serve you, but it serves another team, what's the impact going to be to that team? And is your boss going to be held accountable for that? So recognize that put together these fully formed ideas. What are the impacts not just to you, but to the team, not just to your team, but to the outside of your team? And what will be the perspectives of others as you pitch this forward? And we talked several weeks back about go coordinate this, go talk with the other teams and see how this will impact them. Bring all that together, put it in something that's clear and easy to read or if it's a presentation, practice that presentation, make your case really strong when you take it to your boss. So there are your four tips for being a great team player and a great follower because followership is the core of leadership. That's something we worked very hard on in the Air Force is to create great followers to understand the principles of good leadership and then they can become great leaders later on. And I hope that works for you too. So try these four tips. Next time you've got a proposal, next time you want to propose something to your boss and try to make life better or easier for everyone on your team, put this together, show that initiative and put together a really well thought out plan, a fully formed idea to your boss. I think you'll find that you'll be meeting your boss halfway and you'll have more conversations about great ideas instead of just quick, can I do this? And the answer coming back now. If you found this helpful, please like, comment and share it with a friend or coworker. Click on that link below in the description. That'll take you to where you can download our free leadership development plan workbook, which will help you set your career goals for your next two, five and 10 years and build a plan of action to achieve them. If you have any business or leadership questions, we'd love to hear from you. Leave us a comment. We'll answer you there or email us at info at EvilGeniusLeadership.com. EvilGeniusLeadership.com is also where you can find out about all of our coaching and training programs. So if you're looking for a little more one-on-one interaction with someone to develop your leadership skills and your leadership style, check us out there and we'll set you up with a free consultation. Thanks for watching today. I really appreciate it. And remember, the future is out there. Lead the way.