Leading your Grange toward achievement is a matter of building effective teams. On of the hardest lessons every successful leader has to learn is to let your team have control. A leader’s job is to keep the team focused on the goal and to get them back on track when they get sidetracked. When we know exactly how to do something, it is difficult to be a teacher rather than a boss.
Effective teams are made up of people who understand that they are in authority of achieving their goal. That means that each member of the team contributes their ideas and effort to move toward that goal. Authority in teams is vested with the members on the team. How, what, when, and who is decided by the team, not the leader. Each member must feel that they are in control of their portion of the effort to achieve the goal.

The second element is that the team knows that they are responsible. Not only do they have authority, but they understand that they are responsible to the Grange. They have the freedom to try new things, but the responsibility to accomplish the task by their best efforts. Each member of the team has shared responsibility and by that they find ways to achieve success.

Let your team have control in your Grange and you will become a better leader!

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Your members believe that they are doing worthwhile work and have control of what they are doing. What more can a leader do? A leader must cheer their teams (members) on. Most important, all cheering must be sincere and true. Congratulating someone for something they didn’t do, is as unproductive as not recognizing someone for something they did achieve.

Cheering should not just be for the end. It should be something that leaders practice every time members gather. Cheering members on may be a private word of encouragement or an announcement in a meeting. It must be regular and consistent from the leadership. It should also be passive, in that we give members to opportunity to accomplish goals without interference. When teams know that their leaders have confidence in their abilities, it empowers those teams to succeed.

When leaders are cheering their teams on, soon team members will adopt the attitude that they too can cheer others on. When teams are cheering each other on and each member feels that they are valuable and necessary to success, the Grange wins.

Cheer your teams on and as your Grange grows you will become a better leader!