14 Ways to Have Your Team’s Back as a Leader

Article Summary: 

Many leaders expect loyalty from their teams but fail to reciprocate, leaving employees feeling unsupported and unmotivated. Here are ways to have your team’s back as a leader—building trust and inspiring loyalty along the way.

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As a leader, you may think you have your people’s backs. You may even tell them you do. But you can only prove it through your actions.

By protecting and defending your team, you can show that you care. You can shield them from unfair attacks—even from higher-ups. Do this consistently, and you’ll earn deep trust and lasting loyalty.

“If you don’t defend your team, you’re not a leader.”
-unknown

 

Throwing People Under the Bus

Too often, leaders don’t just fail to back their people. They throw them under the bus. It’s irresponsible. And pathetic.

“Too many bosses won’t back up their team members when bad things happen. As soon as anything casts a shadow on these bosses, they abandon their people. They don’t want to get in trouble themselves. They are looking out for their own careers. They walk away and let the employee take the fall. This is the worst type of boss.”
-Jon S. Rennie, CEO, Peak Demand Inc.

When you throw people under the bus, you erode trust and show that you care only about yourself.

 

Are You Taking Responsibility?

Taking responsibility is key. As a leader, you must own not only your actions and results but also those of your team.

When something goes wrong, you don’t point fingers—even if someone clearly erred. You take responsibility while handling the issue privately to shield your people from embarrassment and blowback. Mistakes are painful enough without public shaming.

By doing this, you show that you’re addressing the problem and fully owning what happens on your watch.

 

14 Ways to Have Your Team’s Back as a Leader

What does it look like to have someone’s back as a leader? As you review the 14 examples below, evaluate the extent to which you’re doing them. (Skip the ones that aren’t relevant.)

1. Check in regularly with your direct reports and ask if they need your help.
2. Step in to help when a direct report asks for your support.
3. Jump in when someone is overloaded and find ways to help them.
4. Fight to protect the health, safety, rights, and dignity of your workers.
5. Talk your colleague up in front of a nervous customer or critical co-worker.
6. Invest extra time to prepare a direct report for a big meeting, ensuring they can perform at their best.
7. Avoid questioning your managers’ decisions in front of their teams to protect their authority.
8. Stand up for your customer service reps when they face unreasonable complaints or rude, abusive comments, rather than blindly following the mantra that “the customer’s always right.”*
9. Insist on giving a direct report a second chance after a big mistake or failed campaign, as long as they’re doing their best and upholding the team’s shared values, and provide encouragement and support.
10. Defend an employee facing discrimination or favoritism (and set clear expectations, including consequences, for how your team must treat each other).
11. Step in to support a worker who’s facing a family or health crisis.
12. Stand up for a colleague who’s run afoul of a vindictive or abusive manager in another department.
13. Defend a worker caught in a turf war between divisions.
14. Protect your team during an economic downturn, even as competitors slash jobs.

Now, ask yourself the following and turn them into action items:

Which of the above need work?
What will you do about it, starting today?

Conclusion

When you have your team’s back as a leader, you unlock powerful benefits: greater trust, loyalty, motivation, and retention. And a team more willing to take risks and innovate.

Here’s to having each other’s backs!
–Gregg

Tools for You

• Leadership Derailers Assessment to help you identify what’s inhibiting your leadership effectiveness
• Personal Values Exercise to help you determine and clarify what’s most important to you
• Traps Test (Common Traps of Living) to help you identify what’s inhibiting your happiness and quality of life

 

Related Articles

• “Leaders, Do You Have Your People’s Backs?”
• “The Three Most Important Things Leaders Can Say to Their Teams”
• “The Importance of Trust in Leadership”
• “Leadership and Psychological Safety in Teams”
• “How Great Leaders Reward, Recognize, and Celebrate People”

 

Postscript: Quotations on Having Your Team’s Back as a Leader

• “There is a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and much less prevalent.” -General George S. Patton, War as I Knew It
• “You’ve got to give loyalty down, if you want loyalty up.” -Donald T. Regan
• “Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down.” -Grace Murray Hopper
• “It’s nice to come to the park every day knowing that’s your leader and he has your back.” -Mike Napoli, professional baseball player, on his manager, Terry Francona
• “If you don’t look out for others, who will look out for you?” -Whoopi Goldberg, actor
• “The concern you show for others is one of the clearest and most unambiguous signals of your trustworthiness. When others know you will put their interests ahead of your own, they won’t hesitate to trust you.” -James Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge
• “Trust is the central issue in human relationships. Without trust, you can’t lead…. Studies demonstrate that trust strongly predicts personal, team, and organizational performance.” -James Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge

* The notion that “the customer is always right” is helpful in many cases, as it can nudge you toward excellent customer service, but taken to its literal extreme it also has significant risks, including: workers feeling unsupported and demoralized when the customer is being unreasonable (or worse); the undermining of employee authority, judgment, and dignity; and encouragement of bad customer behavior and unhealthy power imbalances.

 

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Gregg Vanourek is a writer, teacher, and TEDx speaker on leadership and personal development. He is co-author of three books, including Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations (a winner of the International Book Awards written with his father, Bob Vanourek) and LIFE Entrepreneurs (a manifesto for living with purpose and passion). Check out his Leadership Derailers Assessment or join his rapidly growing community. If you found value in this, please forward it to a friend. Every little bit helps!