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As strong leaders in the workplace you need to be able to develop solid relationships with your team. Relationships breed trust and trust is a leaders stock in trade.You need to develop trust so your team will follow your lead.

In today's workplace we rely heavily on technology for communication.Technology plays an important role but it is not always the most efficient or effective way to communicate. Email correspondence is appropriate with employees for fast and easy conversation but it is not going build trust with your team. A poorly worded or wrongly interpreted email can cause a lot of wasted time and energy. The way to build real trust is through face-to-face conversation. Let me explain a bit further.

Email gives abridged information.  We simply don't write the way we speak.In emails we shorten the information and highlight the important points, leaving out supporting data, explanations, examples and clarifications.The person receiving the information does not receive all the information he or she would have had from a verbal conversation.

Furthermore, verbal dialogue is stimulating because it is quick, intense and two-sided, feeding on the interactions between the parties involved.With email you cannot see the other person's facial expression or body language to know how they are responding to your communication. To lead effectively, you need to not only pay attention to what your employee is saying but also to what they are not saying.

Have an employee who works remotely? Try to have regular dialogue by phone and schedule time to meet face-to-face when possible. Use video conferencing or Skype as a method of communicating with remote employees. Take the time to build and maintain their trust.

If you have important information to convey, go see the person, video-conference or at the very least, pick up the phone. Be responsible to provide your team with all the information they need to do their jobs well. The bottom line is not to use email as an escape, but as a tool.Otherwise, take the time and effort necessary for face-to-face communication.

The generations in today’s workplace are different and those differences can be a source of great opportunity. Leverage your team’s strengths by doing a careful examination of your team. To do so, use the following four steps:

Observe
Spend time personally observing your staff. Find out which types of projects your employees want to work. Discover where they are applying extra effort. Listen to the issues or topics they bring up. By observing them you may just discover their power and their passion.

Ask
Don’t try to guess a person’s strengths. Ask them what they perceive their own strengths to be and find out if they think those strengths are being fully utilized. In most circumstances, individuals know their own strengths better than anyone else.

Focus
Having discovered what each person’s strengths are, it is also vital to then focus on leveraging those strengths. Too often, managers focus on what they think employees should be doing better. You will never turn weaknesses into strengths so focusing on the strengths will inspire and motivate.

Identify
Find the projects, opportunities and assignments which utilize each person’s key strengths. Try to funnel work to your team based on the tasks which will leverage their passion and their power.

With these steps in mind, ask yourself if you know each of your employees’ strengths and how you can leverage the generational strengths on your team. Think about what opportunities you can create for your employees to exercise their power and their passion. If you do so, your team will be energized with excitement and engagement at every level. Innovation will flourish. Team dynamics will improve and productivity will soar.