How Good Leaders Read a Room

How is it that some leaders can motivate, inspire, and lead people toward a common goal, while others can’t?

Good leaders have a unique ability to sense and influence the spirit of their team. They always seem to have their finger on the pulse, with a particular talent for sensing, tuning into, and empathizing with the energy of their team. In other words, they can read the room.

This ability to read a room is how leaders can match the energy of their team, and guide them forward. In short, the better you can read a room, the better you can lead a team.

Every team is made up of individuals, each with their own emotions, beliefs, and attitudes. These individual energies come together to form the collective energy of the team. It’s like a temperature gauge for the health of the group.

But to better understand the collective energy, we must understand the people who comprise it.

It’s easy to get caught up in the shuffle of day to day work, so focused on the work we have to do, that we forget to check in with the people who are doing it — not just to see how they’re progressing with the work, but how they are — as people.

What’s going on in their life, how are they coping?

The better you know someone, the better you know when they aren’t themselves. The better you know the individuals in a team, the better you know the team.

Checking in with the team is good in theory, but how can you be sure you get honest answers?

People are only honest when they feel comfortable enough to express themselves without judgment. But this kind of environment doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a company culture to support and encourage it.

When open, honest, and transparent communication is encouraged, it’s much easier to tune into the energy of a team and have meaningful conversations that help guide your choices.

It takes authenticity to unite a team around a common purpose; it takes a space where people feel free to be themselves and express themselves honestly. Work is like a second home after all, and you want it to be a home you feel comfortable in.

I often tell my son, it’s up to him to decide if he wants to be a minion or an active participant.

It’s his choice whether he wants to be engaged in the core of a group or to dissolve into the crowd. My point is to encourage his active participation, but perhaps I should choose a better way of expressing it (he loves the Minions movie).

It’s an unlikely reminder that, while individuals have a responsibility to be involved, it’s also the responsibility of a leader to tune in and encourage engagement.

An empathetic leader can sense the mood of the group, see when they’re disengaged, and then find ways to reignite their passion; to help them feel connected to the vision, and encourage them to actively contribute once more.

It’s all about creating an environment to help people move from the crowd to the core.

Great leadership starts and ends with people. It’s about being in tune with yourself, and those around you, to help and support them along the way.

It takes understanding people as individuals, and as a team. With empathy, honesty, and understanding we can better tune into the energy of a team and in doing so, support, lead and guide people toward a bigger vision, together.

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