How succesful leaders improve their team's performance

Here are a few strategies that can make a big difference:

• Affirm their worth. Telling an employee who has been performing well that he did a good job and is important to the company will encourage him or her to continue being productive and make the work environment more attractive. Think about it, when you have worked hard for a project for example and nobody appreciates your efforts, you may not be as willing to reproduce the same work for the next project whereas if you were praised the probability you continue working that hard will increase.

• Challenge them. Give people the opportunity to excel. Give them what they need to do the job and then give it to them. By that I don't mean the resources that might not be there because of scarcity but rather of support that is unlimited and should always be there for the employees even when they may fail. 

• Inspire them. How to do that? Start by setting high standards of excellence, that push you to do better. Then hold yourself accountable for delivering on these standards. And of course take pride not for your own achievements but rather for you and your team's productivity and performance.

• Know when to claim center stage. There are some directions that set the pace for the company and these are the ones where the leader should take charge, this is where he or she earns his or her paygrade. But do not forget to delegate too or else your subordinates will start to get frustrated by your "I'll do everything" attitude.

Source: http://www.bnet.com/blog/leadership/how-successful-leaders-improve-their-teams-performance/644