Management
Make time to lead.
To be effective, team leaders need
to invest time in the role. Too often, this responsibility is simply added onto
someone’s already lengthy task list, thus setting the new leader up for
failure. As a team leader you need to be visible to the team and available to
support them. If you’re predominantly tied up with your own critical hands-on
tasks, you won’t be. So, be sure to review and re-negotiate your workload
before taking on a leadership role in the first place.
2. Get to know your team.
Leadership is all about how you
influence your team to achieve its objectives—something you’ll struggle to do
if you don’t get to know your team members and what makes them tick. While it
might be tempting to jump in and start making big moves from day one, remember that
you’re not there to flex your ego.
3. Communicate, communicate,
communicate.
Once your team is up and running,
it’s imperative to keep the communication going to build relationships, assess
progress, and identify risks and issues. Plus, you’ll get more engagement from
team members if they see you investing time in them and showing interest in
their activities. Make expectations and responsibilities clear so that everyone
knows who’s doing what, why and by when. This seems obvious but don’t assume
everyone has your detailed understanding of the project at hand. Encourage and
embrace new ideas. The more your team can contribute to the project, the
happier they’ll be.
4. Lead by example.
Think about the behaviors you want
and expect from your team members and be sure to exhibit those traits yourself.
You’re the role model, so what you say and do will impact the team’s daily work
habits and attitudes. That said, it’s important to be yourself and to believe
in yourself. If you fake it, you’ll soon be unmasked and you’ll lose
credibility and trust.
5. Reward the good and learn from
the bad (and the ugly).
Be quick to recognise a good
performance and reward it where appropriate. You might not be in a position to
hand out pay raises and promotions but a little bit of verbal praise goes a
long way in showing your team you are both aware of and appreciative of their
achievements.
Be equally as timely in tackling
poor performance issues.The longer you leave them, the tougher they’ll be to
fix. Look for the best in people and understand that mistakes will happen. When
they do, learn from them and see how they can be prevented in future. And
whatever you do, don’t play the blame game.
6. Delegate.
Trust your team to do its job.
Being team leader doesn’t mean you’re there to do other people’s work for them.
Be clear on what’s expected of everyone and let them get on with it. When
issues or opportunities arise, empower the team to find a resolution themselves
with your support—don’t add every new issue to your own to-do list.
7. Be decisive.
Don’t procrastinate. Grab the
nettle when you need to. It’s all too easy to defer the difficult decisions, but
ultimately costly for the job in hand and how you’re viewed as a leader. If
things go wrong, take a breath, gather the information you need to make an
educated decision and make it. Don’t be afraid of seeking help (it’s a sign of
strength, not weakness). Team management is an ongoing learning process and you
will never have all the answers.
8. Enjoy it!
Team leadership is often
challenging but frequently rewarding. Heading up a team that’s working well and
delivering results is a great feeling, so go do it!
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