Stepping Up as a Team Leader
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Everyone knows what it’s like to work for a demotivating manager.
It costs companies time, resources and wastes the potential of workers.
Stepping up as a team leader involves developing strong communication, decision-making and motivational skills.
You can learn all these skills on our team leader courses which teach you how to be a constructive, motivating leader.
Effective leaders provide clear direction, foster collaboration, and support the growth of their team.
Learning your duties properly will help you achieve your goals more efficiently, and you’ll see progress faster.
1. Set Clear Goals
The first thing any good team leader has to do is set clearly defined goals, metrics, and expectations.
Here are some best practices for goal-setting as a team leader:
1 – Set SMART goals to provide a simple and effective plan for your team to stick to.
2 – Align team and company goals to encourage collaboration that will foster a team-oriented approach to your business.
3 – Set KPIs that you can measure, like tracking employee engagement levels, and aim for a 10% increase over the year.
4 – Provide tools and knowledge such as workshops, conferences, and certifications to support employee career growth.
5 – Give Clear Deadlines, for example, create a project timeline with clear milestones and deadlines.
The better you set the goals and objectives for your team, the easier it will be to understand them and the steps they need to take to achieve them.
2. Train Your Team Members
Being a coach and a mentor are a large part of being a team leader.
Depending on your organisation, your team members might go through training before they take their job positions.
However, learning the theory and actually doing your job can be two completely different things.
As a team leader, it’s your job to support, train, and mentor your team to help them develop and hone their skills to become better at what they do.
If your team is capable, then there will be no need for you to micromanage and get in people’s way!
3. Day-To-Day Admin
Most team leaders are also responsible for the daily administration, paperwork, and reporting within a company. Here are some example operations:
1 – Preparing paperwork (progress reports, timesheets)
2 – Tracking employees with performance reviews to keep track of progress
3 – Delegating tasks based on individual skills and job roles.
4 – Supervising and overseeing day-to-day activities.
5 – Responding to emails and reporting the tracked progress.
The operational daily activities of team leaders can usually be simplified with the help of automation tools.
By automating the repetitive, time-consuming tasks, you’ll free up time on your hands to dedicate to what really matters.
Growing and motivating your team.
4. Managing Performance
In the first step of this article, we spoke about setting the right metrics and KPIs for measuring and tracking progress.
This will let you measure the progress of the tasks and projects at any given time.
Based on the nature of your business, you might want to measure individual as well as team goals.
Tracking the performance of your staff in this way will allow you to notice when something is off.
5. Establish Effective Communication
According to Gallup, clear communication is a trait that all great leaders share. For a team leader position, this means:
Communicating effectively with all the team members
Finding ways for team members to communicate with each other
Updating superiors or key stakeholders on the progress.
There are many specifics that go into good communication, starting with active listening and ensuring that the message was received as intended.
A good team leader has to be a good communicator, first and foremost.
This will help avoid misunderstandings, making the entire organisation more productive.
6. Motivate And Help Resolve Conflicts
When we mention team leaders, your first thought is “team building”, isn’t it? That’s for a good reason!
One of the most important tasks of a team leader is to motivate their people and help them become more productive.
Another vital area of interest for team leaders is managing team conflict.
Start by figuring out the problem and understanding the barriers of both parties.
Once you’ve learnt the root or the origin of the conflict, discuss possible solutions and try to remind both parties that they’re working for a common goal.
Wrapping Up
No matter the nature of your business, the key responsibilities of a team leader will definitely fall into one of the above points.
However, being able to quickly pivot is also a great quality to have as a team leader.
And, if you teach and empower your team with the same flexibility and adaptability — you’ll be unstoppable.
Hopefully, this guide will help you embody these best practices and inspire your team to reach their full potential.
