There’s an awful lot more to being a good team leader than just delegating tasks and making sure that people stay productive throughout the day – you’ve got to lead by example so that your staff members know you’re all working towards the same goal and that you’re in the mire with them, no matter what happens.
As a team leader, there are numerous skills that could prove particularly valuable to have under your belt, with some of the most important qualities including honesty, communication, decisiveness, motivation and responsibility.
Communication is, perhaps, one of the most important, however, since you’ll need to be able to make sure that your team members know exactly what’s expected of them in terms of tasks and goals on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Focus on building up your written and verbal communication skills so that you have no trouble explaining what it is you’re looking for. And remember that a huge part of being a good communicator is having excellent listening skills as well, taking tone and body language into account, as well as what’s actually being said.
There are numerous ways in which this can be achieved, but a public speaking course could be a great place to start, especially if you know you’re not that confident when it comes to speaking in front of large groups of people. You’ll need to change this if you’re to be an effective team leader, after all.
Honesty is another essential skill that good managers have in common and it’s vital that you prioritise this if you’re to earn the trust of your team. This can prove to be quite tricky, however, when you’re giving bad news or you know you’re going to have to say something that your team probably won’t like. The truth may hurt, but it’s certainly better than being lied to!
As for being more decisive, you can build your skills in this area up by not drawing any conclusions until all the facts are in and refraining from making snap judgements without the requisite information in front of you. Always do your own research into matters and don’t just rely on what you’re told, so that you can make up your own mind about the topic at hand.
Being able to motivate your team and encourage them to get excited about what they’re doing is key to any business leader’s success and the key here is to appeal to people’s emotional side, focusing on positivity to drive enthusiasm across the board.
In-person conversations with each member of the team, one on one, is a brilliant way of showing you care and helping to strengthen relationships, which will in turn make people want to try harder and work more productively.
These are just a few hints and tips to help you climb that corporate ladder and become the best team leader you possibly can. But if you want to really hone your skills, consider taking a team leader apprenticeship, a great way to propel your career forward this year.