How to Improve Team Leadership Skills: A Comprehensive Guide
Team leadership is crucial in achieving success in any organization or in any project. After all, a leader plays a key role in guiding, motivating, and organizing team members toward a common goal. Effective team leadership helps foster a positive work environment, encourages open communication, and promotes collaboration and innovation. Additionally, team leaders facilitate problem-solving and decision-making, provide feedback and coaching, and promote the professional development of team members. Simply put, team leadership is essential for creating a high-performing team that achieves its objectives and delivers results.
Furthermore, team leadership plays a crucial role in preventing any work-related stress for employees in the organization. As a result, strong team leaders are able to maintain a work-life balance for employees and create an engaging work environment.
In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into what team leadership is and how to become great at it.
What is Team Leadership?
Effective team leadership is defined by how well leaders in an organization can motivate, inspire, guide, and coach their teams. It affects key aspects of an organization—from employee engagement and skill development to employee retention and productivity.
Moreover, a team’s experience is most directly and significantly impacted by the leader. Therefore, ensuring team leadership positions have the appropriate skills and behaviors can affect how quickly team members acquire new skills as well as the originality or creativity of their ideas for strategic development.
Team Leader Job Responsibilities
The day-to-day responsibilities of a team leader can vary widely depending on their role, but the most effective leaders have several characteristics in common. These are:
1. Work Management
The best leaders manage the work of their team. They plan, organize, assign tasks, and make sure the team’s responsibilities are completed. The individuals in the team look to the leader for direction and for clarity on priorities.
2. Communication
Team leaders are expected to communicate clearly and efficiently to provide information on any task or project. They must also provide updates on the ongoing activities and outline objectives and expectations from the team members.
3. Encouragement
An inspirational leader can assist in developing team resilience, increasing their vitality, motivating them to perform their best, and keeping them focused on future goals.
4. Training
Team leadership serves as a coach and an advisor to the team members, assisting them in understanding their performance. The leaders also provide feedback on how team members can be more effective, and work alongside them to hone skills such as problem-solving, listening, and collaboration.
ALSO READ: Top 10 Manager Qualities to be a Successful Manager
Important Attributes of a Great Leader
Employees seek out leaders who can add value to their work and create an engaging workplace. The most crucial qualities that these leaders possess include:
1. Curiosity
Excellent team leaders are observant and attentive to their team members. They seek knowledge rather than assume they already know everything.
2. Growth Mindset
Growth-minded team leaders encourage their team members to accept obstacles and failures as opportunities to grow and learn.
3. Influence
Great leaders must have the ability to influence their team members in order to perform at their highest level.
4. Recognition of Team Members
Effective team leaders never take credit for the efforts of their team members. They also rejoice in the successes of the team and work hard to ensure that everyone receives the recognition they deserve.
5. Provide Feedback
The ability to provide constructive criticism to team members is essential for leaders. They applaud their strengths and highlight areas where they may need improvement. This helps team members improve their performance to boost organizational growth.
6. Emotional Intelligence
Emotionally intelligent team leadership is better able to manage work stress, maintain their team members’ engagement with the organization, and improve everyone’s overall performance.
7. Relationship-Building
Team leaders have to cultivate relationships within their own teams as well as with other members of the organization. Ensuring solid relationships paves the way for the team’s success and contributes to the development of trust and closeness among them.
ALSO READ: Leadership Training Topics for Managers to Improve Team Performance
How to Become a Great Team Leader
Every individual has the potential to improve their leadership skills and become more effective. Here are five suggestions that can help in this journey:
Step 1: Lead Yourself First
Self-leadership is a prerequisite for being an effective leader of a team. Therefore, individuals must be sure about having a solid understanding of their capabilities and prospects and an awareness of how team members perceive them. Professionals should consider what motivates them and what kind of influence they would like to have on their team members.
Step 2: Take Feedback
Excellent team leaders seek and accept feedback from a variety of sources (such as their own management as well as their team members) in an organization. Additionally, they try to gauge how their actions affect their team members.
Step 3: Welcome New Ideas
Team leaders play an essential role in an organization when it comes to encouraging team members to speak up and contribute their ideas and perspectives. Keeping an open mind to fresh ideas is an effective way to stimulate innovation.
Step 4: Step Out of the Comfort Zone
When individuals become overly accustomed to anything, they stop learning. Therefore, when leaders push themselves to take risks, they set a great example for their team members; they also give everyone permission to take risks and step out of their comfort zones.
Step 5: Pay Attention to Team Performance
While it is easy to get caught up in day-to-day activities, it is also important for team leaders to take a step back to assess how their teams are performing. Paying attention to the team’s overall performance can help leaders frame collaboration, innovation, and effective business growth strategies.
Learn More About Leadership with Emeritus
The most effective leaders always strive to better themselves. Therefore, online leadership courses like those available on Emeritus can improve their knowledge and abilities. Additionally, these courses will enhance existing skills and expertise, and ensure effectiveness in a team leadership position.
By Riku Ghosh
Write to us at content@emeritus.org
