There’s no question that it takes great leadership skills to build strong teams!
A strong team needs an even stronger leader who isn’t afraid to take on many difficult challenges. As a leader, your job is to mold your team into an efficient group of people who can work well together and work well in their individual roles. You must possess people skills because it’s all about knowing just exactly who you’re working with. It’s important to know what makes people tick and how you can help them to achieve company goals. These six steps will help you get you the keys to keys to team success the right path to becoming an esteemed, strong and successful team leader!
1. Be Aware of How You Work
Just because you’re a team leader doesn’t mean you know what’s best for your team all the time! You need to know how you work before you can lead others so self-awareness is very important. Always try to evaluate yourself and make sure your techniques are effective for your team members. Realize when something needs to be changed and try to fix it right then and there so that your team will be as efficient as possible and on top of tasks at hand. It might be difficult at times but, hold yourself accountable for everything you do!
2. Get to Know the Rest of the Team
It’s critical to know who you’re leading. Everyone has different talents and capabilities and it’s important to know this so your team will work together successfully. Taking the time to get to know each of your team members shows your commitment and respect that you have for each individual. Healthy relationships with your team members will lead to an even stronger team as a whole.
3. Clearly Define Roles & Responsibilities
Often times the perfect role for a person lies outside their job description. It’s up to you to know this and be able to place people in the roles they will work best in. Much like a sports team, team members’ responsibilities must be dependent upon one another. This will ensure that tasks are always being completed and there are no gaps in the system.
4. Be Proactive with Feedback
Feedback is a very important aspect of being a team leader. You must always be giving feedback and not waiting for a problem to arise to do so. Giving the right feedback is what will keep everyone on the right track. Remember, every team is different and requires different styles of feedback. This ties into the previous step of getting to know your team well. If you know your team well your feedback should flow without any issues.
5. Acknowledge and Reward
Let your team know of a job well done. Recognizing your team’s success helps to build the team by giving them motivation. Individuals on the team want to be noticed for their hard work so take the time to do this to ensure a stronger team as each day passes. Reassurance is another thing your team will appreciate. When people are acknowledged for their efforts they become more passionate about the work they do. Just make sure you’re genuine when you make your acknowledgments! Always reward your team when necessary. This will without a doubt help in the long run, because who doesn’t like rewards?
6. Always Celebrate Success
Going beyond acknowledgment and rewards, celebrating success is another important part of being a great leader. This is a good time to take a step back and talk about the journey toward the big goal you have met. This will motivate team members to work even harder for the next task at hand. This will apply to major milestones for the company which will make the most important to follow through with. Celebrate the goal reached and most importantly celebrate how well your team works together.
In no time you’ll be the leader of a strong team and will be accomplishing goals left and right!
