Top 7 Tips for Being an Effective Team Leader

By Laura Perry, Copywriting & Editing Intern at Talent Academy

Being a team leader is a huge responsibility. Whether you’ve been leading teams for years, or you’re new to team leadership, we’ve compiled some tips for how to lead a team effectively.

First of all, some good team leader qualities include:

• patience

• being open-minded

• respectful

• trustworthy

• diligence

It is always important to remember that you are a team player, no matter what your role in the team is. It is especially vital for team leaders to instil this teamwork mentality in their team, making good use of their team leader skills. Here are 7 tips to help you achieve this!

1. Make time to lead

Take the time to re-figure your own workload so that you have time to actively lead your team. A good team leader shows their team that they are available to assist and support team members who are in need, if you aren’t doing this the team can easily lose track and not produce the outcomes you are looking for.

2. Get to know your team!

Humans are social beings. We want to feel valued as people and not just as robotic workers. By taking the time to get to know your team members, learning what makes them tick and what their potential strengths and weaknesses are, you can effectively manage their work and help in fostering a good team culture. We also suggest that you debrief with your team members once or twice a week to check-in on their mental health and provide the appropriate support when necessary. Alternatively, you can schedule calendar hours for people to schedule appointments to connect with you if they need help or have a chat.

3. Communicate!!

Communication is key to effectively managing your team and ensuring that they know what is expected of them. The shift to remote working creates the need to change the way we communicate with people. For more on communication, check out our Team Communication: Working from home vs working in the office blog!

4. Lead by example

Think about what behaviours you expect from your team and make sure you exhibit these! You are their role model, so your actions will influence the habits and attitudes of your team. If you treat everyone fairly and with respect, you will create a positive and strong team culture which will contribute to your team members working effectively towards a common goal.

5. Reward the good, learn from the bad

Recognise good performance and reward as appropriate, even verbal praise goes a long way to making an employee feel appreciated! Likewise, make sure you are timely in confronting poor performance issues, as the longer you leave these the worse the situation will become. It is important for leaders to remember that mistakes happen, and to work through the issue in a respectful manner. Learn from what went wrong, and think of measures to prevent this in the future.

6. Delegate

Show your team that you trust them and empower them to resolve issues on their own. Think about what team members are capable of handling some delegated tasks and who would benefit from doing so. By developing your team’s independence, you enrich their role in the organisation as well as within your own team. Be sure to set clear expectations and time frames so that your team members are guided, while you continue to monitor their progress and provide feedback when necessary.

7. Be decisive

You are the leader of the team and if you are unsure of what to do, your team will become lost and unfocused. Don’t be afraid to ask for their opinions, or ask a colleague for help! A strong leader uses their resources and by making lots of smaller decisions along the way it can prevent having to make one large, difficult decision later. Leadership is a learning process and you will never have all of the answers, but you can seek guidance along the way and still be an effective leader.

Being a team leader can be challenging but it is also very rewarding work! To see you and your team’s hard work pay off is very fulfilling, and you should be proud of the fact that you lead this group of people to their success!

To help improve your communication skills so that you can lead your team effectively, head over to our courses page to find an online course suitable to your needs. Or get in touch with us to organise a team communication and team leadership workshop today!