Becoming an effective team manager is a big challenge today when professional dynamism requires demonstrating multiple skills. Hierarchies are transforming every day with complex structures simplifying into more manageable work units called teams. In the team, all members share equal status, with one person responsible for managing the team: the team manager, team leader, or team lead. To put it simply, a team lead is the manager of the team. He is responsible for translating the organizational goals into team goals and then, assigning responsibilities to every member of the team. This takes us back to the four functions of management where a manager/ team lead plans, organizes, controls, and leads others. Considering today’s corporate landscape where we have most of the teams working in the organizations, every team lead should primarily know how to run an effective team successfully.
How to be an effective team lead to generating profits?
Let us explore the 5 best ways to be an effective team lead who runs a high-performing team that generates the maximum cash flows. Following all these actions step by step ensures leading the team in the right direction from the very beginning.
1. Hire for competencies
Never forget that we hire to benefit the organization. “Right people for the right jobs” is old, but the most useful slogan in the books of management. When you have competent people to do the job, you never fail. On the contrary, getting irrelevant people into the team is a constant headache for the team lead and the company. The team lead or the manager has sufficient authority to decide upon the selection of the most suitable candidates. Always go for the best match for your team, both technically and culturally.
Nowadays, initial interviews are conducted by the HR department and the final interview is taken by the team lead/ manager. So, always make good use of this authority. Hire the best fit for the team and you’ll have less to worry about in the future.
Read about the best hiring practices in this blog: The ideal recruitment and selection process in HRM.
2. Plan an effective onboarding
Effective team leads welcome their team members warmly. They have strategic onboarding programs in place. To build a successful team, encourage the new hires to approach you whenever needed. Make things smooth for the newbies. If the team lead’s attitude is rough in the beginning, many people quit the job because of demotivation. A team lead is a person with whom they are going to work and his impolite attitude makes new hires feel bad about the culture of the company.
The effective onboarding program includes coaching your team members technically and providing them all non-technical support essential for their growth. Not all scenarios include hiring new team members. A lot of times, it is the team lead who is new. In that case, too you have to develop a personalized connection with all team members. Conduct introductory team meetings with each of your new team members and establish a strong link to lead a successful team.
3. Respect everyone’s opinion
Working in a team means working together. Teams have the greatest advantage of idea sharing and skills coaching. So, everyone must be allowed to share his thoughts and speak his mind. Today, teams are more about innovation, dynamism, and synergy. This isn’t possible without letting everyone share their ideas. The team lead has the responsibility of making everyone feel welcomed and confident to pour in their suggestions, even if anyone’s opinion goes against his own. This is where the team lead displays team management skills.
The best things start to happen when the team lead does not ignore even the dark and irrelevant ideas. You know what? You can transform a wrong idea into a right one with your own vision and experience. This is how we thrive confidence among the team members when they see their ideas being considered even with some editing. This generates a sense of inclusion in them leading to a high-performing, successful team.
Learn the skill to respect the opinion of others here.
4. Allow freedom with control
The best strategy to manage & lead a successful team is to allow an ideal level of freedom with a suitable amount of control. Today, we need people who can take initiative and possess good decision-making abilities. Every member of the team must be able to individually run the show. But, as a team lead, never lose control over the team members. They should always remember that they are answerable to someone.
Exercising too much control also suppresses the confidence of the employees so, there has to be a good mix of control and autonomy.
5. Provide constructive feedback
Whether you are working remotely or in-house, the communication methods are almost similar. Gone are the times when we used to say that remote jobs have the disadvantage of communication gaps. From my experience, remote jobs are becoming more and more about strong communication. Daily team meetings are the norm now. A team is a small work unit so, a team lead should not only conduct daily team meetings but weekly meetings with individual team members also. The same goes for working in-house. Give feedback to every team member on his performance in a positive way. Your tone must be nice and not humiliating. Make an effort to help him fill his performance and skills gap because it ultimately leads to a high-performing team.
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