Leadership is a concept that has been studied since the early 1940s and is continually changing to adapt to the business landscapes of today. Leading teams in today’s dynamic work environments and diverse team makeups is vastly different from the authoritative leadership styles of the past. With no single formula that can be followed to guarantee success, every leader needs to adopt an adaptive leadership style that is both flexible and supportive to provide a team with the building blocks to succeed in today’s challenging environment.
In this week’s featured blog, we take a look at some key considerations for leading teams effectively and some methods that you can be use to be a better manager.
5 Key Considerations for Leading Teams Effectively
Setting Clear Goals
In today’s diverse teams, leaders need to set clearly defined goals as individuals can come from diverse backgrounds and will often see goal posts in a different but equally valid light. Even a team comprised of the most talented individuals will struggle to apply their collective talents if they don’t know exactly what they are working towards.
How to be a good leader and set clear goals
Part of being a good leader means recognising that every team member will contribute to a project in their unique way and subsequently setting challenging and attainable goals that provide clear direction for your team as a whole. A team that is invested in a project, whether through recognition, bonuses, career development, or a sense of satisfaction and achievement is one that is in the best position to succeed and grow your business.
Enabling Effective Means of Communication
Studies have shown that a highly communicative team is one that is most likely to succeed. An effective leader will provide the necessary means of communication that will allow your team to thrive and voice their concepts and ideas in a constructive and meaningful way.
How to be a good team leader that enables better communication
A good team leader will lay the foundations of expected communication. This could mean leading by example, providing the necessary tools to communicate effectively, and encouraging the free flow of information between team members and management. Every team member should be given the chance to voice their concerns and provide input to the shared group vision.
As teams grow larger, the task of enabling communication becomes increasingly important as a lack of accountability, fragmentation, or loss of focus and direction can arise. A good leader should carefully weigh whether the addition of a new team member will make a team better or will be detrimental to team efforts.
The Right Team for the Right Task
As the tasks of employees and teams become increasingly varied, building a team with a balanced skillset and one that is finely attuned to the project at hand is quickly becoming a deciding factor in a success team.
How to be a good manager that builds the right team
Bringing together the right team starts by carefully evaluating the desired outcomes of a particular project. For example, if a project is technical by nature, your team’s composition should reflect this; Create a team with greater technical expertise. On the other hand, a project that requires the conceptualisation of a new product line could require a team that is comprised of more creative out-of-the-box thinkers.
Furthermore, a good manager should carefully evaluate the individual strengths and weaknesses of each new addition to the team. A project that requires a high degree of autonomy and independence may not be best suited to a team comprised of individuals who excel under greater guidance and direction. On the contrary, a project that requires high amounts of social interaction with clients and customers may be better suited to a team of extroverted personalities.
As a manager, it can be difficult to build the right team for the right task. We often find that while it is important to build a specialised team, the best teams are comprised of a demographically diverse group of individuals from creative minds, critical thinkers, social stars, and technical gurus. The more varied your team, the better equipped they will be when it comes to finding creative solutions to problems.
Supportive Leadership
The best teams thrive under a leader that is both supportive of both successes and failures. A team that is scared to make a mistake will ultimately resort to playing it safe rather than challenging themselves to exceed expectations. This is not to say that mistakes should become the norm, but rather learning from mistakes should be encouraged.
How to be a good team leader with supportive leadership
When leading teams, it’s important to be supportive and provide the necessary guidance to minimise mistakes and maximise growth. If a mistake is made, a team should collectively be held accountable but also given the benefit of the doubt that they will develop and grow for their next project.
Continuous Improvement and Evaluation
With team composition, clearly defined goals, and the guidance along the way, comes the important final step of evaluation and continuous improvement. Every team has the potential to improve and the most successful organisations are always looking for ways to continuously improve.
Evaluating your team and being a good leader
As a team leader, check-in on your teams regularly and evaluate their progress with a clearly defined set of metrics that allows you to benchmark how well they are doing. Consider some of these questions for your next team evaluation:
- How well the team is working together?
- How much has each team member contributed to the project as a whole?
- Is the team progressing at an acceptable pace?
- How well is the team effectively navigating any challenges and setbacks?
- Is Team A more effective than Team B? If so, evaluate why this could be happening.
We find that leading teams successfully is a combination of factors from assembling the right team, providing the necessary guidance to allow them to thrive, and giving them flexibly to collectively tackle the project at hand with their combined talents, ideas, and skillsets. Would you like to learn more about leading teams with effective team leadership? Get in touch with us at Future Fitouts today. We specialise in office fitouts Brisbane wide and our team is passionate about working together to go above and beyond for every client on every project.