The Importance of Team Leading

I have talked a lot about Leaders in my blog, mainly the people who are higher up in the organization. 

But I am sure that my readers understand that leadership is a quality which is not role or position specific.  Though I have written many posts which do depict the same - The little girl in the Mall (click here to read the post) being one of them - which one of the most popular posts of my blog. 

But in this post, I will write about a specific role which is a very very important one. The role of a Team Leader. And what makes a good Team leader. 

The definition of the team is : 

     A Team is a group of people with complimentary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. 

   And a Team Leader is the glue who keeps the team together :

·         Contact point for communication between team and management

·         Assists the team by immediately implementing changes that are within the bounds of the team

A Team leader MAKES a team and a team is made only when : 

• Every member should feel that they are contributing
• Every member should feel that others are contributing
• Every member should know his/her responsibilities
• Every member should do all types of task
• Every member should know the other members of the team
• Every member should work towards the common goal 

I have seen many team Leaders trying to do all the tasks themselves.

Please understand that you can’t do everything yourself.  

Take charge.

Lead . Don’t drive. 

Do not be a dictator.

The main responsibilities of the team leader :

·         Trains team in group problem-solving techniques

·         Infuse team with a sense of their own identity

·         Helps team choose their own targets and goals

·         Monitors and assess peer performance appraisals

·         Monito and assess the peer discipline process

·         Help the teams expand their responsibilities

·         Foster innovation in teams

·         Monitor team competition to prevent overzealous behaviours

·         Refocus teams when necessary on team goals

A few Do’s :

·         Share information

·         Build on ideas or proposals

·         Acknowledge ideas

·         Respect and acknowledge emotions, be patient

·         Deal with negative in a firm but friendly manner

·         Break down conflicts, confirm agreements, clarify areas of disagreement, aim for consensus, if not total agreement, in the team Improve the way your team members interact

·         Improve their ability to solve problems

·         Improve morale

·         Improve support and trust levels

·         Develop healthy inter-group relations

·         Reduce unhealthy conflict

·         Reduce stress in your workplace

 A few Don’ts :

·         Delay in taking needed action

·         Work too hard at being liked

·         Insensitive to others, abrasive, intimidating, bullying style, cool, aloof and/or arrogant

·         Betrayal of trust

·         Over managing or under managing

·         Unable to adapt to people who have different styles

·         Behaving inconsistently 

Team Leaders, Hope this Helps !!