Become An Effective Team Leader

Do you believe you are an effective leader and have all the desired leadership properties? Do you have what it takes to lead a team to success? Being an effective leader is a tough task and many people fail to perform their leadership duties properly. When your boss assigns you to a leadership position, he expects you to be able to deal with the team members effectively and without any difficulties. A team leader has to act like he is the boss and his team members comprise of an organization. An effective team leader must work to enhance both the output of his individual team members and that of the entire team as a whole. However, achieving this goal is easier said than done. Dealing with a group of people who have to work together towards a common goal is not easy. Conflicts and disagreements arise on constant basis and the team leader has to deal with them effectively in order to get the desired results.

Some golden rules that can help you in becoming an effective team leader are:

Eliminate Competition

While healthy competition is good for any work environment, too much competitiveness among the team mates can be negative for the productivity of the team. If the team members become obsessed with out shining one another they might end up making serious mistakes which might cause problems for the team as a whole. Make sure that the team members work well and try to curb unhealthy competition let your team members know that you value quality more than quantity so that they work harder on achieving important goals rather than working on more thing than they can handle just to score a point.

Deal With Conflicts

Conflicts and disagreements tend to inhibit the team spirit and create differences among the team mates. Sometimes petty conflicts are blown out of proportions to such an extent that the team members refuse to even work together, which his hazardous for the team manager. Even if they are forced to work to together, there are little chances that the estranged team members will be able to work at their maximum potential. An effective team leader would know how to deal with such team members effectively and efficiently. Try to make sure that no major conflicts among the team members arise and even if they do, jump in and try to cool them off before things get ugly. You have to address the underlying cause of such problems so that the conflicts do not keep on surfacing from time to time.

Delegate Properly

An effective team leader must be able to delegate his work properly and efficiently. For this to happen, a team leader must know all his team members well. He must know their strengths and weaknesses and must use this knowledge to delegate the work properly. If, as a team leader, you fail to distribute work load evenly and according to the specialties of all the team members, discontent is bound to arise. Team members might feel that they have been given undue work load and you come off looking like a bad team leader who is incapable of accomplishing the tasks that were assigned to him. Remember, the team members should not under any circumstances feel like you are putting your burden on them.

Communicate

Communication is the most important aspect in any professional environment. As a team leader you must be open and communicative with the team members, so that they can come to you if they have any issues. If the team members feel like the team leader is not listening to what they have to say and what problems are they facing, they will lose focus and their work is bound to suffer. If you are a team leader, make sure that your team mates are able to communicate with you whenever they have a problem. Listen to what they have to say and do not dismiss their problems lightly. Try to find a solution and redress the problems as soon as possible so that the team members feel valued.

Make Quick Decisions

Being a team leader, you must be prepared to make quick and practical decisions so that the team members do not lose their focus. If you stall and make excuses when the team members are relying on you for a decision, the team members will feel that you are not a suitable person to guide them and hence are bound to fail them. This will make them lose faith and will jeopardize your entire projects. So at all times, remain focused, sharp and calm so that you can make a quick decision when needed.

Motivated Others

Keeping the team members motivated is one of the most important tasks that a team leader is supposed to accomplish. Team members need to be constantly revitalized as they are bound to lose enthusiasm and motivation as the project lingers on. Keep reassuring them that they are working well and praise them when it is due.

Be Assertive

A team leader has to be assertive, if nothing else. Team work is a difficult arena and tem members often get so caught up in work that they completely lose focus. As a team manager, it is your duty to make sure that the team keeps working on the goals and keeps delivering jobs on time. As a team leader you cannot afford to miss deadlines and if most of the times you have to be assertive to make sure that you get the work done. However, keep in mind that there is a difference between being assertive and bossy. You must be forceful, but remain polite and amiable all the while as this approach will bear more fruitful results.

Take Responsibility

An effective team leader must realize that his job is not only to guide the people in his team but also to take responsibility if anything does not go according to the plan and the projects suffers from some kind of setbacks. The team leader must act like the captain of a ship, who never abandons the ship even if it is drowning. Remember if you try to pin the fault on some of your team members, it will not only alienate you from the team members but also create a bad impression on the boss who expects you to act like a professional and take responsibility the failure of your team.

Be A Team Player

A good team leader must also be a team player who does not antagonize his team members by acting bossy. Moreover a team player always gives credit where it is due. Snatching the lime light from one of your team members is a very ill advised move as it is not only unfair but will also be perilous for the team spirit. Make sure that when a team member performs well, he gets his due credit so that others also get motivated to perform at their level best.

Conclusion

An effective team leader is one who can steer his entire team to success while keeping them motivated and on the right track. Being a team leader is a lot of responsibility and a lot of people fail to perform their leadership tasks properly. While it is true that some people are born leaders, it is also true that strong leadership qualities can be established with a little hard work and dedication.