10 Powerful Tips to Help You Become a Good Leader
Being a great leader doesn’t happen overnight. Knowing how to lead a team is just the first step. Creating, managing, and inspiring a team to be effective and successful will help you and your team go far. But being a good team leader isn’t as easy as it seems. The question is: Do you know how to be a good leader?
There’s a difference between a work group and a work team. Teams are committed to a common purpose and objectives. They have the potential to be more innovative and productive than mere work groups, as they do collective work to reach their goals. On the other hand, a work group consists of people working on tasks independently and having their own accountabilities. Members of a work group also may not be in the same department.
If you are a team leader, you have to be committed to empowering each individual until they become a productive member of an interdependent bunch.
What does it mean for you to be a good leader?
A good leader has many different traits. But in a nutshell, academic research defines a good leader as someone who can “communicate appropriately and motivate others significantly.”
(Read more: Are You A Boss Or A Leader? 11 Qualities That Makes Them Different )
For example, a good sales manager won’t just conduct sales rallies and give motivational speeches. If you’re a good manager, you will take the time to set up a sales coaching programme that focuses on helping employees address their weaknesses as salespeople.
If you are a manager in a healthcare institution, you need strong communication skills to effectively explain and implement processes in treating patients and customer care.
IT managers or senior project managers know their team’s strengths and assign tasks accordingly. They learn from other managers and teams and take note of what experiences can be applied to their teams. They also know what their teams are capable of and set realistic goals and timelines.
How can you be a good leader?
Leaders have a set of skills that set themselves and their team for success. In addition to technical skills or managerial experience, you must also have a number of soft skills and personality traits to help you interact with others:
- Empathy
- Active listening
- Openness to change
- Transparency
- Flexibility
- Decisiveness
- Creativity
- Integrity
- Growth mindset
How can you lead by example?
The best way to lead your team is by example. Knowing how to lead by example as a manager is important because you show your team that you are committed to success; you also exhibit what you expect from them. Here are some tips on how to lead by example.
1. Practice self-awareness.
One of the greatest things you can do as a project manager or team leader is to be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. Know your leadership style and step back every so often to assess whether your leadership is effective with the particular team you’re working with. Just because something you did was successful in one team doesn’t mean your technique will work well with another.
2. Know your team.
Knowing your team has to do with learning what their capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses are. You must also discover what makes them tick so that you can make the team as strong as it can be. The better you know your team, the more you can match them to what they’re good at and know exactly who to call on when a special task arises.
3. Establish team objectives, norms, and standards.
For your team to be successful, you must define clear goals and objectives as well as measures of success. Be clear about targets and progress measurement systems. You should also establish values and standards for how the team should interact and communicate and what they should expect from you and from one another.
4. Define clear roles and responsibilities.
In an ideal team, each team member has interconnected responsibilities that are dependent upon the other members. Your team should be like a jigsaw puzzle, with every piece fitting in perfectly to form a cohesive whole. This cannot be accomplished if even one team member does not have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Everyone must precisely understand how their work fits in with the rest of the team.
5. Coach your team.
Being a good leader doesn’t mean making all the decisions and telling people what to do. Encourage input and suggestions from your team. This will help build camaraderie and make your team take ownership of the work. You should also find the right balance between pushing your team to reach new goals and taking the time to help them improve areas of weakness. This will promote not only the individual team member but the strength of the entire team.
6. Lead by example.
Show your team that you are invested in the success of the company, the team, and each of the team members. Be visible to them. Be willing to step in and assist during particularly busy times or tight deadlines. Make time for them.
7. Give acknowledgement and feedback.
You may expect high performance from your team, but don’t forget to acknowledge them for a job well done. Genuinely praising your team for good work encourages them to continue working hard and going the extra mile. You should also make it a habit to periodically analyse successes and failures with your team to keep improving and continue hitting targets.
8. Allow mistakes.
Give your team the room to make mistakes. Use mistakes as a learning experience. When you build a team that knows it’s okay to have errors, you also build their confidence and encourage them to come to you for help if they run into problems.
9. Build a positive environment.
No one likes working in a toxic and negative environment. Robert Mann, the author ofThe Measure of a Leader, suggests finding the good in any circumstance. Mann suggests looking at three positive things when it comes to a problem before you point out the negative side. When you focus on the positive things, people are more likely to react to those. Furthermore, he shares that people who focus on the things they’re happy about in a difficult scenario don’t feel strongly about the difficulties they’re facing; thus, they are able to think clearly about how to solve the problem.
Acknowledge that there will be challenging situations, but also note that you can turn it around, and you get the chance to solve a problem. If your team sees this, they are also likely to follow suit.
10. Be open.
Communication is key when it comes to leading teams. Establish that your team can come to you for help, ask for advice, and discuss possible solutions to problems. Constant communication also strengthens conversations with your team. You can be firm with expectations and outputs. This also empowers your team to speak up and share their thoughts when they are asked for their input.
To successfully lead a team, you have to know how to be a good leader. Becoming a good team leader or project manager will help you advance in your own career as well as promote the development of your team members. It takes time to be able to lead a team effectively but following these basic tips will help you learn in no time. Remember, no one is born to be a leader. With experience, you’ll be able to lead teams and help them be the best they can be at work.
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