Do You Have The Right Team Leader Skills?

As a team leader, consider the biggest hurdles you’ve encountered while building your team. Do your have the team leader skills to inspire and motivate your employees to perform at their best?

Attracting and retaining top talent continues to be a challenge among business leaders, but what’s even more pivotal is that once you’ve found the right professional mix, inspiring them to perform as a team to achieve a higher goal is where the real test starts.

Andrew Carnegie, a philanthropist, and industrialist who headed the American steel industry expansion during the 19th century emphasized the value of synergy in achieving organizational goals. He famously quoted,

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

For teamwork to fully develop, it requires competent leadership skills that encourage employees to grow their mindset from one of isolated activity, to one of being an important part of a team. In an increasingly competitive business environment, a strong team is what companies bank on to drive productivity and innovation in their strive for success.

What does it take to build a strong team? How do you infuse the team spirit attitude in your employees?

It is best to answer these questions by laying outlining the

5 most crucial team leader skills you must develop to build your team

1. Clear and Effective Communication

Conveying the strategic goals through clear and specific tasks, methods, and timelines is vital to achieving efficiency and alignment with the organizational objectives. Leaders must have the capacity to translate these strategic goals for employees to understand and act on them. By establishing defined expectations on targets and deliverables with the team, confusion is eliminated, and goal alignment is enforced.

Effective communication also includes active listening to what your employees have to say and what nonverbal cues they express. A key factor is seeking timely feedback and frequent progress and status updates to ensure that your team remains on the same page and continues to put their efforts towards the common goal.

Healthy conversations can be established across other employees and teams. During meetings, team leaders can encourage everyone to participate and share their ideas. Consider planned group activities to remove barriers and foster collaboration.

2. Creativity and Innovativeness

Research suggests that creativity and innovativeness are fundamental sources of competitive advantage, but it takes a leader’s understanding to drive it in businesses. When creativity is promoted, employees bring more ideas and possible solutions which improve organizational productivity and profitability.

A creative atmosphere allows employees to utilize their skills and full potential. It is where members recognize learnings or room for growth in their responsibilities as they fulfill their roles in the company.

When employees contribute their creative or innovative opinions in problem-solving, more relevant and uncomplicated approaches are discovered. Since they are usually the early adopters of a product, service, or system.

3. Solid Organization and Delegation Skills

One can build a strong team through refined team leaders’ skills in creating a clear roadmap of where and how they want to take the company. Organizational skills support leaders in effective planning and management of strategic objectives as they implement a top-bottom approach.

Leaders who have strong organizational skills do not lose their focus in achieving long-term goals despite ticking off daily priorities – this is where efficient task delegation plays an important role. By encouraging teamwork and delegating tasks to other members, the team leader gains more control and focus on the more critical aspects of the job.

Delegating also prepares for future leaders as they take on the role as it enhances their skills development. It allows the members to have a direct experience and voice on matters which empower them.

Related: 4 Key Elements in Building Genuine Leadership in Your Team

4. Honesty, Humility, Integrity

A common pitfall in some organizations is when a project succeeds, the leader takes all of the credit without rightfully acknowledging the team. However, if it fails, team members can be reprimanded without the leader taking any responsibility.

To build a strong team, members should see their team leader as someone trustworthy and humble. Integrity is established when leaders cultivate trust, respect, and credibility in daily affairs. Having integrity is the ultimate trait a great team leader can possess, and this is achieved by consistently embodying the same principle even when no one is watching.

5. Commitment and Reliability

Team leaders who commit to the company’s vision produce more beneficial outcomes. It is not just the ability to perform at your best when handling a project, but it is having a deep commitment to themselves in reaching the vision.

While it takes more courage and willpower to receive several responsibilities, team leaders must take calculated risks and only accept what they can manage. It is to avoid last-minute damage controls, overworking and stressing their team, or impeding the overall initiatives of the company.

Though hiring plays a vital part in building a high-performing team, relationship-building and synergy are more critical aspects that team leaders should focus on. By creating a culture of trust and collaboration, members are empowered and contribute to achieving the organizational goals.

The team leaders’ skills establish the tone for what kind of culture a workplace will employ. A company may boast of the skillset and experience of its employees. However, key team leader skills like effective communication, integrity, and commitment must be developed first as companies pursue success.

References:

Barasha, Medhi. (2021, July 12). 9 Extremely Crucial Team Leader Skills. Vantage Circle. Retrieved from https://blog.vantagecircle.com/team-leader-skills/

Britannica. (n.d.). Andrew Carnegie. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-Carnegie

Indeed. (2021, June 10). 7 Skills of Effective Team Leaders. Retrieved from https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/skills-of-effective-team-leaders

Kashyap, Vartika. (n.d.). 5 Leadership Skills You Need to Build a Strong Team. ProofHub. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://www.proofhub.com/articles/team-building-skills

Kerpen, Dave. (2014, February 12). 15 Quotes to Inspire Great Teamwork. Inc. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/dave-kerpen/15-quotes-to-inspire-great-team-work.html

Scott, Sherri. (2019, January 29). The 10 Qualities of a Team Leader. Chron. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/10-effective-qualities-team-leader-23281.html

Stobierski, Tom. (2020, January 7). 7 Skills You Need to Effectively Manage Teams. Harvard Business School Online. Retrieved from https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/team-management-skills

Sohmen, Victor. (2013). Leadership and teamwork: Two sides of the same coin. Journal of IT and Economic Development. 4. 1-18. Retrieved from DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4241.7766