Being a business owner, you need to wear many hats. One minute you’re focused on finances, the next on your product or service, and the next on schmoozing with clients and stakeholders. But possibly the most important role you have is leading your team.
Great leadership is the driving force behind a high performing team. Done well, you’ll motivate the people in your company to work together productively and effectively to achieve your business goals. Your vision, leadership style and ethos will filter down through your team leaders to the individual team members they manage.
As the manager of team leaders, your responsibilities are twofold. You need to manage them and make sure they’re producing good work. But you also need to check their team management skills and ensure they’re supporting their teams effectively.
In this blog, we’ll look at the skills and strategies you need, to be not only an effective manager, but also a great leader of team leaders.
Why is effective team management important?
Effective team management elevates your whole team, unlocking possibilities that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Whilst project management’s about taking charge of particular initiatives and task management, team management is focused on people and their work. It’s about your ability to empower them to complete tasks that contribute to a common goal.
Leaders with effective team management skills are able to support, motivate, inspire and engage their team. They’ll lead and encourage their direct reports to achieve team success. An effective team manager will:
- Role model effective communication
- Boost productivity with good employee engagement
- Inspire team members
- Develop teamwork and collaboration
- Minimise burnout and support employee wellbeing
- Encourage team members to reach team goals and wider business goals.
Discover more about effective team management techniques.
What are the best practices for setting goals and expectations with team leaders?
As the business leader, you share the big picture – the company vision. That means you also need to encourage everyone within the business to buy into that vision. As the team leader, you need to help individual team members to understand the part they play in achieving this vision and reaching company goals.
One day you may be presenting your company vision to the whole business, the next you’ll be having a one-to-one conversation with your direct report, a team leader. In both instances, you need to engage people with open communication that will inspire them to play their part in the business’ common goal. By motivating and inspiring the team leader, they’ll then be more likely to do the same with their team members.
I believe strongly in attaching specific targets (KPIs) to a person’s responsibilities. The team leader’s targets need to align with business targets so that they buy into what they need to do and achieve. The same goes for their team members. Everyone in the business should have relevant targets that play a part in achieving the big picture goal.
However, don’t just set and forget these targets. It’s important that, as a manager, you evaluate performance regularly, review and provide constructive feedback on the progress made. You’re there to empower your staff to achieve goals, and help them to overcome the inevitable obstacles that occur.
Effective team management skills
Team management doesn’t come naturally to everybody. But the good news is that those skills and behaviours can be learned and developed. As team management is about people, it’s the soft skills that are vitally important. By soft skills, I mean things like communication skills, empathy, emotional intelligence, active listening, problem solving and decision making.
The better your soft skills, the more supportive and effective team manager you’ll be. Investing in developing these skill sets for your team leaders makes business sense. That may be through team leadership courses, professional development schemes, mentoring or coaching. It’s important to have the right team leaders in those roles, and that they get the professional development support they need to perform their team leadership role effectively. This will empower them to develop their own leadership style and management style.
Key team management skills to develop:
Build trust: to lead a team, you need your team members to trust you. Instil confidence in them. Be part of that team. Roll up your sleeves and pitch in when needed.
Manage conflict: you’ll need to have difficult conversations. Don’t shy away from them. Conflict resolution is part of team management. Step in and sort out issues in the team. Open communication and constructive feedback are invaluable.
Strong decision-making: prioritise and delegate tasks, allocate resources efficiently and appropriately, optimise workflows and model good time management. But also, recognise individual team member needs and strengths, and how they affect team dynamics.
Flexibility: adjust your approach to evolving circumstances. Treat people as individuals and employ different leadership styles to suit their personality and motivations. This is where emotional intelligence comes into play too.
Delegate tasks: don’t do it all yourself. When you manage a group of people, you need to empower them to take on different challenges and get involved in varied initiatives.
Team building: find ways to get team members to work together. Collaboration, cohesion, innovation and dynamic teamwork will boost productivity and bring about great results. It will also create a more positive work environment.
7 actionable strategies for team leaders
I’ve worn many hats throughout my career. I’ve been the business owner and leader, the team leader and the team member. I remember how it felt in each position – the good and the bad. These are the best strategies I recommend to team leaders who work with me.
1. Role model effective team leadership
My first tip for team leaders would be to role model the leadership behaviours that you want to see throughout your company. Your communication techniques, vision and leadership style will filter through the business, influencing individual team members along the way. Treat every person that you interact with in a respectful manner – as you would expect to be treated. This also extends to promoting a healthy work-life balance with clear boundaries in place around time management in the workplace.
2. Set clear expectations
Everybody in your business needs to have clear roles and responsibilities. Often, I’ve seen a duplication of effort between team leaders. But if each team leader has clearly defined expectations and responsibilities, they have a better understanding of their role and what they need to focus on. Open communication is a key part of this.
3. Define individual targets
As part of setting clear expectations, I’m a huge advocate of attaching targets to responsibilities where possible. The team leader should define their own targets, aligning with wider business targets so that they buy into what they need to do and achieve. They can see how their part plays into the big picture. The team leader also needs to set appropriate targets for their team members too. It’s about everyone understanding how they’re contributing to the common goals of the business.
4. Praise achievements
Give praise for the results and behaviours you want to encourage. In my opinion, nobody praises people enough, even if they think they do. This is one of those soft skills to work on. However, there are communication tools that you can put in place to make this easier. You could create a recognition initiative on the intranet or a collaboration platform (like Slack). Encourage peer to peer recognition and celebration, as well as manager feedback. It doesn’t have to be all about achieving a major target, it can be praising someone for taking the initiative to make an improvement to a process, the workplace or the team culture for example.
5. Hold regular accountability meetings
Communication with your direct report needs to be ongoing. By making time for your report each week, they’re more likely to do the same with their team members. These accountability meetings ensure better communication amongst teams, and keep projects on track. Importantly, it means that you’re checking in on your employee as an individual. You’ll have a better understanding of them, their needs and the challenges they’re facing.
6. Provide management training
Not everyone’s a born leader or manager. But management training can help them to develop the skill sets and to gain the most appropriate tools to become a better team manager. In my experience, I’ve seen too many people promoted above their level of competence. Often, business leaders don’t want to lose a star employee so they promote them into a management role. They may be their best sales person/ builder/ hairdresser/ team assistant, but that doesn’t mean they’re the best person for that team leadership role.
7. Ask for feedback
I think all team leaders should get 360 feedback. What does the team leader’s team think of them? What does their manager think of them? It’s important that they know what they’re doing well or not so well. This feedback process is anonymous so people feel safe to provide honest comments. This feedback gives their manager an understanding on how they’re doing. Effective team leadership goes beyond the numbers they’re achieving. It’s about developing strong relationships with the team too.
Do you or your team leaders need help to develop better team management skills?
Whilst project management is a more technical skill, team management is all about people and soft skills. These soft skills take work to develop, hone and employ effectively.
I’m an experienced team manager, leader and business coach. I’ve helped hundreds of people to develop better team management skills and to become effective leaders. I’ll work with you on effective techniques and tasks, and I’ll keep you on track to work on the most important stuff.
I offer one-on-one business coaching or group coaching sessions to work on your business and management skills. Let’s chat to see what would work best for you and/or your team leaders.
