Who is a good team leader? What are the qualities of a good team leader? How do they walk, talk, or what do they even look like? Are they simply supposed to exude charm and charisma? These questions and more have been asked for ages, but there’s no simple answer to it all.
A lot of books and tools exist on how to be a good team leader, with most promising success in leading teams and making a leader out of everyone, but the sad truth remains that the greatest asset in leading teams and managing projects are not found in procedural books and tools with all the attributes and characteristics of a good team leader– while these may help to an extent, the real deal lies in a person’s ability to relate with people.
You may simply go ahead and acquire all the education, certifications and team leader qualifications that you can afford, but if you cannot skillfully manage people in such a manner that they respect and follow you, then you probably will fail in every frail attempt to successfully lead teams and manage successful projects – you may never become the best project team leader.
It doesn’t matter if you’re not a born natural leader. This article contains several important guidelines that can improve your ability to lead people and get things done.
Although it might not be easy at first, you may stumble and fall. But if you remain resolute in your resolve, then you too in no time will become a better leader.
Índice
How to Be a Good Team Leader
In business, it is essential to establish and maintain a productive, collaborative team while taking the time to develop your leadership prowess along the way. Here are a few team leader tips and tricks to earn the trust and respect of your team members so you can stimulate collaboration and productivity. Some IT team leader expectations include:
- Get to know your team: Perhaps, a good way to start would be to know your team members. As was mentioned earlier, a larger chunk of leadership lies in the ability to influence your team to achieve its objectives.
You can do this by taking time to listen to your team members, find out what their fears are, their aspirations as well as identify their strengths and weaknesses. This will help you to bond with them, and establish trust.
- Leverage online resources: Thanks to the internet, there are now a lot of free online resources that can work to your advantage. Sinnaps online project management software is highly recommended. With these cloud-based tools, you can schedule tasks, collaborate with remote team members in real time as well as perform a host of other functions that can set you up for good.
- Live up to the task, and lead: To become conversant with a thing, experts will encourage you to do it more often. You must avoid the temptation of adding this obligation to someone else’s already lengthy contract description, instead, you can go on a set your very own team leader goals and tasks.
- Lead by example: Leaders are considered models to be emulated. Therefore, you must exhibit the traits you want to see in your members, this includes sticking strictly to company policy. That means you cannot be seen to put up unruly behaviors or try to mask up and put up a fake personality.
- Be fair: One of the things that can lead to serious discontent in businesses is the tendency for the boss to show preferences. Yes, you will certainly like some members of your team more than the others, but you must always find a way to be fair to all and maintain the balance.
- Take on the unpleasant task of making tough decisions: In a bid to be loved by all, most leaders make the greatest mistakes of their careers. And while you may not have the authority to hire and fire people, you have an equally important task of making recommendations. These are the people on whom you will rely on to further the cause of the business, you might as well work with people you can trust to deliver.
- Stand up for your team members: Just as much as you would want to identify with the successes of your team, you must be prepared to support them even in their failure. You must never throw a team member under the bus.
Qualities of a Good Team Leader
In the arsenal of an effective team leader are a variety of traits and characteristics. Leaders must possess certain qualities which will endear them to their members and ensure productivity within the work place. Below are some qualities of a good team leader:
- Integrity: A good team member must be open and honest to his team members. Keeping to your word and not being too quick to renege on pledges will boost our new team leader strengths and keep your team members loyal to you.
- Be confident: An effective leader is confident in not only his abilities, but also in that of his team. They already have systems in place to maintain order, and also guide members towards achieving business goals.
- Respect the opinions of others: While you mustn’t always agree with the suggestions and opinions of your members, you must show them that you respect their views and continue to encourage them to offer ideas in most areas including regarding decisions that affect them.
- Influential: Influential leaders easily gain the confidence of workers and team members, and easily be relied upon to manage changes in the workplace.
- Excellent facilitator: A project manager team leader who is an excellent facilitator can easily can easily come up with an action plan which will ensure that team members meet deadlines and achieve set objectives.
- Skilled negotiator: Conflicts are inevitable, even in the workplace. A leader must possess knacks necessary to reach an acceptable compromise in an event of conflict in the workplace.
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Attributes and Characteristics of a Good Team Leader
Here are a few attributes and characteristics of a good team leader:
- Transparency
- Communication skill
- Understanding of purpose
- Time-management skill
- Leadership skill
Manage your teams’ resources and workload
How effective a team leader is can be judged from what results they produce. To get the best results, good team leaders must find ways to inspire their members and get them to focus all their energy towards one common objective or goal.
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