Hone your leadership skills with these 5 do’s and dont’s as a team leader

A team leader is the one who instructs, guides, and leads a group of people with a purpose of achieving a goal. Irrespective of the fact that you are heading a new team or an existing one, leading a team can be a daunting task. Team leaders do not have a bedrock of their personal experience that might help them as a team leader.

So, if you are planning to become a team leader or are already one but need to get better with managing and leading your team by keeping it collaborated and productive, here are a few quick tips to help go about it.

Take time to lead your team
The first and the most important thing to do is invest time in your role as a team leader. It is probably a failure if an individual has been given an additional task to lead a team with other set of responsibilities; this is because you will be critically tied up with your set of tasks. So, to be a team leader, you need to visible to the team and be available to support them.

Know your team
Being a team leader is all about influencing your team to achieve its objective. It could be a struggling task if you do not know your team dynamics well. Know what makes your team tick and get going. Have frequent team sessions to brainstorm various tasks at hand. This will help you to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team. Don’t make big moves on the very first day as it might bring the morale of your team down if they are not able match your expectations.

Communicate
Now that you have known your team, it is most important to keep your team up and running by adopting a transparent communication method. As a team leader, it is important to keep a transparent communication to build relationships and assess progress. It also helps identify risks and issues.
It is important that you make your expectations and responsibilities without assuming that everyone would be having a detailed understanding of the task at hand. The more you include your team members in making decisions, the happier they will be under your leadership.

Delegate
A team leader does not lead the team by doing other people’s work for them. Trust your team to do the job given to them at hand. Empower the team when new opportunities arise.

These are the 5 basic things that you should do as a team leader to ensure the smooth functioning of the team and churn out maximum productivity and efficiency from the team. However, to get maximum productivity, it is possible that you might go overboard and make your team a little uncomfortable under your leadership. So, here are a couple of things that you should avoid doing as a team leader.

Complaining and criticizing about people
Criticizing and complaining about your team members’ mistakes can demotivate your team spirit. Instead, utilize these as opportunities for continuous improvement. Put their mistakes in perspective with the things that the team has excelled in.

Being inconsistent 
Being inconsistent in leadership and attitude set a bad example of being a team leader. A good team leader stays the same every day. Don’t let your mood swings, unpredictability, and even lack of sleep depend affect the dynamics of your team.

Lacking self-awareness
It is always good to have an anonymous feedback on how well you have performed as a team leader. It is a scary, but fantastic opportunity. It does not mean you are perfect if your team is reluctant to give you a feedback on your leadership. It is time to retrospect if you receive unexpected feedback.

Avoiding dealing with resolving conflicts
As a team leader, avoiding to resolve conflicts and not dealing with them can be detrimental for you as a team leader. If not dealt with the conflicts, they might grow into something more toxic and harm the functioning of the whole team.

Isolating yourself or the team from the rest of the organization
People who think of themselves to be the “lone wolves” need to understand that they are leading only under the name and not actually contributing anything to the team. So, it is important to understand that in order to work cordially as a team, you have to be the part of the team and lead them at the same time.

Discounting other’s perspectives
Another quality that makes you a failing team leader. Your emotional intelligence skill relates directly to your ability to lead a team. One cannot be a good team leader without empathy and broad intellect.

Being a team leader can be a fundamentally challenging role but it has its rewards. Heading a team that is working well under you delivers great results and gives you a great feeling towards the end of the day, not to mention the personal growth as an individual.