Becoming a team leader within a workplace can be an intimidating task. Taking any form of team leader role will come with challenges, especially if it is your first time as a team leader. Leading a team of different personalities will test you, but it is something you will get used to. I was fortunate enough last year to attend a talk at a conference by the extremely successful Hermin Salak and we took away some tips that may help you out. Included below are the tips that will help turn your team leader role into a successful venture.
Time Management
Going from a regular employee to a team leader will see a massive change in your work schedule. It is really important to go all out when it comes to time management in your workplace. There will be times you are working outside of your regular rota hours. Whilst this won’t always be the case, you have to be prepared to lose some of your personal time to make your new role a success. As a team leader you need to make yourself available to the team you are leading. You cannot see a team leader role as an extra job you need to do on top of your regular tasks. You need to manage your time well so you can complete your daily tasks whilst being regularly available to help your team. Failure to do so will allow you team to lose faith in your abilities to help them.
Team Communication
Whilst you will be in regular contact with members of your team, it is really important to truly communicate with them. You can never just look at your team as a number that can help you, your team consists or real people and you need to take the time to get to know them. Speak to your team on a personal level, ask them about themselves and start to learn what type of personality they have. Whilst this is just a normal way to approach people, this will allow you to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Another benefit of this is striking a good relationship with your team, it will be impossible to get on with everyone, but striking a relationship is so important if you want to gain their respect. Building bonds will massively increase the chance of being successful in your role, a happy team means a happy working environment and a happy working environment leads to productivity.
Practice What You Preach
As a team leader you need to always lead by example. If you want your team to be performing in a certain way, then you need to make sure you are also doing that. For example if you warn your team about lateness, but then you are consistently late to work, it will cause unrest. You cannot expect your team to work a certain way and stick to certain rules if you don’t abide by them yourself. Never think yourself as better than anyone you are leading, leading by example is so key when it comes to leading a team.
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