12 Things Great Team Leaders Do

Every successful business has an exceptional team leader. If you don't have strong leadership, your business has a good chance of failing, which will waste all of your efforts, money, and time. The success of every team or business depends heavily on its leaders. In addition to ensuring that the team achieves common goals, a leader is responsible for managing, encouraging, monitoring performance, solving problems, and caring for the well-being of team members. According to research by GoRemotely, 83 per cent of businesses strongly believe that training leaders at all levels of a company is essential.

Managers and team leaders deal with their teams differently due to the subtle differences between leadership and management. When asked about the difference between management and leadership, Steve Jobs famously remarked, "Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, whereas leadership is about inspiring people to achieve things they never imagined they could." 

In order to guarantee that you choose team leaders who are effective, evaluate the candidate's leadership abilities and personality. Below, you will learn 12 things great team leaders do, and you will also learn about what new team leaders should do first.

What Do Team Leaders Do?

In no particular order, here are 12 team leaders qualities

1. Great Team Leaders Communicate Effectively

Effective team leaders develop effective teams. A team leader's duty includes ensuring that the goals are met. As a result, one of the most team leaders qualities should be effective communication abilities. They must be able to communicate with their team members concisely and clearly to handle particular tasks and shared goals. And if there is a lack of clear communication, misunderstandings and problems may occur. However, being able to clearly articulate one's responsibilities can help members understand what is expected of them and deliver accordingly. Not only does this help the organization, but it also helps the members who want to advance in the organization.

2. Great Team Leaders Are Analytical

One reason why ideas fail is that they are not tested. Some leaders overlook the testing or "measure" portion of the process, allowing faulty ideas or products to pass. Always adhere to the BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN concept.

Conceive ideas, put them to test, keep an eye on how things are going, and decide whether or not you want to pursue them further or scrap them altogether. It will save you time, money, and effort.

3. Great Team Leaders Encourage Creativity

Most of the world's most successful brands have maintained their status quo by constantly innovating. If your organization doesn't keep up with changes in the business world, it could run out of business. An organization can run out of business without good team leaders who encourage creativity and innovation. 

Encourage your team to come up with original ideas and thoughts. Allow them to think creatively. Never be scared to try something new, no matter how impossible it may seem.

Steve Jobs is a great example of a great team leader who encouraged the creativity of his team members. This is what he called the "Reality Distortion Field." It simply means coming up with the most absurd concepts and bending reality to make them a reality.

Team leaders need to be flexible enough to change with the times and follow emerging market trends. This is a component of learning agility, which also includes having the capacity for social and emotional intelligence and being open to ambiguity.

4. Great Team Leaders Are Impartial

Impartiality in the workplace refers to unprejudiced treatment or choices. A fair leader is an unbiased team leader. They always make sure that all of their decisions and interests benefit everyone.

Here are a few indicators that you are one:

• If you make smart judgments that benefit everyone, doing what is right rather than what is popular.

• Confident in your excellent deeds and unconcerned about what others may think.

• Easily detects dishonesty and prejudice.

• Treats everyone as important but also looks out for their needs.

• Makes decisions based on a written process, not on a whim.

• Allows for the possibility that subordinates will view their judgments as being unjust.

5. Great Team Leaders Are Good With Goal Management

As a team leader, one of the most beneficial things you can do is answer the question, "Why is this job important?"

Every project works toward a team or company goal, but goals are often not connected to day-to-day work. When team members don't know how their work helps reach the team's goals, they are less likely to do good work.

Good team leaders give their team members a sense of why their work is important and how it fits into the company's bigger picture. With that information, team members can better organize their tasks and make sure they do the most important work at the right time.

6. Great Team Leaders Are Serious About Organization

Even if you are not in charge of the project that your team is working on, you are still in charge of organizing the work that your team does. Team leaders are typically also project managers. As a team leader, you are directing your team toward an end goal or aim, and structure is essential to getting there.

7. Great Team Leaders Are Problem-solvers

No project is without hiccups. Team leaders must thus be adept problem-solvers and deep-thinkers. To do this, practice utilizing context to prioritize your most critical tasks and discover which problems must be addressed first in order to make the greatest decision for your team.

Try answering the following questions if you are new to problem-solving:

• How will the team handle the task?

• What matters most?

• What must they concentrate on?

• What effect will this decision have on the team?

8. Great Team Leaders Are Also Great Coaches and Mentors

A big part of a team leader's job is to coach, train, and mentor people where applicable. Your team members might not have experience about the current project or have questions about how to do a certain task. If you know how to solve their problem, you can coach them as required; otherwise, refer them to the appropriate person to address their query.

Even if you are an individual contributor rather than a people manager, it is your job as the team leader to coach, support, mentor and assist other team members. Invest in your leadership abilities and emotional intelligence so that you can help your team members when they need it.

9. Great Team Leaders Are Good Team Builders

Team leaders are responsible for supporting and motivating their teams and being the organizational masterminds behind a group of individuals. Spend time on team building and making sure everyone feels like they are a part of the team if you want to be an effective team leader.

Team building starts with ensuring everyone knows the team's goals so that everyone can work together to reach the end goal, but it doesn't end there. To build a strong team, you have to:

• Spend time playing team-building games.

• Try icebreaker questions to learn more about the people on your team.

10. A Great Team Leader Is Also A Visionary

Having a clear vision for the company's future is crucial to its success. A visionary and excellent team leader will open up new opportunities and keep the organization from stagnating.

Having a clear vision is one of the most important duties of a team leader. This is not just about the tangible goods or the manufacturing procedure, which are the "What" and the "How." On the other hand, good role models will begin with the "Why," which establishes your comprehension of the company's mission. This is grouped into three basic categories in Simon Sinek's book, "Start with the Why."

Furthermore, being a visionary entails removing any impediments to organizational creativity and innovation. You must be able to adapt and stay up with current trends. It does not necessarily imply that businesses must accept change, but they must manage it in order to allow for development and stability.

11. Great Team Leaders Are Self-managing

An old proverb says, "You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of other people." A competent team leader must first manage himself before they can manage their colleagues. 

As a self-managing team leader, you must put aside any possible prejudices that can affect how you evaluate any given circumstance. Furthermore, self-management entails separating your professional and personal life as well as dealing with workplace stress.

Finally, a self-managing team leader isn't too rigid. He or she will know what to do in any situation and how to show empathy. 

12. Great Team Leaders Are Effective Time Managers

Team leaders are great at managing their time and know how to organize things correctly. Try using some time management strategies and tools to get the most out of your day so you can improve your time management skills. You may also urge your team colleagues to do the same and find the time management approach that works best for them.

If you don't know where to start, try the following:

• The GTD approach emphasizes cataloging information in an external tool so that you may focus on high-impact tasks.

• The idea behind time blocking is to work on similar tasks at the same time by grouping them together and putting them on your calendar.

• The Pomodoro Technique is a time management strategy that divides your worktime into intervals of focused work followed by short breaks.

• Using the Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule, you may accomplish 80% of your goals with just 20% of your time and energy.

• The eat-the-frog approach claims that in order to get your best job done, you should tackle your most difficult task (your frog) first thing in the morning.

Conclusion

The final and most important quality that is characteristic of a good team leader is hard effort. We hate to state the obvious, but most leaders overlook this trait. Don't be the boss that wants everyone to work extra and then leave the office as soon as possible. Being a team leader entails putting forth the effort and leading by example. When you demonstrate that you are an outstanding team leader, your subordinates will follow suit. 

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