Being a leader in any field is a role that takes determination, empathy, and great communication skills, and for the right person, it can certainly be a very fulfilling and rewarding experience. As a leader, you’ll also have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, particularly in a business environment when the performance of the team can reflect positively or negatively on the business as a whole.
To help you become a better leader, read on to find out more about some of the essential skills you’ll need to have.
Get to know your team members
A team isn’t a monolith, but a group of individuals, and whether you’re working with a small team of half a dozen people or a huge collection made of many scores of people, getting to know them is essential to establishing a good relationship with everyone.
It’s a good idea for you, as a team leader, to make time to get to know each person and their needs, what they can contribute, and how they work in their role. A useful way of doing this is by holding regular one-to-one sessions with each member. This doesn’t need to be every single week – a fortnightly or monthly meeting can also be useful.
You should also foster connections between different team members and help them to get to know each other too. By doing so, you can encourage better relationships across the team, which will positively impact their overall performance.
Encourage good communication
There are many different ways to communicate across a team, and finding the right one for yours will make a huge difference. A platform such as this encrypted slack alternative can be a secure and trustworthy way of managing work-related tasks and messages across different team members and departments quickly and safely. These kinds of channels can be excellent ways of monitoring the progress of different tasks, and share relevant information easily with the right person.
It’s also good to encourage more casual communication in informal ways. Video meetings, if you’re working remotely, or having regular team catch-ups together can be a more relaxed way of exchanging ideas and information, as well as encouraging people to share feedback in a more comfortable setting.
Delegate across your team
As a team leader, your job is not to try to do everything yourself but instead use the team’s skills and resources as a whole to perform most efficiently. That means you’ll need to delegate tasks in a thoughtful and well-planned way.
Make sure you understand each team member’s skills, responsibilities, and shortcomings so that you can allocate tasks amongst them effectively. You may also want to spend time listening to their feedback on ways that delegation could be improved, by providing training to other team members so that they can take on more variety, or by defining roles in a clearer way to prevent confusion about who is responsible for what and who is capable of doing certain tasks.