A team without a great leader is like a world without a map. No sense of order or direction in moving forward would exist. Teams would remain stuck in an atmosphere of uncertainty. A leader’s job is to appear with a vision and push a team into a state of excellence.
A good team leader assesses the attitudes, talents, skills, knowledge and style of each team member and determines appropriate project roles for them. For example, people who are skilled and talented in numbers are mostly likely candidates for budget analysis and accounting.
People who are skilled in handling information are most likely giving responsibility for measuring the progress of the project, depending on the nature of the business. People who are talented in dealing with people are placed in areas in which client contact is important.
Effective leaders are serious about pushing their teams toward excellence. Those who perform very well are rewarded for the efforts while those who perform uncharacteristically are disciplined.
Rewarding Team Members
When team members perform excellently, meet goals and deadlines expected, the responsibility of team leaders is the reward them for their efforts, both privately and publicly. An acknowledgment for an excellent job and a company celebration will improve morale and inspire team members to reach for greater responsibilities in the organization.
Reprimanding Team Members
When team members miss the goals and deadlines because of lack of significant effort, a leader isn’t afraid to remove them from the team and replace them with others who are willing to go the extra mile to meet deadlines. Overly contentious team members may be placed on lesser assignments or warned, or dismissed for their behavior.
Motivating Underperforming Team Members
For a team to perform excellently on assignments and project, each team member should be highly skilled in his or her role. However, underperforming team members can be a liability to the entire success of the project. The consequences of underperformance results in a lack of productivity missed deadlines and tension among co-workers.
A team member may underperform for several reasons:
- Lack of knowledge
- Weaknesses in skillset
- Self-esteem issues
Nevertheless, the responsibility of an effective team leader is to make sure that everybody is mentally competent and fully equipped to do the job. The process of equipping members may occur in team skills and character development workshops, technical forums or outside education institutions.
Most underperforming employees become motivated after becoming strengthened in the things with which they once struggled.
When confronting weak employees, leaders exercise calmness and professionalism. They avoid expressing anger toward an underperforming employee. Instead, leaders inspire a weak-skilled employee with words of respect and appreciation for work done. They also allow for mistakes and encourage the employee to grow continuously in knowledge and skills.
Creating a Sense of Urgency
Teams who excel beyond the competition possess a profound sense of urgency. They finish well before the deadline. They know that rival companies are doing the same things to win the hearts and minds of customers as well. The team leader urges them one by driving performance, providing ongoing communication, and recognizing and celebrating success.
The ups and downs of project management require leadership to listen a great deal to team members before making decisions. However, leaders must assess the situation, deal immediately with obstacles, and help the team conquer them.
Leaders must not allow team morale to sink to low levels, especially when deadlines for project completion are looming. This would be a disaster in the making.
No Room for Complacency
Pushing the team toward excellence is an everyday adventure. Even when things are going well, a team leader must always be mindful of the competition, which is always trying to get better at winning the heart of the customer.
Good teams can fall out of the competition when team leaders become too complacent after enjoying a pattern of recent success. Therefore, a mindset of continuous improvement takes priority over relying on past success.
Qualities of A Good Team leader
Team leaders who drive their team toward excellence possess qualities that undeveloped team leaders are missing. The qualities include:
- Accountable
- Cooperative
- Disciplined
- Empowering
- Enthusiastic
- Good judgement
- A sense of urgency
- Poised and confident
- Dedication to excellence
Leaders who possess these qualities exude a contagious energy that team members embrace. Empowerment is so strong that assignments and projects are completed at an accelerated pace, resulting in great customer satisfaction.
