How to be an effective team leader

Dr. K. Kuhathasan, CEO: CENLEAD

A team needs a leader. A team leader does not tell others "what to do". Through his position in the organisation, he helps set the direction for the team. The leader helps the team to get the resources and information it needs to perform its tasks.

A team leader is the person responsible for assuring that people should work together to achieve a goal or objective. A leader does not coerce, but rather facilities the cooperation necessary for the team to perform well.

The leader is a role model for the other members. By the leader's willingness to cooperate and collaborate with others, he or she sets the tone for how others also cooperate and collaborate. Rather than having power, the team leader works hard at empowering others. The team leader is also the person who helps keep the team focused on its goals.

Cultivate leadership qualities

No matter what your official job description says, team members and higher management will expect - and in some cases demand - that you honour certain expectations and cultivate the qualities of a sound team leader.

Some are personal, others are professional, all are key ingredients in your recipe for success. Prepare yourself to:

1. Communicate your organisation's goals in terms that your teammates can understand and will support on a personal level. Effective team leaders sell employees on teamwork by showing them "what's in it for you."

2. Establish your reputation as an evenhanded, people-oriented manager who's patient, level-headed, and reliable.

3. Motivate employees to elevate group goals above personal goals and group rewards above individual rewards.

4. Act as a champion of change.

5. Be results-oriented, not methods-oriented. Effective team leaders provide general direction. They focus on what the team must do, not how it'll do it. The how, in fact, is often left up to team members to decide - and rightfully so.

Observe your team closely

You may have identified that a larger part of your job is to be a process monitor and remote-control leader. Team leaders are adept at assessing how team-mates relate to and interact with one another.

They identify patterns of behaviour that should be encouraged and nurtured. They also watch out for conduct that should be discouraged or eliminated because it impairs the team's effectiveness. Successful leaders constantly observe and analyse at least three aspects of their team.

Collective team needs

Assess your team's needs for direction, vision, guidance, authority, reassurance, recognition, and resources. Satisfy those needs as thoroughly as possible. You'll be called on to build communication bridges, tear down barriers, and facilitate interaction among the members of your team and enhance their relationships with other teams.

You'll also have to lead your team-mates to challenge both their opinions and their performance when they're reluctant to do so.

Individual members dynamics

Here you have to dig beneath the surface and look at the forces that influence individual members of your team and make them tick. These include, for example:

1. Key personality traits.

2. Experience and skills each member contributes to the team and training and development that would improve the value of each as team players.

3. Personal power (which may be either positive or negative, depending on the person's nature)

4. Need for status and acceptance.

5. Degree of commitment to the team's success.

6. Willingness to share their views and speak their minds, especially in the face to criticism and peer pressure.

The group's dynamics. Here you step back and look at the forest instead of the trees. While acknowledging the interplay of individual members dynamics, you also have to assess how teammates relate to the team as a unit. This call for you to:

1. Recognise major opinion leaders in your team.

2. Identify subgroups and factions that may favour or oppose the team's identity, unity and goals.

3. Map channels of communication, patterns of influence, and informal alliances that arise among team members.

4. Assess the team's tolerance for minority viewpoints.

5. Identify interpersonal conflicts and turf wars among members who may pursue the same responsibilities.

6. Evaluate the team's ability to assess its work objectively and set challenging goals.

Your functions as a team leader

Task function involve:

1. Achieving the objectives of the work group.

2. Defining group tasks.

3. Planning the work.

4. Allocating resources.

5. Organising duties and responsibilities.

6. Controlling quality and checking performance.

7. Reviewing progress.

Team functions involve:

1. Maintaining morale and building team spirit,

2. The cohesiveness of the group as a working unit.

3. Setting standards and maintaining discipline.

4. Systems of communication within the group.

5. Training the group.

6. Appointment of sub-leaders.

Individual functions involve:

1. Meeting the needs of the individual members of the group.

2. Attending to personal problems.

3. Giving praise and status.

4. Resolving conflict between group needs and needs of the individual.

5. Training the individual.

The role of the team leader is to:

1. Motivate the team and its members.

2. Liaise with the team sponsor to agree plans and discuss issues

3. Enrol appropriate partners (customers, suppliers, technical experts)

4. Allocate resources to the project (with sponsor)

5. Break down functional barriers: resolve functional conflicts

6. Empower project team members to identify and implement improvement

7. Drive and stimulate improvements

8. Provide reports to management on progress

To create a motivated team you must:

1. Give the team good working conditions

2. Explain the company's Mission/vision

3. Give the team a Goal/Target

4. Remember the individual members of the team

5. Promote the team's identity

6. Share success

7. Ensure the team is positive

8. Be a motivational leader