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Leadership demands various qualities to become successful in any field. As there are numerous qualities of a leader, but we are here talking about team management.
Team management is one of the prominent qualities of a leader. Most of the time they generally adopt either dictatorship or grooming or a mix of both in their leadership style. Which one is yours?
Assigning Task
In team management, a lot of tasks or assignments have been given by leaders. As a leader when you assign a task to a team member, tell him/her only the tentative outcome, that you want. Avoid telling them the complete process. You can provide some hints if you wish. If you tell them to step by step process, which needs to be followed to achieve that task, then you are suppressing their creativity.
They must devise their own process or method to get that outcome. Through this, they will understand things in-depth and at the same time gain confidence.
If you start spool feeding then they will start expecting it every time. They will hardly become self-initiators. And it will be very difficult for them to be a leader in the future. They would love to be a subordinate ….but this is not what the company wants.
Engaging Team in Major Objectives
One of the top-rated tasks of a leader is to engage the team toward the organization’s objective. Team members should not feel idling in their routine work. They must be given some specific assignments toward department or organization goals.
You can adopt an 80:20 ratio for routine work and specific tasks. Individuals must adhere to his/her routine work 80 % of their office/business hours but at the same time, they must contribute the rest 20 % of time to special tasks. These tasks can be self-initiated or assigned by superiors.
When you do some specific task, then your focus on your routine tasks automatically improves. It really become a win-win if we do a specific task in an above-described manner and make a habit of it.
I am practicing this for the last three and half years and getting very good results along with my team. Once you are habitual to this, in spite of your busy schedule, you and your team will be able to do it.
These special tasks, help to reduce to NVAs at a department level or at the organizational level and efficiency & effectiveness at an individual level. Also, provide a very good projection to you and your complete team by becoming the main contributor to accomplish new initiatives at the organizational level.
Without continuous improvement and team involvement, you cannot achieve your organizational objectives.
Make a List of Specific Tasks
As team members have very good clarity on routine work to spend 80 % of the time. But what about specific tasks for their balance 20 % of the time? It’s equally important to have a high level of clarity on these specific tasks. Individuals must have a ready and editable list of those tasks/goals on a yearly/half-yearly/quarterly/monthly timeline.
Without written goals and a timeline, nothing will move. This is a must to initiate further action. Once you have a list with you, your mind will start guiding you step by step to achieve them.
You will find yourself at the same location even after three months if you didn’t take action. While taking action, one more important aspect is to monitor the progress. Weekly review sessions work perfectly for this.
I am spending only 20-25 minutes discussing these specific tasks with the team at the week start & the results are phenomenal.
For BIG OBJECTIVES, it is of utmost importance to take continuous action bit by bit on daily basis otherwise these tasks will look like an invincible mountain. One step at a time is the key to achieving these mammoth targets.
Leader’s Focus Area
Jack Welch has expressed his precise views on leadership & team management in the book Winning as
As a leader, you need to invest the vast majority of your time and energy in three activities.
- You have to evaluate—making sure the right people are in the right jobs, supporting and advancing those who are, and moving out those who are not.
- You have to coach—guiding, appraising, and helping people to improve their performance in every way.
- And finally, you have to build self-confidence—pouring out encouragement, caring, and recognition.
Too often, managers think that people’s development occurs once a year in performance reviews, which should never be the case. The above activities must be part of your leadership.
Ways to Groom Your Team
People development should be a daily event, integrated into every aspect of your regular goings-on.
Take budget reviews. They are a perfect occasion to focus on people. That’s right, people. Yes, you need to talk about the business and its results, but in a budget review, you can really see team dynamics in action. If everyone around the table sits silent and frozen while the team leader pontificates, you’ve got some serious coaching to do. If everyone’s involved in the presentation and the whole team is alive, you’ve got a great opportunity to give immediate feedback that you like what you see. Now if the team has a real star or a dud in its midst, share your impressions with its leader as soon as you can.
There is no event in your day that cannot be used for people’s development.
Customer visits are a chance to evaluate your sales force. Plant tours are an opportunity to meet promising new line managers and see if they have the ability to run something bigger. A coffee break at a meeting is an opening to coach a team member who is about to give his first major presentation. Such feedback and grooming must become a part of your leadership skill.
Inject Self-Confidence
And remember in all these encounters, evaluating and coaching are great, but building self-confidence is, in the end, probably the most important thing you can do. Take every opportunity to inject self-confidence into those who have earned it. Use ample praise, the more specific the better.
Besides its huge impact on upgrading the team, the best thing about using every encounter for people development is how much fun it is. Instead of mind-numbing meetings about numbers and plant tours showing off new machines, every day is about growing people.
In fact, think of yourself as a gardener, with a watering can in one hand and a can of fertilizer in the other. Occasionally you have to pull some weeds, but most of the time, you just nurture and tend. Then watch everything bloom.”
“Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.”- Tom Peters
