3 Ways to Effectively Manage a Team

In today’s world, particularly when climbing the career ladder, the need to effectively manage others is becoming an increasingly important skill.  Some people feel like leadership is a trait that is instinctive, as if you’re either born a leader or you’re not – when in fact, leadership is a learnable skill that is accessible to everyone.

Now, some people make better leaders than others, based on their personal approach, attitude, and personality – but the core facets of being a leader are teachable traits that anyone can learn.

1. KEEP LEARNING

As stated above, leadership is a skill you can learn, and with the abundance of leadership training opportunities available today, there’s no excuse for standing in the background rather than stepping forward into the spotlight and shining as the great leader you have the potential to be.

In life, as well as business, we all need to evolve and continuously grow rather than plateau once you’ve reached a particular position; and in order to grow you need to engage in continuous learning.

See, the mistake many leaders make is they rest on their laurels once they have reached a particular level and feel now they’re at this point in their career they ‘know it all’ and don’t need to grow.  This is where arrogance can creep in.  The truth is unless you’re open to evolving yourself, and your knowledge, your approach might quickly become outdated and even obsolete.

2. BE THE CAPTAIN

Of course, there’s a fine line between being a leader and that of a dictator, but it’s important you take the reins and steer your team in the right direction with enough authority and confidence to ensure people listen.

That said, it’s important to remember that as the leader your role is directional rather than dictatorial, as nobody likes being told what to do in the sense of having orders barked at them.

It can be a difficult balancing act, as on the one hand you don’t want to be so strong that people lose motivation, yet it’s equally important people respect your authority and do as you ask.

3. DON’T MICROMANAGE

It’s important you allow people to “own their task” but for you to provide enough direction and structure that they follow the schedule of work set for them.

The challenge, if you start micromanaging someone is that your team will quickly get fed up, not just because of the fact it’s annoying to be micromanaged but because the team will feel disempowered, as they won’t feel trusted to do a good job, respected in their ability, or valued as an individual.

Indeed, micromanaging is possibly one of the quickest ways to lose the support and compliance of your team, long term.

So, there we have three quick principles on how to effectively manage a team; and how not to handle a team.  In essence, as long as you keep learning and constantly improving in terms of your own development, assert authority as a respected leader (rather than a dictator) and allow people to get on with their task without micromanaging, you can’t go far wrong.