Becoming a better Team Leader is key to your career
One of the most important aspects of being a leader is improving team performance. However, this can be challenging to do if you don’t know where to start. In this blog post, we share some universally applicable tips that can help improve team performance through leadership and offer the tools to put these learnings into action.
The 4 tips and tricks to become a better Team Leader:
1. Together we become better leaders
Leadership is all about working with a team toward achieving goals, whether that means directing, improving, motivating or inspiring, and according to a recent study by Deloitte, companies across the world are increasingly shifting from hierarchical to team-based organizational structures.
This is all part of an effort to be more agile and efficient. Notably, among companies undergoing these kinds of transitions, 53% report a significant increase in performance.
The best leaders and managers welcome these changes, foster cross-functional collaboration within their organization, and are not only comfortable with complexity but thrive in it.
2. Can you trust me?
We all know that effective leadership is vital to team performance. Through cultivating a team dynamic centered on trust, serving as an advocate for your employees, and setting an example in the workplace, you can create a culture that enable your employees to consistently deliver and out-perform even their own expectations.
3. If you can name it, you can tame it
So how do we define leadership? Broadly speaking, it involves aligning a group of people towards a common goal and ensuring they have all the support they need to achieve it. Depending on the model you are studying, and there are many, the team leadership role may be carried out by a team or an individual.
Leaders are called upon to possess a vast and diverse skillset that includes, but is not limited to, organization, strategic thinking, financial modelling, training, logistics, internal and external communications, creativity, training, morale building, and more.
Good leaders also set the conscious of a business and have an incredible opportunity to infuse equity and inclusion into everything they do. From how the business treats its employees to its commitment to customer service, leaders determine how a team views its place in the larger world.
4. Who is a leader, and who isn’t?
Even if you are already a team manager, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are a team leader. There are two key differences. Team managers oversee day-to-day operations of their direct reports.
A manager has high-touch relationships with employees and keeps track of operations throughout their department while working toward their company’s high-level goals.
Team leaders focus more on the big picture. If a team manager works on a more granular level, a team leader instead steers more toward broad objectives, long term goal-setting, team inspiration, and employee empowerment
A team manager can be a team leader, especially in smaller organizations, but those fortunate enough to grow and scale often hire managers to help actualize the leader’s strategic vision.
Grow your leadership qualities with a team leadership course
As a leader, you need to set the direction, provide energy and connect with your team. But do you know what type of leader you are and how your behavior impacts others?
Leading High-Performance Teams
What does your team look like today? Do your team members excel at collaborating in a constructive, positive way? Can they maximize their creative and innovation potential? What can you do to improve engagement, initiative, and the seizing of learning opportunities?
IMD’s Leading High-Performance Teams is a highly interactive and immersive on-campus experience. It enables you as a leader to build and sustain a high-performing team by maximizing your team’s talent and innovation potential through trust-building, inclusive leadership, and growth mindset.
Discover how, by focusing on inclusive leadership, interaction, creativity, and imagination, you can empower your team and enhance dynamics, ensuring that each person contributes his or her unique talents and surpasses expectations.
What’s in it for you?
By acquiring tools and behaviors that positively impact team dynamics for high-performance and better business outcomes, emerging leaders apply new skills to in the real world with experiential exercises, practical frameworks, and extensive coaching.
So, is this program right for you? Yes, if you are:
- An executive who formally or informally leads teams and where strong and cohesive teamwork is an essential part of execution and innovation efforts in your organization.
- Are looking for a program in which you can learn how to build a high-performance team in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
- Are from a diverse industry or culture and are eager to leverage the synergies of your team and maximize the potential of virtual, hybrid and face-to-face settings for better business outcomes.