The Importance Of Having Effective Team Leaders In Your Organization

When we talk about teamwork in a workplace, we usually discuss things such as mutual goals, proper communication, and problem-solving. These are, of course, essential bits that make up a strong team. However, one thing that is occasionally brushed over is as important as the previously mentioned ones. It is leadership. 

An experienced team leader is a key element for the team to succeed, and if you don’t have one, your foundation is likely to fall apart. This goes especially for companies that are leaving the “small business” tag behind and growing into something bigger. The right team leader is necessary to pave the path for the future of the team and the business altogether.

Empowering team members

A team leader doesn’t accumulate power, but gives it away to other team members. His main responsibility is to assign a task to each member. It is very important that the leader has trust in the competence and skills of everyone else. It is through trust that leaders empower team members to do their tasks properly.

Trust is essential because when others see that the leader has assigned their colleague with a particular responsibility, they won’t question or undermine it. Freedom and employee engagement go hand in hand. If you are looking for a team that is really inspired to work on a project, it is essential that the team leader grants them a level of freedom and ownership.

Giving everyone a vision

A skill that every team leader needs to have is to be a visionary. The team cannot really be strong and cohesive, and the leader can’t really push the whole business machinery forward unless they have a strong vision for the things to come. When a team leader has a vision, he incorporates visionary leadership into the team. This basically means that they know very well how to communicate their vision to the rest of the team, making the entire team’s vision in the process.

Keeping the projects moving forward

The fact is that it tends to be difficult to keep a team focused, so it is essential that you have a leader that is going to do exactly that in order for your projects to be successful. A team leader will find their way around any setbacks by starting discussions about any potential problems, and making sure that the whole discussion never goes off the rails.

Team leaders will do this by making sure that everyone comprehends what the goal of the project is, clearly defining roles within the team, setting strict deadlines, illustrating how every role affects the final outcome, and reminding the team that they have a mutual goal to stick to.

Listening to other team members

Listening skills are essential for every team leader to truly do their job properly. Anyone who is experienced with leadership development will tell you that you can’t expect things to go smoothly within the team if the team leader isn’t prepared to listen to other people’s opinion. It is also a good way to learn about how each member of the team thinks and sees the problem at hand.

So, before coming to a big decision, the leader must first listen to what the other team members have to say, analyze everyone’s opinions, and then come to a conclusion.

Keeping the team accountable

When you are a part of a team, it tends to be easy to evade responsibility for certain actions, as you can hind behind the “wall” of your colleagues. This is where the team leader steps in once again. A good team leader will take full responsibility for what their team has come up with. Due to the fact that this is a large burden to take upon, they will certainly have a strong motivation to keep each and every team member accountable for what is done.

Bringing in the creativity

The whole purpose of creating a team is to solve a particular problem. In order to solve that problem, a high level of creativity is required from all the team members. Therefore, the team leader must be highly creative himself to begin with. They will make use of their own creative abilities to solve issues at hand, but also encourage the rest of the team to pitch in their own creative ideas. A team meeting without creativity is like pasta without the sauce.

In summation

Teams will more often fail than not if they don’t have a strong team leader who is there to give them a vision, empower them, listen to them, make sure the projects are going as planned, bring in the necessary creativity, and make sure that everyone is held accountable for the end result. A team leader is a person that knows the most about the project, but the fact is that they need to build their own leadership skills before they are appointed as the one who is going to lead the team.