Leading a team can be inspiring, rewarding and exhausting. Busy working environments can leave little time for team leaders to check in with team members and ensure they’re feeling happy, creative and on track.
Before digging into team management tips it is good to learn what is team management. Team management refers to those activities and actions that help in bringing a team together to carry out a specific task efficiently. The team manager is usually required to delegate specific tasks to the right people without bias or discrimination.
With good communication channels and plenty of opportunities to give feedback, you can provide your team with a strong support system. With this, team leaders can develop accountability, trust, and a less hierarchical approach.
Here are our tips for achieving a happier and more productive team via some supportive workflows:
1. Be transparent
Transparent working environments have been found to make teams more accountable, happy and creative.
It sounds like a big claim but transparent environments help to develop a feeling of mutual respect between team members and team leaders. Via open and consistent communication, transparent and authentic workplaces help employees to feel secure in their positions. In turn, team members feel freer to contribute ideas and suggestions, enhancing creativity.
2. Keep communicating
You must have heard this one before: the basis of a cooperative and productive team is good communication.
The aim is to create an environment in which team leaders feel able to provide honest and constructive feedback, and team members feel confident to voice concerns and communicate with one another.
3. Provide valuable feedback
Providing feedback to team members is one of the best ways you can support them to develop professionally and personally.
Even if you have no negative feedback to give, make sure to hold regular opportunities to check-in. This way, you can provide advice on how you feel your team members are progressing and could grow further.
If there are any areas of work that you feel could be improved, these discussions also provide a good opportunity to share your constructive feedback.
As a team leader, you’re in a great position to set positive boundaries of work, play, and relaxation. Of course, this can be difficult. Particularly in teams where members work flexibly and might prefer to start early or work late, to save time elsewhere.