Sunday, May 11, 2008

What Makes A Good Team Leader?

How many times have I been asked this question? (The title of this article). The answer is plenty of times. I attend an interview for a position of authority and am asked, amongst other things, what constitutes a good team leader? In this article I will be writing about the way in which I would reply to this question etc.

In my career thus far, I have been a team leader for two different companies and have also been a member of many different teams, who have been run by a numerous different team leaders. This has given me, in my own opinion, quite a good understanding of what is required to be a good team leader.

Good, positive and quick decision making

There is nothing worse than being in a team whose leader is quite weak, in-decisive and lacking in confidence. It sends a wave of uncertainty through the time and leaves the members of that team feeling frustrated.

Communication

A team leader who is unapproachable is, in my opinion, a poor team leader. Any member of the team should feel comfortable and happy to be able to talk to his/her team leader about a variety of matters. This would include business matters of course but could also include any personal difficulties that they may be going through.

The team leader should also possess the ability to convey messages from the company to his staff, as well as communicating what he expects from them, work wise, for that particular day and week.

Motivation

A good team leader will have the ability to keep his or her troops motivated throughout the day and week. They can do this by operating various challenges such as the best employee of the month receives a box of chocolates, the worst employee is not allowed to speak or be spoken to for one hour, as way of punishment. Just a bit of fun and games, which can be judged by the amount, and standard of work that each member completes. This is just one of many ways to keep the troops thinking and working.

Stephen Hill runs The How To Stop Stammering Centre, he has a number of websites including:

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