A team leader is the backbone of an organisation who sets goals and priorities and boosts the morale of the employees. With their exceptional communication skills, they motivate team members and lead the company toward success. The team leader’s roles and responsibilities drive them towards guiding the team by providing words of encouragement, a productive work environment, and instructions to solve the toughest problems easily.
Team leaders are also known as:
1. Managers/ Supervisors: These leaders are responsible for monitoring the efforts of the team members and getting the work done effectively and efficiently with the proper utilisation of resources.
2. Goal Setters: With the inauguration of an organisation, new goals are laid down. Whether it is to introduce a new product in the market or promote the existing product. It is all done by a goal-setter.
3. Strategists: The goals that were set with the establishment of the business need to be met with a well-defined plan. This individual is responsible for developing that plan.
Characteristics of a Team Leader
Mastering the drive of the team leader’s roles and responsibilities is not an easy goal to achieve. The right set of characteristics makes it easier and less stressful. Some of these characteristics are:
1. Effective and clear communication: While guiding a group of people with different mindsets, it is important to deliver all the messages without any misinterpretations or barriers to communication. In short, the messages shall be delivered directly and with transparency. This characteristic helps to ease the process of getting the tasks completed.
2. Organising everything in the right direction: When working with multiple members of a team, it is the responsibility of a leader to keep the roles and directions intact. The organisational skills of a team leader instill the team member's confidence and a sense of acknowledgment.
3. Adaptability: A good team leader is adaptable to any change in the company’s priorities and structure, or with the new team members. They can guide and motivate the people under them in any situation.
4. Ability to delegate the work: A team leader shall be well aware of the skills and talents of each member of the team. Proper classification and delegation of responsibilities boost productivity and establish a sense of trust.
5. Confident work ethic: If the team leader speaks confidently and maintains a personality with high expectations from themself and their members, those members can provide consistent results.
Top 10 Team Leader Roles and Responsibilities
Let’s discuss the top 10 team leader duties and responsibilities that are essential to bringing success to any company.
1. Solve Problems: No company works without a new problem arising in the internal or external environment. It can be the factors of risk, a new competitor, due to the deliverance of a certain task, or failure of a project. It is the team leader’s responsibility to approach the problem in a way that prioritises the upliftment of the company and can become a lesson for the team members. For the new leaders, the best way is to work with the following questions:
● What is important?
● What approach shall the team work with?
● What is the main focus?
● What would be the effect of this decision?
2. Manage Performance: The performance of the team members can be analysed by observing the results of their efforts. At every step of deliverance, it is important to provide feedback. To be more thorough, be clear with the team. Justify what is going well and what can become better. Motivate the members by telling them about the requirements and expectations. As a team leader, the management of performance shall weigh equally in the following two ways:
● Praise the interpersonal skills of the team members so they can work well in their field.
● Determine the effectiveness of work - whether the delivered work impacts the project in a good way or not.
3. Coach Team Members: The key to bringing effectiveness in work is coaching the team members in the right direction. It can be done by sorting out the methods of achieving the goal and ways to develop the desired skills for the responsibility assigned to them. The coaching style of a team leader brings healthy progress in work. Coaching involves the following essential factors:
● Helping the team members improve their performance
● Giving feedback that can instill confidence or motivation in them
● Demonstrating the ways to develop skills
● Pushing them to develop work ethics
4. Resolve Conflicts: A team consists of people with different work ethics who have different perspectives toward the tasks. So, it is almost natural for conflicts to occur in everyday work. In these situations, it is the team leader’s responsibility to resolve the conflict and establish better communication between all. Here’s how to do it:
● By clearly assigning tasks and establishing a set of rules in the team
● To look for any differences between the members, and resolve them before they turn into a conflict
● To establish an understanding between the involved team members
● Let the other members give their opinions or solutions that work for the both sides
5. Developing the Strength of the Team: The strength of the team can be developed by identifying the team members who excel at particular tasks and delegating the tasks among them.
6. Improving their Weakness: A team leader shall also help the other members to work on their weaknesses by pairing them with the member who is a perfect fit for that task. This way, they will progress as an individual and as a team.
7. Evaluation of Team Progress: Before commencing the project, the team leaders shall communicate the goals and the process of evaluating the progress towards the goal. This helps the teams to work together in the same direction.
8. Allowing Everyone to Present Their Ideas: The team leader’s role is to make the team members feel valued. They can do it by organising team meetings where all the members discuss their ideas on a certain topic.
9. Managing the Operations: Another essential of a team leader’s roles and responsibilities is to make the work and achievement of the team accessible and transparent to everyone in the organisation. If they are asked for a report, they must be able to present it on time.
10. Welfare oftThe Team Members: A team leader shall make sure that their team is working in a healthy environment that:
● Provides training for health and safety
● Provides them with risk assessments
● Safeguards everyone against bullying
● Establishes a work/life balance
● Complies with the law and work standards
Tips to Become a Great Team Leader
After understanding the team leader’s roles and responsibilities, there needs to be an understanding of some tips that help a team leader become better than before. These are:
1. Treat everyone equally: Team members follow a leader who shows genuine care towards all and has a sense of empathy. To attain this, it is the leader’s role to ensure equitability while distributing tasks. They should share the responsibility of a complicated task among all to make them feel trusted.
2. Walk out of your comfort zone: A team leader needs to pass tough decisions if they can prove beneficial for the team. Every problem that arises between the team shall be resolved fairly to make the members feel supported.
3. Abiding by the law and the company’s policy: If a team leader adheres to the law and policies of the company, they influence others with their strong leadership skills and build a sense of security. The members will feel confident under a leader who possesses respect for the rules and regulations.
4. Bring joy to work and plan incentives for the members: Individuals at work are more productive when they find joy in what they are doing. Thus, it is important to assign different tasks to the people who would complete them without feeling pressurised. It is also important for the team leader to stand for their team to establish a secure work relationship.
Conclusion
Learning and growing with the team will automatically make a great team leader. While trying to make the members adapt to the leader’s style, the leader shall also try to adopt the good qualities of all. That was all for the role of a team leader!
FAQs
What is a team leader’s first responsibility?
The first and foremost responsibility of a team leader is to put their team first and then think of themselves. They should be compassionate and empathetic towards their team members and be helpful in difficult situations.
How to become a successful team leader?
To become a successful team leader, it is essential to understand the roles and responsibilities of a team leader and improve every day.
Which three values are most important in a team leader?
The three values that indeed matter to be a good team leader are communication, empathy and vision.
What should a team leader not do?
The leader should not be inaccessible to the team members. They should be available as the team is their priority.
What is the hardest part of leading a team?
The most challenging task of being a team leader or leading a team is to inspire the team members. A team leader is entitled to be together to practice unity in diversity.