We’ve all heard the phrase ‘born leader’, but in reality great team leaders have a clearly defined skill set and have spent time undergoing formal training and personal development. If you’re wondering how to be a good team leader, this short blog unpacks six key characteristics of effective and successful team leaders. Let’s start with technical skills.
1. Technical Expertise
Great team leaders know their business, their industry, and the technical aspects of their department. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re working in, you need to know how the job gets done. Here’s a few examples of what this means:
- Work supervisor of a group of electronics technicians knowing how to isolate a faulty circuit.
- Team leader at a bookkeeping organisation knowing how to prepare and lodge a Business Activity Statement (BAS).
- Maintenance supervisor of a team of automotive mechanics knowing how to replace a car exhaust system.
Team leaders need these technical skills to effectively oversee departmental projects, assign tasks, delegate work, and jump in and help when the team is under pressure.
2. Clarity
Effective team leaders have great interpersonal skills and are able to communicate what they need from their work team. This includes the ability to clearly explain a single task as well as brief the whole team on the quarterly targets.
Communication and interpersonal skills are critical to work team success and the most effective team leaders have learned how to organise their thoughts, sound confident, control their breathing, remain aware of their body language, and make every word count during daily interactions.
3. Decisiveness
Can you remain calm in a storm and make sound decisions under pressure? Great team leaders don’t lose their head when the going gets tough because they have a sound decision-making process.
Sound decision making is knowing the difference between autocratic, participatory, and democratic decisions and having the emotional intelligence to use each method at the right time. Sometimes you need to make a quick decision on your own, while other circumstances require input from the people most impacted by the final outcome (and possibly senior management too).
4. Mentorship and Training
The most effective team leaders are committed to the professional development of individual team members. This means ensuring that everyone on the team has received proper training and knows how to do their job — on a daily basis.
It could be a maintenance supervisor showing an apprentice mechanic how to fit their welding helmet properly, or a retail sales supervisor explaining the mechanics of the latest promotion. Effective team leaders spend time on the little things that help their team members develop confidence and pride in their work.
5. Representation
Team leaders work side-by-side with their work team, but also attend meetings with senior management, customers, and stakeholders. During these meetings they are representing the skills, abilities, safety, and output of the group as a whole, as well as individual team members.
A great team leader will always represent their team enthusiastically, and ensure their performance, safety, and wellbeing is acknowledged and valued by people higher up in the organisation.
6. Qualifications
Successful team leaders are lifelong learners with formal qualifications. Here are a few courses that will develop your leadership abilities and are available right now at RTOs and universities around Australia:
Certificate IV in Leadership and Management - A vocational qualification for emerging managers and team leaders who need hands-on skills in communication, critical thinking, and operations management.
Diploma of Leadership and Management - A VET qualification for new managers and supervisors who need to sharpen their leadership skills and gain an understanding of management issues and responsibilities.
Bachelor of Business (Management) - An undergraduate qualification for aspiring management professionals who want an in-depth knowledge of organisational behaviour, contemporary management practices, and emerging leadership issues.
Graduate Certificate of Leadership - A postgraduate qualification for team leaders who are driving strategic results and need skills in collaboration, interpersonal communication, and work team development.
Master of Business Administration (Leadership and Enterprise) - A high-end qualification for experienced business professionals who need the skills (and confidence) to achieve operational performance goals while inspiring vision, business innovations, loyalty, and realised potential.