Help! I have just been assigned to head a new product design team at my company.

Question

Help! I have just been assigned to head a new product design team at my company. The division manager has high expectations for the team and for myself, but I have been a technical design engineer for four years since graduating from college. I have never managed anyone, let alone led a team. The manager keeps talking about her confidence that I will be very good at creating lots of teamwork. Does anyone out there have any tips to help me master this challenge? Help!” You immediately start to formulate your recommendations. What are the three key things you will advise her to do, and why those three first?

Explanation / Answer

The three key things to focus first while leading or managing a team are:

Effective communication: Communication could act as a biggest barrier or the largest contributor in the success of team. As a team leader, one should be familiar with all the subordinates with whom she is going to work with. One should maintain a communication friendly environment where the ideas and suggestions from subordinates are encouraged. This communication helps team members to understand their roles and responsibilities clearly thus creating no confusion. The team members would develop trustamong them and manager if communication between them is strong. This helps them to coordinate better and encourages them to focus on team goals rather than personal objectives.

Making team members understand the objectives: The team leader should clearly define what she expects from its team members. There should be no doubt in team members minds on what they have to achieve. This avoids any inconsistencies and deviation from goals.

Evaluating performance and providing feedback: Some team members are bound to perform better than other members. It is important that each team member's and overall team performance should be evaluated on basis of certain parameters and provided with useful feedback. Feedback should be provided such that it encourages team members to perform better.

Some other important things to remember are:

Respect your subordinates: The team only works together well if they are respected by manager as well as colleagues. Disrespect creates job dissatisfaction and reduced performance.

Manage conflict properly: The team leader should try to resolve any conflict arising between team members without taking sides. Listen to all sides carefully before reaching any decision. Keep in mind interests of both parties while resolving issues. Conflicts could hurt team performance as their will be no coordination among the members.

Treat all team members equally: As a team leader, no bias towards particular members should exist. Else it will create politics and encourage members to work for self-goals rather than team goals.

Coordination and cooperation: Team must work in sync to achieve efficiency. For a leader, cooperation from all team members is must to achieve objectives. Coordination cooperation forms the basis of a successful team.

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