All successful teams have good leaders. While there are many nuances to leadership, what are some best practices you can seek to follow to improve your teams?
Research and common understanding demonstrates the crucial importance of communication in any relationship; so it makes sense to first focus on how leaders should try to create a context where communication can occur. This way decisions can be made and goals achieved. To do this, they must put the team first and design an environment that inspires and enables teams to do their best work.
An article from MonsterThinking talks about four ways leaders can increase engagement through communications.
Good leaders believe in their missions, and they believe in their people. A sense of camaraderie, or affiliation, within business relationships is something leaders should encourage. However, according to a 2008 study of 20 executive leadership teams, too much emphasis on positive relationships by the team leader can have a negative effect on team success. Managers should seek to find the right balance without pushing people to put their relationships above their jobs.
According to research by the American Psychological Association, four personal qualities distinguish excellent team leaders from average leaders. The last one contains a best practice for leaders to follow:
The leader must act with courage and be willing to challenge group norms and disrupt established routines. Achieving the right amount of assertiveness may be one of the most common weaknesses holding leaders back, according to a 2007 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In a Forbes interview, the widely known writer, thinker and lecturer, Peter F. Drucker provides several best practices for team leaders.
Here are a few more tips for team leadership success:
What best practices for team leaders do you think have the biggest impact? And, what would you add to the list?