MANAGING A TEAM - GOOD MORNINGS

HOW TO MANAGE A TEAM

TOP TEN TIPS ON MANAGING A TEAM

Managing a team isn’t for everyone, and it’s definitely not as easy as it seems. So here are my top ten tips to be the best manager

MAKE SURE YOU'RE READY

It’s actually quite a big responsibility and there is a common misconception that to progress through your career you have to manage a team. Some people simply aren’t fit for management, and a bad manager makes a terrible workplace. So first, and most importantly, make sure you want to and you are prepared to manage a team.

UNDERSTAND YOUR TEAM

You may have inherited a team, or you may be in a great position of being able to build your own team, but either way, you really need to understand everyone in your team. Understand their strengths, weaknesses, personalities, and definitions of success. As a manager, your duty is to make sure you’re bringing out the best in your staff, and the way to do that is to truly understand your team and adapt your management and communication style to best support them.

BE CONSISTENT

You may need to change your management styles based on personalities within your team, but once you know what fits with each individual, show up consistently. Having a manager where you don’t know what ‘mood’ you’ll catch them in is terrifying. Don’t bend to emotions, or other things happening within the business, keep your approach and emotions consistent and supportive.

PROTECT YOUR TEAM

With a lot of teams, especially creative ones, there is a high demand for their skills or output. With businesses with multiple stakeholders you really need to protect your team from additional input, opinions, and even work. Create processes and boundaries and ensure to celebrate your team and their wins.

FOCUS ON STRENGTHS

Sometimes the worst thing to do is to try and train someone into something they just won’t be. Instead of forcing your team to grow in ways that don’t serve them, find people’s strengths and double down on them.m and their wins.

COMMUNICATE OPENLY

Make sure your comms are often and open. When managing a team you need to make sure that you have a team mission you’re working towards and that you talk about it daily. Enable feedback often and in an approachable and make sure you enable daily communication towards yourself or between your team members.

BE APPROACHABLE

You need to be approachable to all of your team, however, make sure to set clear boundaries. Your team doesn’t need another friend in you, they need someone who is going to make the right decisions and move them further along in their career. You need to be able to empower and support, you don’t need to win favour by getting drunk and showing yourself up.

MAKE GOOD DECISIONS

You HAVE to be able to make good decisions. And you have to be able to follow through on them. A lot of leadership is making decisions well and fast, and so much of being a good leader is making sure your team trust you to make decisions.

PUT PROGRESSION HIGH

Managing a team isn’t just about making sure the work and the company goals get hit, it’s making sure people are growing in line with their careers. Give training, act as a mentor, set proper, achievable goals and make sure your team knows what they need to do to progress.

EMPOWER AND LEAD

And finally, and most importantly. Real leaders do just that, they get involved and lead, helping, taking on responsibility and supporting from within, not driving from behind. Don’t just give orders and delegate work, empower your team alongside you.