Practical Tips: How To Manage Leadership Positions 

It’s important to bring on board Team members who believe in the vision of the institution and recognize the value they bring to the group and can fully engage in the project because they see the growth potential.

Here, work is completed efficiently and in a timely manner too because team members are capable enough to complete work with little guidance or intervention. So, how does one make this happen? Is there a magical formula for choosing the right people for the job?

Of course, there is not! And yet to individual strengths must be aligned to Team goals. Determining which individuals will be best for your project does take a bit of work, but it is a task worth undertaking.

The following six steps can help guide you during your team selection process as you work to align team member strengths to project goals.

Firstly, Define Project Goals and that simply is to understand your project goals and what knowledge and skills will be required to reach those goals.

For example, increasing clientele base over the next quarters will most certainly require individuals who are strong in services quality improvement, customer services and staff strength. Individuals with good PR skills are also helpful.

When you have assembled the team, break down the Project Goals into smaller, achievable tasks. If we consider the areas mentioned previously, that project team will comprise such task team/subcommittees as community/stakeholders engagement, staff attitude improvement, infrastructural improvement etc.

When you have done this, make a list of attributes, or characteristics you’d like to see demonstrated by your team members. These attributes should align with project goals as well as contribute to a positive collaborative environment.

Attributes for this team would include creativity, forward-thinking, strong communication skills, strong people skills, ability to work well in collaborative settings, deadline-driven, and specialized skills in the area in which they would be assigned such as already mentioned.

Then Recruit Team Members once you know what you want out of your team members and how many you will need, it’s time to recruit them. You can reach out to other resources within the organization to help suggest members of the team. In this instance, I find the departmental or unit managers very well or other members of staff who have worked in a meeting with the employee.

The next phase is to get to Know Your Team: Now that your team has been selected you will want to sit down with your team members and explain why they were chosen to participate on the team.

You will want to learn what their aspirations are and demonstrate how their contributions to the team will work towards them. Explain how team members can take advantage of each other’s strengths during the project to help to build strong collaborative relationships.

Finally, Synchronize Members Strengths to Performance Expectations: One final thing to do is develop performance expectations that also coincide with individual strengths and project goals.

Spend some time working with your team members to set goals based on their core competencies. This will only further help team members to feel a sense of ownership over their roles and responsibilities within the team.

In situations in which a project team is already formed, the team leader still has the opportunity and obligation to align members’ strengths to project goals. The same steps will be followed outside the recruitment of team members.

Here, rather than contacting department managers, you simply talk to your team members directly. You would spend some time asking them, sometimes privately what they feel their strengths are and how they can assist the team in reaching its goals.

You can also get the other team members involved and ask them to fill out a questionnaire what they believe their teammate’s strengths are. Believe it or not, this can actually serve as a great team-building activity, where team members get to learn more about themselves and each other. I have used it a lot and it’s really amazing.

A little note on the Team leader

Of all the members of a team, the team leader is the most important and should be someone who can provide direction, instructions and guidance to the team for the purpose of achieving the project goal. An effective leader will know her team members’ strengths, weaknesses and motivations.

Their job is to get the assigned tasks done by using all of the resources available to them, including the team members. They take responsibility for the activities of the team. They are responsible for developing and implementing a timeline their team will use to reach its end goal.

Some of the ways team leaders ensure they reach their goals is by delegating tasks to their members, including themselves. A team leader should be able to develop a strategy the team will use to reach its goal, provide any training that team members need, communicate clear instructions to team members, listen to team members’ feedback and monitor team members’ participation and commitment to the goal of the team.

The team lead should be able to create and distribute periodic reports to the appropriate authority on the team’s progress

To build a successful team, as the leader, you need to get to know all the team members on one-on-one so that you understand their strengths and weaknesses. You’re also likely to learn what drives each team member and discover what motivates them to excel beyond expectations.

You’ll also need to set clear roles and responsibilities for each team member. It’s important to remember that as a team, each person will rely on the other members. The roles will be interconnected and will have to be structured to accommodate this. The expectations should be clear and communicated to each member.

You should ensure that every person has equal opportunities for development so that any weaknesses can become strengths and encourages different viewpoints. Each person on a team will have different past experiences, opinions, and strengths.

While this can be a challenge, it also can be a great benefit to the team environment. The TL should not allow negative remarks to be made. This will allow for free-thinking and contribution and will help each member feel secure in sharing their ideas.

As the Team Leader, you are generally responsible for the day-to-day operations of the team. You schedule meeting times and agenda. In these review meetings, the task teams will report on their activities within the period against the program time schedule.

It is extremely important that you keep team members focused and on track. You must relate regularly with the task team members. Team leaders are also expected to report their teams’ progress to a manager or higher-up member of staff just to assure the organization’s leaders that they are on track.