How to Lead Your Team Effectively: 3 Foundational Skills You Need to Master

So you’ve landed your first role as a manager, congrats!

But now you need to actually lead your team…only no one showed you how to do that.

Well in my humble opinion, there are 3 foundational skills you need to master to lead your team effectively.

Clear Expectations

Good Communication

Solid Relationships

Sounds simple enough, right? Well yes, but also no.

While there are maaany skills and factors that go into leading a team effectively, like trust, leading by example, providing feedback, celebrating wins and effort, etc. these are all built on the foundation of clear expectations, good communication, and solid relationships.

You don’t lead with a fancy title. You don’t lead with lots of meetings. And you certainly don’t lead with dictator tendencies.

In this post we are laying the foundation of how to lead a team effectively and starting with the basics (in no particular order).

1. Set Clear Expectations

Clarity is power when it comes to leading your team effectively. You need to be crystal clear with your expectations.

This goes for both you and them. They need to know what you expect from them and what they can expect from you.

There are a number of things that can get in the way or pull focus from you and your team completing your goals. Sometimes they’re obvious (like a chatty coworker or tech issues) and sometimes they’re sneaky (like multi-tasking or meetings). So, it’s super important your team knows exactly what’s expected of them (and what’s not) to hit the ground running.

How do you do this?

• Ensure you have very clear direction and expectations from your manager as to what is expected of you and what is expected of your new team.
• Clearly outline specific responsibilities, goals, deliverables, and deadlines. This could be standing daily, weekly, monthly responsibilities or this could be project-based goals.
• Check in regularly to ensure everyone’s on the same page. This could be through one-on-one meetings, casual check-ins, or team meetings (if necessary).
• Repeat your expectations when necessary (hint: it’s almost always necessary).

What does this sound like?

“Hey team, so we’re all on the same page, here’s what success looks like for this project: We need X by Friday, and Y by next week. Let’s touch base midweek to make sure we’re on track!”

or

“Today we need to focus on X. For the time being we can put other tasks, including Y on the backburner.”

2. Get to Know Your Team

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…your relationships with your team are essential to being an effective leader.

To lead a team as a new manager, you need trust, collaboration, buy-in, teamwork, open lines of communication…I could go on and on. And while you may be able to have these things without a solid relationship (maybe), your team won’t be performing optimally or to their full potential. When you have solid relationships with your team trust is better, communication is enhanced, teamwork is improved, and it’s far easier to get buy-in.

How do you do this?

• Ensure you are having regular one-on-one meetings to learn about your team’s individual strengths, goals, and challenges as well as exactly what they need from in terms of support and resources.
• Create an environment where open conversations and feedback happen daily. Not sure how? Grab this guide on 8 ways to improve communication with your team.
• Don’t be afraid to get personal! Getting to know your team on a personal level is absolutely okay. Knowing their favourite sports team, what they’re currently binging, or what going on with their family will help you build rapport and ultimately lead to more meaningful conversations where you can form a strong working relationship.

3. Communication is Key!

Your ability to communicate will 100% make or break your ability to lead a team effectively.

Think about just the first two points I made in this post, setting clear expectations and building relationships. Could you do either of those successfully without good communication? Nope! And those are pretty substantial to leading a team.

When it comes to leading your team, communication will help you keep your team on track, intervene early if needed, provide feedback and praise, and no surprises here…set expectations.

How do you do this?

• See points one (clear expectations) and two (build relationships) in this post.
• Be aware and avoid these common communication mistakes.
• When you are having your one-on-one meetings, having check-ins, or just generally interacting with your team, practice active listening.
• Establish a culture of two-way feedback and encourage your team to speak up about ideas, challenges, or feedback without fear of judgment.
• Create well-established lines of communication like an open-door policy (or other means of communication like slack or teams).

Leading a team doesn’t have to be complicated, but like any other skill this does take practice, consistency, and constant improvement.

If you consistently set clear expectations, nurture your relationships, and focus on good communication, you can build and lead a very successful team.

What challenges have you come up against as a new manager leading your team? Can any of them be fixed with a little extra attention to expectations, relationships, or communication?

Let me know in the comments!

Happy Leading!

Emily