What Makes A Good Team Leader And Why Do We Need Them?

A team leader is an integral part of any business and there are many traits that will make a good one. Click here to find out what you should be looking for.

If you own a small business, then you should be aware how difficult the first three years are going to be. In this way, it is important that you choose a team leader to guide employees through both the successful and unsuccessful periods.

But how do you find out who should be leading your team? Well, there are many traits you should be looking for. Before we get into them, let’s take a look at what a team leader should do and why they are so important.

Motivation, Guidance, Engagement

In most businesses, team leaders are there to motivate and guide a team of employees. They will have an overview of a group of people, they will monitor their work rate and provide a sense of direction that the whole team can get behind.

The reason this is important is because all teams need a sense of leadership. Good leadership means better productivity, communication and overall bottom line profit. A good leader can also incite employee engagement which is integral to a company’s success.

For B2B organisations, specifically, it is important that all employees are actively engaged and well prepared to liaise with clients. In this way, they should be well in-tune with their needs and the company as a whole. An employee engagement programme is essential in assuring this, but your team leader will also have a strong hand in determining how engaged employees remain throughout the working day. Here’s a few examples, then, of what you should be looking for:

A Team Leader Should Lead Themselves

Firstly, it is important that your team leader has a hand on their own work and priorities before taking on a role like this. They need to know themselves and their own abilities just as much as they should know others.

Think of a team leader like a sports club captain. Yes, they have to delegate and regulate the work of their teammates, but when push comes to shove they have to be capable and excel in their own position too. Your team leader should excel in their field and lead themselves before they lead others. Only then will they be able to be fully confident in the ways to lead a team, as they have learnt through leading themselves.

A Team Leader Should Connect Emotionally With Employees

There is always a balancing act which goes on between team leaders and employees. While it is important to find someone who is not afraid to assert themselves, it is also integral to find someone on the same wavelength of the employees they are leading.

You are not looking for a boss, but rather someone who can connect emotionally with their team and understand each employee’s priorities. It is integral to remember the “team” in “team leader”. Everyone should be on the same wavelength and empathetic with one another, including the team leader themselves.

A Team Leader Should Be Transparent And Honest

Just as a B2B business needs to be transparent with existing and new customers, it is also important that there is transparency between a team leader and employees. A team base needs to believe in what they are doing and understand where they might be going wrong. Every fact and every figure should be communicated efficiently, so that the employees know where the company is at and how they can push it forward.

You need to find someone who can not only provide that transparency, but communicate it in an efficient and simple way. The communication, too, should be educational, motivating and purposeful in order to get the best results possible going forward.