It can be difficult to take a leadership role for the first time.
You will learn a lot by trusting your instincts, making mistakes, and most importantly, listening to your team. When I first hired a team of writers, I switched from being a one-person team to having six individuals on board. I always believed in the importance of creating a team, and I am glad that I was able to pull a team together from entirely different individuals.
I am going to share the 5 lessons I learned while listening to and empowering my team and myself as a new leader.
1. Management
You have many roles as a manager. This includes being a coach, educator, motivator, evaluator, and more. Some key responsibilities of managers include:
- Communicate the company’s vision and goals.
- Plan what needs to be done to achieve your goals.
- Organization of resources and team members.
- Employee training and skills assessment.
- Monitor team members to ensure that work is being performed in a timely manner to appropriate standards.
- Evaluate the performance of team members.
- Firing employees who do not meet expectations.
2. Delegation is a Key
You are no longer someone skipping tasks on your to-do list. You are now a leader and coach who must focus on helping others succeed. And this requires delegation of responsibilities.
It’s easy to get used to saying “I’ll just do it myself”, especially when faced with a task that you perform multiple times or a system that only you know. But you have to fight the urge to solve problems on your own. The more time you spend pre-teaching your subordinates how to solve a specific problem, the less time you spend on assignments later on.
By delegating authority, you can prove to your employees that you trust them to get the job done and that you value their contributions, which positively impacts morale.
Research shows that managers are primarily responsible for the level of employee engagement. He must provide employees with professional development opportunities and opportunities to learn new skills. Remember, if your team fails, you fail too.
3. Ask for feedback, even if it’s difficult
Feedback provides an opportunity to develop as a leader, and when feedback is taken seriously, it shows that the feelings of the team matter.
Taking feedback is scary, but these are the things that prevent us from being effective leaders, whether we do them or ignore them. By ignoring them, we remain puzzled and repeat the same mistakes. Take constructive feedback from your employees to identify areas for improvement. This will not only help you set your own goals but will also show them that you value their opinions and that you have the interests of the whole team.
4. Look for an inspiring mentor
You need to remember that someone else has been through all this before. One of the most important matters you may do is discover a mentor, a person with whom you may confidently talk about complicated or uncomfortable situations. If that is your boss, great. If not, find a person else in your agency who can serve in this capacity and guide you to solve rare issues.
5. Build trust and transparency
The transparency of the team certainly builds trust. When everything on the team is transparent, trust increases. Here’s what you can do:
- Give up the habit of blaming
Do not criticize. Support that person as a team. Instead of blaming, try these steps to find a solution. Don’t “set aside” the person who made the mistake. This can make him more vulnerable. Building self-confidence is all about the little things that make a big positive impact. Build trust in your team by sharing the good and the bad together.
- Don’t let your staff win
Use mistakes as opportunities. Learn “dos” and “don’ts”. Don’t look to your employees to win. Also, use your mistakes as opportunities to find the best. The next time your teammates make a mistake, learn from this lesson. Support them.
- Spend time with your teammates
Don’t run a team in the room only. Team dynamics is not about that. Spend time with your team. Chat with them. Give them time to listen. Ask the team how often they do it. Good socialization is essential to building trust in your team.
To Wrap It Up
- Strive to earn the trust of your team members.
- Encourage your team members to believe in their abilities.
- Get to know your team members.
- Listen actively and show your team that you value them.
- Always be loyal to your boss.
