How to Lead a Team Effectively: 9 Best Practices

What's the one thing that every good leader has in common? Someone willing to follow them. Of course, not all leaders are the same. But what makes some leaders more impactful than others? Relying on “Just do what I say" isn't an effective approach for how to lead a team anymore, even if you have a lofty title. A good leader can have a powerful impact on businesses, teams, and individual people – all while increasing productivity, performance, and workplace satisfaction for employees.

So, how do you lead a team and keep it happy? To help answer that question, a variety of experienced leadership coaches and business leaders offer their tips on how you can lead your team more effectively.

9 Ways to Lead Teams More Effectively

1. Encourage Collaboration Across People, Teams, and Departments

The role of a leader is to encourage the team to collaborate and get the work done, says Jennifer Hancock, a leadership coach and Founder of Humanist Learning Systems in Manatee County, Florida.

“If you are not oriented to being of service to your team, you won't be leading them," she says. “Leaders encourage, enable and support. They serve their team—not the other way around." Hancock also says that a key part of how to lead people is stepping in to make decisions when the team is having trouble reaching consensus. A leader acts as a tie breaker for the team, so the team can keep moving forward.

The potential benefits of cross team collaboration are many, including increased motivation, trust, transparency and a better sense of responsibility.

2. Listen to your Employees and Embrace Feedback

Actively listening to your employees can make them feel valued and engaged – in turn creating a much more cohesive company culture. “Employees want their voices to be heard and it's more important than ever to have your finger on the pulse of your company as a leader," says Alex Onaindia, CEO of Distinction Agency, a marketing agency in Miami. “Some of the best ideas are ones you never think of and it's important to foster a culture of open communication and transparency. I'm a firm believer that no idea from anyone on my team is a bad idea."

Create a Culture of Two Directional Feedback

Part of being a good leader is creating space to hear your team. Create opportunities to help employees feel valued by:

• Having one-on-one conversations. Ask about your management style and how they feel at the company. Employees may be hesitant at first, but if you foster an open-door policy, you’ll produce a more creative, productive team. 
• Hosting brainstorming sessions. Involve your employees and democratize the knowledge-creation process. This helps to create a level playing field that allows employees to grow comfortable with giving honest feedback in other areas.
• Noting employee advice, and acting on good ideas. Give employees credit and follow through with their suggestions. If you take good ideas and don’t follow through, you’ll damage the relationship. 

3. Set an Organizational Vision and Communicate the "Big Picture"

Great leaders set a clear vision and goals for their teams and constantly reinforce them. “Setting a clear vision provides teams an understanding of why their work is valuable," says Carlos Castelán, Managing Director of The Navio Group, a retail business management consulting firm in Minneapolis that works with senior leaders. “Clear goals help individuals focus on work—and have autonomy—in pursuit of the company's vision. Reinforcing the vision and goals helps employees remember how their work helps others and makes them feel a part of the larger team."

“Employees want their voices to be heard and it's more important than ever to have your finger on the pulse of your company as a leader."  Alex Onaindia, CEO of Distinction Agency.

Make sure your leadership vision is strong by ensuring it's specific, measurable, and oriented around a specific goal. Checking in on your business development strategy to see if there are any ways you can give it a boost can be a good idea too.

4. Admit Your Flaws and Increase Transparency

Leaders can get so caught up in the politics of their organizations and in managing appearances, they can forget that what people respond to is not perfection, but sincerity and honesty, says Dr. Aaron Barth, founder and president of Dialectic, an HR and leadership consulting firm in Guelph, Ontario. “Actively cultivating an environment where people can try, fail, and try again drives better problem-solving, innovation, and creativity," he says. “And that starts with you, the leader, making your missteps visible to your team."

Leading by example and with transparency helps to build trust within your team, and the wider organization as a whole. Ten years ago, employees may not have questioned a management decision made in secrecy, but today employees expect their leaders to be transparent. It’s no longer enough to  announce decisions and give orders – employees want to know why and how. But this doesn't mean blurting out whatever comes to mind; it's about understanding the benefits of honesty and communication in your business.

5. Build Relationships to Cultivate Happiness

Building a good company culture, as well as strong relationships inside the organization, from day one, can be especially important for leaders. “In the first six months, this may include spending half of your time meeting with various team members and managers or traveling to other locations within the organization," says Paul Maranville, Managing Partner of Lantern Partners, an executive recruiting firm in Chicago. “This will immediately position you as a visible, approachable team player. In turn, you will build credibility within the organization and become a go-to, trusted leader for your niche in the organization."

Building real relationships within your team can pay dividends in the long term for productivity, culture, and turnover.

Ways to Build Relationships With Employees

• Be empathetic. If an employee is facing challenges and having a hard time managing them, offer a helping hand to support them.
• Show appreciation. They dedicate a lot of time and effort to your business's growth. Pat their backs and let them know how much you value their work – but do it honestly and not just for the sake of it.
• Implement autonomy. Nobody appreciates not being given enough space to complete their tasks. Autonomy in the workplace has been shown to increase job satisfaction too.

6. Emphasize Individual Development

To be a great leader, you also need to coach your team in a way that helps align their individual goals with those of the team or organization. “A leader using this style is empathic and encouraging, and focuses on developing others for future success," says Madineyah Isaacs, a life and leadership coach based in New York City. This may mean having in-depth conversations with colleagues that may have little to do with current work, but the aim is to instead focus on long-term life goals and how these connect with the group's mission.

7. Compliment Your Team Often

Finding time to praise the work and effort of your team can go a long way—especially when it comes to giving them credit you might have taken for yourself. In fact, compliments and positive feedback can help to improve your team's communication and motivation.

“A true leader is comfortable and at ease and realizes that acknowledging someone else's efforts takes nothing away," says Angela Civitella, founder and CEO of INTINDE, a leadership business coaching firm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

8. Keep Your Promises

If you're looking to motivate team members, it can be tempting to start making promises related to things such as salaries, bonuses or career growth opportunities, says Andrea Angelucci, Manager of COMPASS Services at Mazzitti & Sullivan EAP in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “But if you can't deliver, these empty promises will only serve to break the trust between you and your direct reports," she says. “Only make promises when you know you can deliver on them."

9. Stoke Your Team's Energy

With every project, there are peaks and valleys in everyone's workload. That's why effective leaders must manage a team's energy across different settings, says Juliana Stancampiano, CEO of Oxygen, a Seattle-based organization specializing in workplace education and enablement. “Leaders create and maintain a space where teammates can show up, share their thoughts, disagree, and figure out a way forward," she says. "They de-escalate energy when it rises, allow it to get intense if that is needed, and always bring it back to a place of productive energy. This is critical if you don't want to burn out your people, and yet enable your team to give consistent high performance."

It's also important to identify individual team members' unique energy, talents, and passions. If you can go on to harness that energy cohesively as a team this can help to build on efficiency, trust, and buy-in.

Effectively Leading Teams is an Art

Becoming a more effective leader is certainly more of an art than a science. Oftentimes, it can mean adapting to the team you have or the circumstances at hand. But if you begin with these nine tips in, your journey to becoming a more effective leader will be well underway.

Photo: Getty Images

A version of this article was originally published on November 19, 2019.