Effective leadership for team development. Leading a team and striving for its continuous development should be the DNA of every manager, regardless of their tenure and experience. The time has come for the next publication in the promised series on “Employee Development” from last week.
Table of Contents
ToggleThe Importance of Managerial Skills
Today, a few words about the skills of managers that enable them not only to be effective in business but also to take care of the development of their teams. Have you ever met a leader who, when asked about their ideas and strategy for the development of their team and the goals they want to achieve, responds: “I don’t know, I’ve never thought about it”? I’ve met several managers like that, and even… I used to be one of them!
The Pitfalls of Results-Driven Management
At the beginning of my journey as a manager, I wasn’t particularly concerned with the development of my people – results were the most important area for me, and my team was supposed to help me achieve them. On a daily basis, I liked to have control over how my people worked, meticulously held them accountable for the least significant parameters of their work, and my “planning” extended to the end of the current month. And so every month.
Navigating the Crisis: Lessons Learned
For a while, such a “strategy” worked – the results were indeed at a high level. Soon, what seemed to be a well-oiled machine stopped working – results started to decline, absenteeism appeared in the team, and there was higher turnover than before. How did I avert this crisis? I was fortunate to have inspiring and supportive bosses.
Transformation Towards Supportive Leadership
Thanks to their help and providing the freedom to find my own way, I learned to:
- Get to know each person in my team first and foremost as a human being, not just as an employee.
- Accurately diagnose the strengths and development potential of my people.
- Ask about their own vision of their development.
- Check how I could support them in pursuing their goal and how to embed it in business realities.
- TRUST, abandon prohibitions and commands, and share decision-making with the team.
- Encourage the team to be independent and take on increasingly ambitious tasks and provide support if the team needs it.
The Link Between Managerial Skills and Team Development
Effective leadership for team development. Thanks to the transformation – from a manager who accounts to a supporting one, when I started working with other managers, using my own practices and experiences, I could encourage others to find their own path to success. So, would you agree that team development is associated with the manager’s planning skills, openness to people, and partially giving them decision-making power?
I am an effective manager with 17 years of experience in sales management, and customer service, and the practical ability to optimize processes and introduce employee changes. I prioritize sustainable business development by building and cooperating with a team of motivated and committed professionals who identify with the highest work standards.
