If you want to turn from just a manager of your team to a leader who inspires their team and leads them to success, you will need more than tools and technical knowledge. You will need skill in dealing with people and motivating them. You can save all the procedures, get the best certificates, be an expert in the field of work, and know all the technical tools. However, if you cannot properly manage human relationships and interactions, you will not succeed in leading a team.
This article will help you learn how to be a successful team leader and not just a manager.
Difference between Manager and Successful Leader:
Some confuse the concept of leadership and management, but the fact is that a good leader is not necessarily a successful manager, and a good manager may not necessarily be a successful leader. As a result, there are several fundamental differences between leadership qualities and managerial abilities.
1. Personal Differences:
Team Manager:
When you run a team, you have to focus on providing resources, staff, structures, and setting goals, so you should have a problem solving mindset, adjust everything, and be rational. Characteristics of a successful manager include intelligence, analytical skills, strong will, and perseverance.
Team Leader:
A successful team leader inspires and motivates teammates, charismatic personality, passion, creativity, and imagination, and a successful leader is not afraid of taking risks to achieve their goals and vision.
2. Functional differences:
Team Manager:
The manager's job is to design working methods, build policies and working strategies that will shape the working mechanisms of the team, and generate ideas that will enable this team to operate smoothly.
Team Leader:
The job of the team leader is to find solutions to the problems facing the team. The leader uses their commitment, charismatic appeal, and personality to motivate and energize team members and encourage them to excel, grow, and solve problems.
3. Differences in working methods:
Team Manager:
Team leader avoids taking risks to achieve goals. They are usually methodical and practical, and do not manage their team with passion.
Team Leader:
Leaders do not hesitate to take risky paths if they see that they will achieve their goals and visions. They base their business strategies on ideas and long-term goals and not on ready-made business policies. They influence the way others think by their passion and dedication, and they have the ability to convince others of their visions and make others follow and fulfill them.
4. Differences in perception:
Team Manager:
Managers can be described as the brains of the organization or institution. Their main task is to design work procedures and rules and to set up systems and incentive programs.
Management is about working efficiently, and employees are just tools to achieve those goals.
Team Leader:
Leaders are the heart of the company. Leaders are expected to control, motivate, inspire, and guide team members to transform employees from individuals working together into a harmonic and cohesive work team that seeks to achieve a common goal. A leader's job is to ensure that there is a strong relationship between their team members and to get them moving forward and promote team morale.
5. Differences in skills and expectations:
Team Manager:
Technically, the business manager does not have to be the best on the team. For example, if you are the manager of a developer team, you may be a good developer, but your primary responsibility is management and coordination, not technical decision making.
Team Leader:
The Team Leader is supposed to be the best in the business compared to other employees. If you lead a team of developers, you are supposed to be the best developer on the team, and team members should respect your abilities and opinions.
Characteristics of Successful Leaders:
1. A successful leader is a role model for others:
You should set an example for team members, both personally and professionally, and earn their respect, otherwise you will not succeed in convincing them to follow you.
Team members should feel that you are one of them. Some confuse leadership with chiefship. The boss puts themselves above their subordinates, while the leader is closely united with the people they lead. For example, you may think that as a team leader, you are free from tasks you don't like to do. For example, if your team members are taking turns cleaning, make sure you share this with them, as this will not reduce your position; on the contrary, this will make them love and respect you, and you will be a good example for them.
2. Be a strong personality:
People don't follow the weak. You should be strong in personality, and strength of character here does not mean cruelty or nervousness, but strength of character means being reliable, honest and fair with everyone. your employees trust that you do not base your decisions on personal fancy or whims, and that you are not affected by the trivial things that happen in the office, such as rumors, gossip, and other things that affect the weak personality.
As a team leader, you will sometimes have to take disciplinary action against an employee, even if that employee is a friend of yours. You should be strict, team members should respect your authority, and know that the work they do is serious and not funny.
3. Be stubborn in your vision and Flexible in the details:
It is said that leaders are stubborn by nature. They do not compromise when it comes to the vision and the big goals they aspire to, but they are flexible and open to new ideas and opinions regarding the details and methods of work, and they do not feel bad about reviewing themselves and changing the way they work if they see it as impassable.
A successful leader is the one who knows how to differentiate between the things that he/she should be stubborn and stick to his/her opinion and ideas, and the things that he/she should be open to change and opposing opinions. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, says, "If you're not stubborn, you'll soon give up experimentation and innovation". "If you are not flexible, you will hit your head against the wall, and you will not see another solution to the problem you are trying to solve."
4. A successful leader trusts himself and others:
A successful leader trusts his/her abilities, as well as capabilities of his/her team members. and makes the members of the work team trust in him/her, and trust in their ability to achieve the desired goals.
If team members feel that their leader is not confident in his/her abilities or the capabilities of his/her team, this will reflect negatively on their morale, and doubt will penetrate into themselves, and this will affect their productivity and commitment.
5. A successful leader is responsible:
A true leader takes responsibility, and doesn't look for excuses to run away from it. Mistakes will happen at work, which is inevitable, either from you or from some of your employees. Don't be the type to blame employees for team problems. Be honest with yourself and with the people who work with you, and be prepared to take responsibility for mistakes made, rather than looking for a scapegoat.
It is also essential to make it clear to your team that any success or failure should be shared by the group as a whole. If you are the type of person who attributes to himself the successes of the team, and blames others on the team's failures, you will fall into the eyes of your employees, they will not respect you and they will not trust you.
6. A successful leader has a vision:
If you want to lead your team, you first need to know where to lead them. You should have a clear vision, because the vision is the basis on which you will build all your decisions and plans. From designing business strategies to hiring.
The vision should be clear and realistic, otherwise you will not succeed in convincing your team of it.
How to be a successful leader?
These are some of the behaviors and skills that characterize successful leaders:
1. Respect company policy:
As a team leader, you undoubtedly have your own vision and approaches to work, and these approaches may not always be harmonic with company policy, and you may see that company policy obstruct your vision, and this may lead you to tolerate or possibly violate it. This is a mistake. Company policies, which are usually set up at the top of the hierarchy in the company, should be a red line, because as a team leader, your team members look at you as a role model, follow you, and if they see that you are underestimating company policies, don't expect your team members to respect them.
If you feel that there is a gap in the company's policy, or that there is a better alternative, you should go directly to your superior and offer to develop the company's policies.
2. Consult with your team:
Respect the ideas and opinions of team members, and don't underestimate them. Try to see things from their point of view. It will enrich your perspective, and you will learn new things. Even if their ideas add nothing to you, just listening to them is a sign of respect and appreciation, something that all people aspire to.
A person who is closed to his/her opinions, who listens only to his/her voice cannot be a successful leader. Consult your team, listen to them, and even if you don't benefit from their opinions, you have nothing to lose.
3. Learn how to lead change:
All companies face change at some point, especially startups. Times of change are times of confusion and confusion for employees, so you should know how to deal with change, and how to lead your employees through it.
The leader should know how to manage change. and how to explain and justify it for his/her employees. Make sure that each team member understands how the change will affect them, and what is required for them to make the change work.
4. Ability to communicate:
To become a successful leader, you need to master the art of communication. You should know how to communicate your vision to team members in a convincing and attractive way.
Your team members can't read your thoughts, if you don't know how to communicate your vision, ideas and goals, don't expect them to follow you, so you should be in constant contact with team members, whether collectively, or individually.
5. Organization and planning skills:
Successful leaders have exceptional organizational and planning skills. Organizational skills help the team leader to plan goals and strategies that enable to achieve maximum results and optimize the potential of team members.
It is the responsibility of the Team Leader to guide Team Members towards achieving the Company's goals. You have to draw the course of action, from meetings to work schedules, you will need to know everything that is going on in the company, and you must distribute tasks according to the capabilities of each employee, and this requires skill in organization and planning.
6. Help Team Members Develop:
Invest in educating your employees, helping them develop and grow, whether through training programs, or by attending seminars and scientific conferences in the field in which they work.
A successful leader is one whose employees develop on his/her hands, giving them the necessary experience and knowledge to advance in their career, and to add value to you, the team, and the company.
7. The Art of Delegation:
If you have to monopolize the powers and authorities for yourself, and you have to supervise every small and large matter, this is an indication that you have not succeeded in leading your team.
A successful leader knows how to share his/her powers and authorities with his/her team by delegation. Delegating some tasks to trusted team members allows the leader to focus on important matters, improving workplace functionality and conditions and production. It also gives the delegated employees self-confidence and enhances their experience and knowledge.
8. Learn how to negotiate:
Team leaders use negotiation skills to bring perspectives closer and Solve sudden conflicts in the workplace.
The ability to negotiate enables the team leader to simplify the decision-making process, In addition to solving the problems faced by the team or company according to the best interest of all concerned.
9. Encourage innovation and entrepreneurship:
Perhaps the biggest difference that distinguishes a team leader from a manager is innovation and entrepreneurship. While the Team Manager expects his/her team members to accomplish their assigned tasks as they are, the leader is innovative by nature, encouraging his/her employees to innovate, renewal and to have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Encourage your team to come up with new ideas, look for innovative methods to improve the way they work, and give them the freedom to experiment and innovate.
10. Appreciate your employees:
If employees feel that they are appreciated for their efforts, this will motivate them to make more effort and Giving, and this will enhance their behavior positively,
People are instinctive to do the right thing. This means that you will be more successful in leading your team if you focus on using positive reinforcement Instead of negative actions like threats and intimidation.
11. Respect others:
You should treat the members of the work team with respect, and do not offend or insult them, and if one of them makes a mistake, do not blame him in front of other employees, and take him alone, and talk to him in private about his mistake, and save his face in front of his colleagues.
A successful leader respects his/her employees, values their opinions, and gives them the opportunity to share their ideas and participate in making decisions that affect them. This will have a positive impact on employees, and they will be more responsive and obedience at work.
12. Admit your mistakes when you are wrong:
Like all human beings, you are wrong, you are not perfect, you are not always right, and you will make mistakes sooner or later. Instead of denying those mistakes, admit them and learn from them, it will raise you in the eyes of your employees, and you will set an example for them in taking responsibility.
Be honest and humble, admit your mistakes, don't look for scapegoats, apologize to those affected if one of your employees gets hurt, and work to avoid repeating those mistakes. This will earn you the respect of the people you work with.
Conclusion:
I hope you have benefited from this article, and learned the difference between management and leadership. As a result, remember that leadership is not acquired overnight. It is a long path of work, learning and development. There are a lot of successful managers, in all areas of business, but inspiring leaders are a rare currency,
Be the leader you and your team members want to be.
Add comment