Team Leaders – why is it a profession to be a team lead?
The answer is quite simple: If a project or the number of people involved gets big enough, each team member can’t keep oversight of all the subprojects, work packages, deadlines or responsibilities of each individual. Thus, it is a good idea to install a professional team lead with the special task of organizing the whole operation, giving instructions or advice to the team members and getting the tasks done.
Why and how do team leads influence the accomplishment of an IT project?
A good team lead will provide motivation, accountability and mentoring amongst the team members but there are other success factors as well. An effective team leader will be aware of the project’s end goal and has a plan on how to achieve this. He or she will also understand the role of each team member (including the team management itself), which is crucial for project coordination. Once this understanding is accomplished a good team lead will become aware of interdependencies within the project tasks and the team members. A productive, well-coordinated team is a keystone for the completion of any project because tasks can be achieved faster and more efficiently. If the coworkers see that everything runs like a well-oiled machine, their motivation will increase as well.
Which types of team management/IT leadership styles are there in general?
Modern science suggests that there are up to 10 different styles of leadership, which can be applied to IT projects but also management in general. According to a summary of the Norwich University, these 10 styles can be summarized as: Visionary, Coaching, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting, Autocratic, Commanding Laissez-faire, Bureaucratic and Servant. However, not all of these styles are equally suited for leading IT projects.
- For example, Autocratic and Commanding are usually connected to the military or old-fashioned businesses. They can be efficient but if they are applied inadequately, the team will get quickly dissatisfied with these leading strategies.
- The other leading styles focus on different approaches: Visionary is mostly used to introduce completely new concepts and required a strong connection between leader and team.
- Coaching is based on a deep knowledge of each team member’s strengths and weaknesses and enables people to develop their own experiences within the project.
- Affiliative leadership focuses on nurturing morale amongst the team members as well as team-building processes.
- If the management style is Democratic, the team has the possibility of actively being involved in important decision processes. Pacesetting requires standards and metrics that measure the performance of the team. This style should not be used in excess because it can also diminish the team’s working morale.
- The Laissez-faire style provides only minimal input from the team lead and should only be used with highly skilled and motivated teams and team members.
- The opposite of this is Bureaucratic leadership, which is based on strict regulations but highly efficient and easy to control.
- The Servant style treats the team members as the most important part of each project and can be easily coupled with some other form of team management. It motivates everybody involved in the project and aims at satisfying the needs of the team members.
Which characteristics of team leads are important for IT?
In addition to an understanding of the ultimate goal of the project and the knowledge of interdependencies that were mentioned before a good team leader should also be reliable and honest. The team manager should keep promises and admit when he or she doesn’t know something. It is better to be straightforward than to find out the lack of knowledge the hard way – by wasting everybody’s time and efforts! It is also no shame to ask questions to the team members and encourage them to ask questions and share their knowledge amongst the team and the leader. If the IT project is big and complex, break the tasks and work packages down into suitable pieces. This will also encourage the team members because they will get more victory moments by accomplishing more (smaller) tasks. Last but not least: Analyze not only the progress of the current IT project but also learn from other experiences and tasks, especially from the things that went wrong and try to avoid the same errors in the future. This will help plan ahead and establish best practices, which, in turn, will enhance the success rate of the ongoing project.
How to find your way in leading an IT crew?
A new IT team leader might often worry about the right way to do the job or be afraid of making mistakes. The fact is that mistakes can and will happen but they are not the end of the world. Some bigger issues should be kept in mind when taking over a new IT team lead. One of the most important aspects is communication, so, if a team leader is new he or she should always communicate more than the bare minimum, even if the information seems to be not so relevant. This includes asking questions to the team members. The more the team leader knows, the quicker and smarter the decision-making will be. Asking questions also signals the willingness to learn and makes the team leader appear open-minded and respectful. The rest is showing appreciation for the team’s work and leading by example. These simple guidelines will help any new team leader to succeed with the tasks at hand and motivate the entire team.
