Being a Team Leader

The first skill successful leaders need is to be able to select the best people to work with them. Your job will be vastly easier if you have built up a group of people around you whose skills and natural abilities complement each other (a diverse group of people).

Once you have assembled your working group, you need to turn it into a team. The people involved have to be made to feel a strong identity with the group in order for it to become a team. And that is the job of a leader. Use all your leadership tools, such as coaching, counselling, mentoring, tutoring and concentrating on improving performance. Show commitment, loyalty, pride and trust in your team. Leadership shows itself in the inspired action of team members. Traditionally, organisations have assessed leaders by their actions and behaviours. But, the best way to assess a leader would be to assess the leadership by the degree to which people around the leaders are inspired. It is that inspiration that leads an organisation to success.

Perhaps the most vital leadership function of all is to be able to generate that elusive ingredient: team spirit.