Have you ever imagined becoming a manager at your firm, leading right from the front? Being the captain of your ship, leading, motivating, and organizing the crew to move past the wild oceans.   

We have all fantasized about climbing up the hierarchy ladder to become the team leader, haven’t we? But is it all glitters as it seems? 

Imagine supervising a bunch of people from varying departments and being responsible for their work, communicating with them, motivating them to give their best, and being accountable for their career development. Does it feel like a nightmare already? Without the essential skill set, managing a group of people from different backgrounds can surely be the most daunting task of your life.  

Some very important questions that an aspiring team leader might ask are: 

What are the essential skills to become an effective team manager?

Why is team management so important?

Where can I learn the skills necessary to become a team manager?

Let us help you learn everything you need to know about effective team management and some of its essential components, such as the importance of employee feedback.

Importance of Team Management

All organizations, whether public or private, need a set of people working towards achieving a common goal. Team management is not only integral to getting things done on time; it also plays a pivotal role in problem-solving, risk assessment and mitigation, and conflict resolution – all important factors to help reach company goals. 

You might still be able to complete a task without effective management if it’s your lucky day, but there’s a fair chance you end up in a total mess. Anyone with the slightest experience in management would vouch for the fact that in a corporate environment the slightest errors between team members can make things go awry. 

Managing a team effectively not only improves productivity but fosters employee engagement. Companies with a higher level of engagement have a 22% higher productivity. By interacting with team members, getting to know their personalities, and utilizing their skill sets to achieve set targets, a manager can not only make the process enjoyable but also achieve team targets and goals more effectively. 

Effective Team Management Strategies

In the pre-Covid era, a typical work day of a manager consisted of walking up to each member’s desk and assigning them tasks. The manager would then have to ask for updates at regular intervals. Now that we think about it, this process was a pretty ineffective way of achieving targets. 

To accomplish company targets in a timely manner, you need to have a well-crafted strategy in place.

However, there is no “fit for all” strategy. Every team is unique with different goals, targets, and a varying number of team members. A team leader in a multinational organization might supervise a team of 60, while someone working at a startup can only be looking over 3-4 members.

Regardless of the differences in scope and scale of an organization, your goal as a leader is to keep the team motivated to get things done within the set timeframe. You don’t need a complex plan – a simple project management software defining tasks and a roadmap detailing the team’s course of action over a period of time can get the job done. 

Here are a few steps that can lead to an effective management strategy:

Team Development  

Organizing regular training and development sessions for your team members can help enhance their skillset and motivation levels. Constant career development is critical for employee motivation and retention.

Effective Communication

Communication of goals, strategies and problems with team members is essential. It opens doors for innovative ideas and makes team members feel inclusive in decision-making. This way, employees feel comfortable communicating with the management which builds an overall healthy working environment. Arranging regular brainstorming sessions with the team members also leads to effective communication.     

Rewarding team members

Nothing boosts up the motivation level of a team member more than appreciation based on performance. You cannot expect employees to be working days and nights to achieve the organizational targets until and unless there is something in it for them. Rewards such as certificates, increments and bonuses could help boost the performance of team members. 

What is the Modern Way of Giving Feedback?

Not long ago, feedback used to be a nightmare for employees. Traditional politically run management and outdated feedback practices would dangle the confidence of employees. 

Modern-day organizations have realized that constructive feedback is one of the best tools for enhancing employee engagement. Leapsome’s examples of employee feedback also explain how to communicate with team members and share feedback frequently. 

Giving feedback is a two-way process where the team leader and peers review each other to help curb toxic practices and appreciate exemplary performance and habits. The process can help develop a harmonious, healthy working environment and foster growth – both individually and collectively. 

Regular growth-oriented constructive feedback enables team members to work on their shortcomings and become more productive members of the team. An employee feedback system becomes the base of rewarding the members by deciding on bonuses and pay raises.

5 Benefits of Employee Feedback

Companies should strive to make the employees feel comfortable sharing, listening, and asking for feedback. Having regular performance reports makes it easier to manage teams and in this way each individual can focus on how to become a better version of themselves. Let’s discuss the many perks of having an employee feedback system.  

Improved Performance 

Feedback is vital in increasing organizational performance. Giving and receiving feedback at regular intervals gives managers insights about the teams’ abilities and also learn what employees feel about their superiors and peers. Consequently, everyone can make better judgments, perform better, and excel in their roles. 

Conflict Resolution 

The last thing you would want to face as a team leader would be a conflict between team members. Well! There is a way to escape this chaotic situation even before it takes place. 

Issues tend to escalate when kept inside and are not spoken about. Employee feedback provides a platform for addressing these issues at the most initial level. It creates an open environment where team members feel free to discuss misunderstandings and issues with their colleagues via the feedback channel. This way the team leader has a better chance of ensuring peace and harmony within the team.    

So now, if an employee needs to tell his team member to speak low on the phone call during office hours, he won’t burst out; instead, he can mention it anonymously in the employee feedback. Any internal conflict can be resolved in an effective manner. 

Professional Development

Your team members are your biggest asset within any organization. That’s why it is crucial to consider that each of them has a unique set of skills and strengths. Therefore, you might need to reconsider choosing a uniform evaluation model. 

To ignite the sparks of professional development, encourage employees to take a stand if they feel something is not right. Ultimately the goal is that the manager should not always be the one always initiating things.

This way of working essentially empowers your workforce to enhanced levels of productivity and motivation. And as a bonus, your HR team will get to relax a bit too.

Enhanced Employee Engagement 

The strong correlation between employee feedback and employee engagement is undeniable. 

Employee feedback is not meant to be a death trap for employees. It should be about figuring out and celebrating the small successes of fellow team members. 

Such practices help motivate team members to become more productive, actively engage in team activities, and be more open with the management, thus, creating a lively working environment.

Giving back to your employees

Most people genuinely appreciate timely and structured feedback, which is why utter disappointment befalls them when they do not obtain desirable results? For starters, feedback is time-consuming, and constructing objective evaluation results is certainly not easy.

That’s where you can bring real change. If your focus is wellbeing of the employees, you can efficiently utilize resources and adapt to functional processes that allow seamless feedback exchange across all levels of the organization.  

You are now ready to become a team leader captain when you become well versed in why team management is essential for organizations and understand how employee feedback is a crucial component of team management. In short, having an employee feedback system can transcend  your organization to newer heights and develop a motivated workforce that is ready to take on the world.

Author Bio:

Osama is a technology content strategist who is passionate about content marketing and all things SEO. He has helped various companies in ranking their content on the first page of SERPs. In his free time, Osama loves to play football and travel.