Ten Teambuilding Tips for New People Leaders

If you only do a couple, you’ll be miles ahead of most leaders

Monday Morning Manager Series #45

Many people get promoted to a people leader role without any training.

One minute you’re a team member. The next, you’re a leader with all the expectations & responsibilities that go with it.

Rather than being responsible for yourself, you must onboard, train, motivate, and inspire your new team.

You’ll get kudos if they do well, but you’ll also have to answer for any significant mistakes & bad behavior.

I’ve seen many new leaders struggle.

If you’ve got a promotion because you are brilliant at your old role and can’t work out why leading people is so hard, read on.

Leadership skills and team building are a whole different skill set.

Here are ten quick leadership tips to help you flourish in your new role as a people leader.

NB: I’ve put in links to detailed articles about each topic so you can learn more where you need to. If you’d like a free teambuilding skills self-assessment tool as well as my free weekly leadership & training newsletter, Click here.

1. Hold frequent one-to-ones with your team

Every two weeks is OK, but weekly is best. Talk about how your team member is doing, their progress with their goals, and anything getting in their way.

One-to-ones are your team building secret weapon. You can cover all the things that lead to high engagement, such as listening, treating your team as a whole person, developing & training them, and listening to their ideas.

2. Listen to your team

A leader must be a good listener; your team will know if you are faking it.

Listening properly takes effort:

• Don’t interrupt
• Don’t think about what you want to say next
• Concentrate fully on the speaker
• Repeat back what you have heard to check your understanding

3. Provide regular feedback to your team

If you don’t give good and bad feedback, how will your team know what they are doing right?

When giving feedback:

• Talk about the issue, not the person
• Say why the behavior needs to change and the impact if it doesn’t
• Discuss what could be done instead of the undesirable behavior
• Ask for input from your team member
• Agree on a timeframe and a plan

4. Develop & train your team

If you want a high-performing team, one way to get there is to take a hands-on approach to development.

Most people wait for their line manager to take the initiative with training. If you design a development plan for your team, you’ll be head and shoulders above other leaders.

5. Be available

Good leaders lead. And that means being visible and available.

If you are always behind closed doors, hard to get hold of, and unwilling to help your team with their queries and concerns, you’ll find it hard to build a high-performing team.

6. Set clear goals & objectives

Goal setting is easy when you get down to basics.

All you do is meet with your team member and tell them what must be done, by when, and to what standard.

Often business speak like “Performance Appraisals,” “KPIs,” and “SMART Goals” confuses new leaders when it simply means talking to your team about their duties.

7. Listen to your team’s ideas

Whenever I’ve managed organizational engagement surveys, one of the questions is, “Does my manager listen to and value my ideas for improvement?”

Sadly, the answer is not always positive.

If your team is any good, and I’m assuming they are, they want to contribute.

Use one-to-ones, team, and project meetings to ask your team about their ideas.

8. Monitor team engagement

Team engagement measures how strongly your team likes their role, their intention to stay, and how much discretionary effort they are willing to put in.

It’s an important number to know.

Why not ask each team member to rate how happy they are from one to ten?

You could always do a quick engagement survey in a 30-minute team meeting.

9. Be honest

To build trust with your team it’s important to be honest. They will spot Bullsh*t a mile off.

So always tell the truth as best you can without revealing confidential information.

If you can’t grant a request, be honest about it.

When something is not for public consumption, let them know you’ll update them as soon as you can.

10. Check in on your team’s well-being

The post-covid world is awash with stressed employees and burnout, so keep an eye on your team.

If you are worried or see their behavior change in any way, ask them what is going on.

It could be issues at home or about money, in which case you can refer them to your EAP provider.

Burnout is becoming more common due to overwork, stress, and toxic workplace cultures.

Summary

Learning to be a good leader and how to build a high-performing team isn’t something that happens overnight.

The above ten tips aren’t all you need to know to be a great leader, but they are a good start.

Take the time to learn, bit by bit, and you’ll succeed.

Team building isn’t rocket science, but it does involve a big effort in terms of looking after your people.

To get free weekly tips about leadership, training, time-management & team building straight to your inbox click here. You’ll also get a free 26-page e-book, The New Leaders Starter Kit about running One-to-Ones, conducting Constructive Feedback sessions & professional listening skills — also contains printable one-to-one and feedback forms and a listening skills checklist.