Leading groups and teams is not an easy task. No matter how many leadership skills we have, we can make mistakes if we overlook some essential aspects.
Contrary to what we may believe, a person lacking leadership skills can become a leader.
Lead a team, represent the ability to get all the members of a team of people to be a work team actively collaborate with other people in the achievement of a common goal reaching the objectives and results expected by the organization.
It is the group leader's competence the performance of the team towards the achievement of the objectives, joining wills and efforts, in order to:
Distribute and organize work within the team, assigning responsibility and resources.
Give clear and explicit instructions about what needs to be done and why.
Make sure that the team has the necessary information to carry out a job.
Delegate simple tasks provide advice and help to people.
When faced with the question of how to lead a team, the first thing that should be looked at is the type of group that you face as the leader or visible head of an organization. That is, who is part of it, how many are they, what are their objectives, what do they have in common, what roles do they assume and what are their internal dynamics?
This question assumes that each case is different and requires decisions and styles of leadership. Implementing the most appropriate strategy in each situation can be the root for achieving good results.
1.- Create a highly productive climate:
Do you aspire to be a successful leader in an oppressive, authoritarian environment, marked by injustice and inequality of treatment to your collaborators? You will not succeed! Contemporary work groups do not work that way; On the contrary, theirs is participation, freedom, cooperation, direct interaction and joint and consensual decisions. This is what we mean when we talk about a highly productive climate, because only in conditions of this type your collaborators will be willing to make the best of themselves and articulate efforts to achieve common goals. How far are you from it?
2.-Betting on effective communication
As pointed out by José Antonio Viveros in his book Leadership, effective communication and conflict resolution to effectively communicate, we have to observe the group we lead, know how to manage emotions and listen. Once this is done, we must be clear in our indications.
people symbolizing how to lead groups and teams
Hints or double meanings are not characteristics of a good leader. A working group needs clear and transparent guidelines. Only then will they know what they have to do. Otherwise, the results will not be too good.
3.-Preach with your example:
Be a reference for those around you. Your actions will have little legitimacy if one day you demand something and the next you violate what you have asked the members of your teams. For example, do not talk about participation, diversity and joint decisions if at the end you impose your authority and your criteria. Be consistent; Do not forget that you are the visible head of the organization that you lead.
4.-Set periodic goals and objectives
When we are leaders of a group, at the moment when there are no goals or objectives, it stagnates. This situation can be very harmful, as it leads to loss of motivation, not knowing where we are going and brings us closer to our comfort zone.
If a group or team does not advance, our leadership is being unsuccessful. Therefore, we have to have a planning in which to establish objectives, challenges or goals weekly or monthly. Everything will depend on what we want to achieve.
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5.-Manage conflicts externalizing them:
The worst thing you can do as a team leader is to allow a conflict to get entangled among its members. Once you identify, make a float come out and be your own protagonists to talk about it. All groups have problems, differences, difficulties and setbacks; The issue is knowing, intervening on time, listening carefully to each of the parties immersed in a situation of this kind and, finally, acting with justice and consideration.
6.-Change roles and responsibilities
To avoid the comfort zone, it is important that all the people who make up a team do not always do the same. It is clear that each of them will have some very important unique skills for the group, however, it is always good to explore other paths.
If each one of the members of a team always does the same, in the end it will be very difficult for them to stay motivated. Routines usually end up tiring. That is why, from time to time, it will be good to make changes in the functions and responsibilities.
7.-Be attentive to the talents of the people.
Trust and expectations When you expect good things from people, you generate security and transmit confidence. "People who feel safe work better, with adequate levels of tension, with the assurance that they can try new things and that the failure will not cost them ownership or position."
Achieving the success of a team by bringing out the best in each individual, avoiding falling into the abuse of authority or the disparagement of humor and fun complicates the equation. However, getting out of this victorious role is not impossible, much less the key lies in offering understanding, humanity and commitment and a leadership model that works in tandem with the rest of the components. In this way, expecting the best of them and working side by side, you will produce a situation in which they will return the same to you.
The requirement is not the key to success. In the same way that neither is the authoritarian attitude without traces of empathy nor those that forget the motivation and illusion of those around him.
"If you want to be wise, learn to interrogate reasonably, listen carefully, respond calmly and quiet when you have nothing to say."
#What does it take to become a leader?
Many people want leadership positions but there are times when they lack the necessary conditions for this. The first thing that is needed is a call from God, but no one can be called without first being prepared to carry out the work that God has entrusted to him. To be prepared you need something that Nehemiah had and was to be a man of great dedication to God, a man of fasting and prayer, and the other requirement is that he has to be a person of faith. God calls to use in his work men of faith. As we can see in the case of Nehemiah.
The formation of a leader
Although God can occupy anyone for his purposes, to become a leader a special preparation is needed, no matter where God has taken us from, many times God uses very special means to prepare his elect for leadership, as was the case with God. Joseph in Egypt, who had to be sold as a slave and spend several years in a prison. The case of Moses, who had to wait forty years for God to call him to free his people.
The leader must be a rebuilder.
"The call of Nehemiah was to rebuild, not only the wall of Jerusalem, but also the national pride, to free them from the opprobrium of the enemies. Nehemiah rebuilds the wall and the temple to restore the entire nation (Nehemiah 3-6).
Jesus the leader of leaders
"Jesus Christ is the supreme example of spiritual leadership. When most people think of leadership, they imagine an army officer giving orders or an employer supervising their employees closely, making sure all the work is done. These aspects can be part of the secular leadership, but they are not part of the essence of spiritual leadership.
Spiritual leadership is the opposite of what most people think. Spiritual leadership is service leadership. Jesus Christ Himself taught us: "As the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). Jesus was definitely a leader. He was the leader of the twelve disciples and of a much larger group of followers beyond them (Luke 10: 1-17). Jesus did not lead by giving orders or supervising. Jesus led by being a servant and serving together with His followers.
