How to lead a team

I worked for a company, like many other companies, that has an annual anonymous 360 degrees performance review process. I have inputs from my direct reports, peers and managers throughout the years. I have been managing different teams for the past 9 years. I have worked with independent consultants, outsourced consultants (both on-site and offshore), full time employees and summer internship employees.

Flexibility and Integrity
A manager, in many ways, should be called a coach. Like a professional sports coach, a good manager uses his/her experiences to guide and motivate everyone and to get the best out of the team. It is a little bit more complex in the business world as we are generally dealing with people with diverse cultural backgrounds, different personal goals and values, and experience and skill levels. There are also differences by age groups in how they perceive work and family. There is no simple answer on what work best, the coach needs to adapt based on the team structure, the company culture and your upper management style. Consultants and employees generally have different objectives and motivations and need different coaching styles.

These days, every company has very aggressive schedules and deadlines. Every level of management feel the same pressure and trying to do more with less. We have to lead the team as fair as possible while balancing the company needs.

Skills and knowledge
Let's start with good observation and listening skills. It is so important to know your team well, what each person's strengths, interests, and their longer term ambitions are.

Motivation is also at the top of the list. It is best of both worlds when an employee is motivated. He/she will automatically line up his/her interest with yours and the company. Like getting a "winner" in professional sports, this is the type of person that performs best when needed. Giving credits and not taking credit away from anyone is a key principle that I use. I find it very useful in building up trust, which will in turn motivate the whole team and create success and recognition for everyone.

A quick note on remote and global teams. From my past experiences, it took commitments and personal sacrifices to motivate the remote team. You had to show the remote team members that you genuinely treated them as part of the team. Many companies have offshore teams, but the real productivity and success is in the hand of the day to day execution of the direct manager.

I am a true believer of "lead by example" and delegation. You should not preach on something you would not do yourself if you were in their roles. If you are a team lead or manager, it is ineffective for you to have the time to know the details of all the work of everyone. You have your own responsibility. So, having a big picture view, knowing the status of the team's work, and have the ability and interest to drill down on the details as needed may be a winning combination.

As a manager, you need to be able to explain the vision to the team and to help them make good decisions. In career development, you should help them grow by pointing out the important skills they need to acquire to succeed. Open and honest feedback, if done right, will help the employee grows.

Matching up assignments to available team members require careful plannings. There are assignments that most people would like to do, and there are always some areas that are perceived as grunt work, but are critical and have to be done.

Be a good team member
Besides working with your team, remember you are also part of your manager's team. All the points we discussed here also apply to your manager. You have to play the role of a good team member too.You need to be flexible and support the goals with your management. Put yourself in their shoes and you will probably understand and appreciate their actions more.