What you need to know about managing a new team

Starting a new business or being given leadership responsibility isn’t that easy. It is even harder if the team you are to manage is a newly formed one. The challenges involved are more stressful and you will need to learn some things if you are to excel in such a role.

Know your team

If you are to steer a new team to achieve excellence, then you will have to know the people you are working with. You will have to take time to know each member of your staff in-depth, what their qualities and weaknesses are and how they can contribute to the growth of the team and the company at large.

Organise a one-on-one meeting with each of the member and let them know your vision and the direction you intend to push the business towards. Make further inquiries about them, their goals and aspirations and how they are planning on achieving that. This will make it easy for you to identify the highly-motivated ones and how they can help you achieve your goal. Also, ask their expectations from their roles in the team and the problems they are facing.

Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.
This is a big mistake that you can’t afford to make. Only let your team know about the goals and objectives that can be achieved. There are some problems that have been around for a while and they are quite complicated. Don’t ever promise your team something that you know you can’t achieve or something that will take you a very long time to achieve. Since it is a newly formed team, you should stick with goals that can be achieved without taking long as this will boost their confidence.

Find a guide.
If you haven’t been on the management service for long or if you are just starting your business, then one of the smartest things you can do is to find a guide or a mentor. There are people who have more experience than you and it will be better if you have one of them as your mentor to assist you till you are ready to handle everything by yourself. The important thing is not to allow their thinking overshadow the new ideas you may have.

Be original.
Always be transparent with your team. Whatever information you feel is important to the team and can help in either boosting their morals or improve their current working processes, then share it with them and not just with a select few. Your level of honesty will determine if your team members will trust you and your decisions. Their trust in your decision-making process is paramount to your success as a team leader.
Let them know each other.

It isn’t all about you. Your team members will have to know each other since they will be working together. How well they know each other will go a long way in ensuring that they become committed to their work.

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