How To Manage a Team in the Organization? 12 Ways For Success

Tips To Manage Team

Being a manager your task is not only to form teams you have to direct them toward the achievement of desired organizational goals. To manage a team effectively you should be able to direct teams in the right direction. The following are the notable strategies you can use for effective team management.

Set A Clear Goal

For your team to perform better, you should set a clear goal. Your team’s goal should be SMART i.e. specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Goals should be acceptable to your team members. Clear goals let team members understand and become aware of what their roles are to achieve.

Size of the Team

When your team becomes too large, there would be many more conflicts, as the members differ in backgrounds managing them would be difficult. Too large as well as too small size of teams do not give high performance.

You should determine the size of the team based on the requirement, goals to achieve, nature of the task, expected output, etc. Studies found that for high performance the most ideal size of a team is between 4 to 9 members.

Effective Communication

Effective communication is fundamental to managing teams effectively. There should be the practice of a two-way communication system. Be open to getting feedback from the members.

Every team member wants to know what is going on, so be transparent to share with the members about the ongoing team performance.

Related: Types of Teams

Establish Mutual Trust and Support

A team is not a team if its members do not have mutual trust and support for each other. Creating mutual trust and support among team members is an essential requirement for effective team management.

Every member of the team should be comfortable working together and should trust each other. For this, you should maintain good coordination over the activities of team members to integrate their performance. This helps in the improvement of team performance.

Integrate Objectives

One of the best ways to manage a team effectively is by appropriately integrating organizational objectives with the objectives of team members. Team members should be assured that their goals should also be achieved when the organizational goals are achieved.

Enable Flexibility

Flexibility is essential for effective team management. Based on the requirements of the teams there should be a provision to change or modify existing team members, team tasks, work processes, etc. Since the business environment is dynamic you have to develop a team that is flexible enough to align with the changing business settings and market needs.

Participative Management

Exercise a participative management style where decision-making through understanding is encouraged. You as a manager should invite all team members to share their opinions regarding the team goals, structure, roles, leadership, reward system, etc.

When the decisions are made through mutual understanding of members, this helps in the effective implementation of the decisions in practice.

Manage Conflict

Conflicts are common in teams since members differ in their backgrounds, attitudes, personality, working style, ethnicity, skills, capacities, and so on. There is always a possibility of conflicts among members. You should be able to address the reasons for conflicts and manage them as soon as possible. If not it will affect the team’s performance.

Related: Strategies to Manage Conflict in the Workplace.

Effective Feedback System

To get high performance from the teams there should be an effective evaluation and feedback system. Team members’ concerns should have been listened to carefully and with respect.

You should evaluate the performance of team members and provide them a thoughtful feedback. This lets employees understand what they are doing well and what they are not. As such, they can take corrective actions and further their performance supports the goal achievement.

Value to Each Team Member

In teams, every member is dependent on each other. One’s actions affect another. Everyone’s collective effort is necessary to accomplish the team’s goal. As such, every team member should be valued equally. Each individual should have equal importance in team performance. The practice of biases and favoritism should strongly be avoided.

Effective Delegation

Effective delegation is part of good team management. Carefully delegate tasks to teams with the necessary authority and responsibility. Avoid micromanaging because it may be quite invasive and shows that you don’t have faith in your team’s competence. However, be supportive because some people need more guidance than others. You need to strike the ideal balance.

Use Positive Motivational Techniques

To manage the team effectively you should also use as many positive motivational techniques as possible. When teams do well provide rewards as motivation. And, when teams do not do well give thoughtful suggestions on what they should do to bring positive results. Avoid using negative motivational techniques which adversely affect you in the long run.

Read Next: Group Vs. Team