There have been countless perspectives on what makes a good leader that have grown and evolved over time. The popular idea of leadership has moved on from a top-down, hierarchical approach where information is kept confidential and there is little investment in workers. Nowadays, good leaders are seen as those who use the strengths of their employees and freely communicate expectations and information.
But whatever your idea of a great leader, none of them succeed without using the right techniques and strategies. Today, there are tools that cover all aspects of leadership in a company, so you can cut out the time-consuming admin and start focusing on the bigger picture.
1. How to manage your team with clear, realistic goals
One of the best ways to lead employees is to set them challenges they can achieve. So many workers now straddle a range of roles and can feel overwhelmed with the amount of work they end up having to do.
Understanding your workers’ capabilities and time constraints is a really smart way of how to lead employees effectively. There are all kinds of tools, such as time tracking, that can give you a clear picture from which you can set expectations.
Similarly, when outlining projects to your team, let them know if a task isn’t going to be easy. It is incredibly demotivating for workers to be faced with a superficially easy job, to then later find out it is a mountain.
2. How to make project management easy
In a leadership role, it’s important to be efficient, but effective in your project management. There are all kinds of tools and structures you can implement to help your projects run smoothly.
Most businesses now are on the cloud, so you can think about how to lead employees to find answers for themselves. Perhaps you can host global to-do lists or project-specific resource libraries, which frees up your time as a manager and encourages your team to take the initiative.
From Bitrix24’s project management software, you can also monitor progression with task management and time tracking. With all this information at your fingertips, you can call meetings where necessary, but avoid time-consuming daily or weekly updates.
3. Communication
Communication is at the heart of any smooth, productive team, and it’s important to be clear and economic in the way you communicate. As a project manager, you communicate before, during, and after tasks, and no part of that can be neglected. Projects can begin with video calls and calendars, proceed with instant messaging to check progress, and end with a reflective video conference.
Make sure to cover the end goals, what success involves and how each task fits into the bigger picture. This will help your team value their work and understand the importance of delivering quality work. Bitrix24 has an all-encompassing communication tool that guides you on how to lead employees through the phone, calendars, instant messaging, and more.
4. How to organize your schedule in a predictable way
One of the best ways to motivate employees is to be available for them when they need it. However, this can be a double-edged sword if you don’t plan it well.
Using a calendar to structure your consultation time is a tactic that many effective leaders employ. Your team knows when you’re available and when you’re not, so they can book out time and get valuable one-to-one communication time. This is even more crucial if your team is working from home.
Organizing your time, and making it predictable helps to build trust. And, with the right human approach, it makes your employees feel that they can be open and transparent with you.
5. How to delegate and trust your team
Showing confidence in your employees inspires confidence among the team. But you can’t set arbitrary goals and expect people to achieve them.
Shared to-do lists per person and per team are not only a way of keeping track of work, but also of identifying who is excelling and who could take on more.
If you yourself are pressed for time and need to delegate repetitive tasks, check your to-do lists for those who are performing well and hand them down responsibility. This is a method of how to lead employees in a way that benefits the team as a whole.
6. How to motivate your team through personal growth
While you are delegating tasks, you’re also showing trust and responsibility to those taking them on, so don’t be afraid to single them out for praise when they deserve it. These new tasks are an example of how to lead your employees effectively, as they grow through the process.
By boosting their hard and transferable skills, you increase office productivity and the individual’s self-esteem. Furthermore, by entrusting others with new tasks, your team becomes more agile when things get tough, or when there are big organizational changes.
7. How you can lead employees through organizational change
Organizational change in some form is inevitable, whatever line of work you’re in. And unfortunately, most people don’t like change. It brings with it role changes, routine disruptions, and often a new set of rules to play by.
However, as a team manager, you can prepare yourself and those around you. As mentioned in the previous point, using your team in an agile manner gets them used to change. When people feel like they are growing professionally, they trust you more and are more likely to react positively.
Furthermore, change often leads to uncertainty. But if you have already set up a project management system that everybody is familiar with, you’ll avoid your team feeling lost.
Final thoughts
We’re sure you’ll be able to implement at least some of these tips and tricks on how to lead employees in your own team.
We’d strongly recommend a tool that offers solutions for all the topics covered here, such as Bitrix24. Eight million companies are already on board with our services, and the functions in it are varied enough for all kinds of companies.
One thing to always keep in mind, however, is that change can be disruptive, so be sure to keep clear communication front and center as you improve your strategy.
