9 Extremely Crucial Team Leader Skills

Whether you see yourself as a future leader or a current group leader, knowing the basic team leader skills is vital.

These skills will help you not only to become a good leader but will also help your team run like a well-oiled machine.

So, we suggest you go through this article and get an idea of what is required to be a good team leader:

9 Essential Team Leader Skills Needed To Build A Strong Team

1. Efficient Problem Solving Skills

Having problem-solving skills is entailed in the job description of a team leader. It can be said as a critical leadership skill.

According to an HBR study, problem-solving ranked 3rd out of 16 skills that influence a leader’s success.

A good team leader knows that problems are inevitable and learns to anticipate them. He/She makes sure that the team is well-prepared to face all hurdles and challenges that come their way.

Meanwhile, good leaders don't tend to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of problems at hand. Instead, they try to gauge the best course of action and take precautions to prevent such things from happening in the future.

2. Effective Communication Skills

Leading a team is all about learning to effectively communicate with your people. Whether you are a team leader or the company's CEO, poor communication skills will undoubtedly act as a setback for you.

Having good communication skills isn’t the same as being a great orator. Here are the qualities that you can observe in a good communicator:

• Be clear while communicating. Keep the message precise and understandable by your team members. Your team should understand their goals as well as the common goal of the organization. Simplicity and clarity are the way to go.
• Pay attention to nonverbal communication. Hand gestures, posture, facial expressions, and eye contact will go a long way to get your message across.
• Listen more. Prioritize the freedom for everyone to express themselves within a group of people. Remember to keep a positive attitude.

3. Expert In Delegating Tasks

Efficiently delegating tasks is part of the job if you want to be an influential team leader. Good leaders should be able to prioritize the critical tasks and delegate the rest to the team.

Understandably, many team leaders see delegating tasks as purposefully reducing their workload.

However, this is so far from the truth. Assigning tasks to the team allows the team leaders to give some goals to the team to achieve.

Real delegation is about encouraging teamwork and assigning responsibilities to team members. This, in turn, allows the team leader to groom a future leader and prep their successor.

4. Mediator

Dealing with conflicts on a routine basis is part of the team leadership role. Conflicts among team members will hamper productivity, affect the team bond, and foster a hostile environment.

A great leader is also an accomplished mediator. When faced with conflict, an effective team leader doesn’t take sides. He tries to listen to both sides of the conversation and seeks to solve the issue.

An excellent way to do so is by conducting sessions with the key members of the conflict and gather their perspectives about the ongoing problem.

Subsequently, educate them about the importance of teamwork, trust, and transparency.

5. Reward Achievements

Motivation is a basic aspect of keeping your team's spirit high.

A good team leader knows that rewarding people for their efforts is the most effective way to boost motivation. Rewarding and appreciating team members dramatically improve not only the team's productivity but also individual performance.

As a team leader, set a common goal of achieving specific targets.

The end result of achieving them will be getting recognized for their efforts. This makes sure that the terms are fair. Additionally, make sure that it is not a one-time thing. That is, the recognition should be frequent and timely.

6. Integrity

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower

Undoubtedly, integrity is one of the crucial traits of a great leader. Without integrity, no one will see you fit to lead or trust you. Here’s what you can do to encourage integrity in the workplace:

• Build a set of sound principles that’ll constitute everything that you do.
• Integrate the said principles in business processes and company culture.
• Communicate these policies to your team and make clear that you don’t deviate from them.
• Practice what you preach. Don’t set policies for only your employees to follow. You need to follow them as well.

7. Respects Team Members

To be a good team leader, always give your group of people the respect and trust you expect them to provide you with. Working on establishing trust and camaraderie with your team requires time, patience, and effort.

• Make it a priority to tell team members thanks when they do a good job. Recognize their work publicly.
• Proactively ask for opinions and ideas. Never impose your decision on anyone.
• Instead, have discussions about why you want them to do a specific task.
• Always give credit where it's due. Never take all the credit for yourself. Always bring teamwork to the limelight.

8. Positive Attitude

Chances are, a hostile team leader will foster a negative team mindset. A good leader has a positive attitude about everything they do.

Yes, leading a team is no cakewalk in the park. And the problems just keep on coming. Having a positive attitude might be the last thing you want to do.

But as a team leader, not only your attitude affect you but also your team. One study found that happy individuals are more successful in many areas of their lives, especially at work.

A positive work environment will inspire teams to exhibit positive behaviors like creativity, motivation, and bonding.

9. Decisive

To be a great leader, you must be able to make swift and precise decisions. Decision-making is thus a fundamental part of necessary team leader skills.

Most problems won't let you have the benefit of brainstorming. Being decisive is to think on your feet and come up with a sound decision. Being decisive carries its own risks, and many people try to procrastinate because of it.

However, don't confuse decisiveness with impulsiveness. Don't be reckless with your decisions. In such situations, take the opinion of your entire team.

Before You Go

Do you know of any team leader skills that are absolutely necessary for a future leader? If yes, then do drop us an email. We'd love to include your suggestions on this list.

Related: 20 Leadership Qualities That Makes You A Great Leader

This article is written by Barasha Medhi who is a part of the marketing team at Vantage Circle. Barasha can be found either searching for interesting HR, company culture, and corporate buzzwords to write about or looking at pictures of cozy Bel Air mansions. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com.