Emotional intelligence (EQ)
Emotional intelligence (EQ)
Speaking of working with people: Leaders must be able to understand and adjust to the emotions of others, including nonverbal and contextual signals. Great leaders go beyond merely identifying emotions in others — they have the soft skills to help others manage their way through strong emotional responses and to push teams and individuals toward the right outcomes.
This is emotional intelligence, or EQ — a crucial skill for anyone who works with others, especially leaders, and it’s essential when leading a team through the five stages of team development. You’ll use these skills throughout, most of all in the “storming” stage.
Analytical
Strong leaders also tend to demonstrate strong analytical skills. An analytical leader can take stock of a situation, consider possible paths and likely outcomes, and chart the course most likely to succeed. This skill set provides value no matter your role, and it becomes increasingly valuable the more authority a person has.
10 ways leaders can help manage their teams
Beyond these characteristics or traits of effective leaders, every leader can take actionable steps to lead teams better and encourage greater teamwork. Consider implementing one or more of these 10 ideas over the course of the next week.
1) Foster open and honest communication
Create an environment where openness and honesty in all aspects of communication are encouraged. Ask people to share their views and talk about the obstacles in their way. Ask for (and listen to) feedback. Don’t be afraid to ask questions yourself. (Here are five you should add to your regular practice, in fact.) Most of all, ensure your team members have a clear path to your door if they need it.
Related: Try these 5 quick wins to make your team more transparent.
Helpful communication tools
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Slack or Teams: Channel-based open asynchronous communication and business chat
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Teamwork.com: A project management platform that helps teams understand and communicate about work and workflows
2) Create collaborative goals
At the outset, goals should be clearly set and defined. Getting this right at the start may take a little extra time and planning, but it pays major dividends. For the best outcomes:
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The team needs to buy into the goals (so plan them together).
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Everyone involved needs to be aligned on what success looks like (so outline detailed KPIs right at the beginning).
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Leaders need to acknowledge and support the team throughout the process (so check in frequently and offer guidance where needed).
Related: Set your goals the right way with this cheat sheet, or read our ebook.