Delegation 101: How can a manager make most of their team

“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”—Peter Drucker

A good leader and exceptional leadership is necessary to complete a task flawlessly. In the corporate world, the manager of the team is the leader. Here is how a manager can bring out the best in their team.

• Understanding the task

Understanding the task at hand is the first step towards team management. The manager must take into account the complexities, requirements of the task and difficulties that may arise in the process. It is a given that one must completely understand the job, identify the goal and draw out a complete process of teaching the goal. This helps gain clarity and makes the process easier.

• Knowing your team

It is a quality of a good leader to know every member of your team. Building a personal relationship with your team members along with a professional one helps one know the person. This eventually helps in understanding a team member’s strengths, weaknesses and overall personality.

One can find out a person’s strengths and weaknesses by simply asking the member to self analyse and list their strengths and weaknesses themselves. This is one way of showing that one trusts their subordinates that they shall be honest with their job. Another way is trial and error. The manager can assign a team member a task according to their own analysis and check whether the team mate is able to pull it off or not. This way, the manager can be sure of the strengths and weaknesses of the team member.

• Delegate

After knowing the strengths and weaknesses of every team member, the manager can relate them with the task at hand. This makes  delegation easier. Assigning the correct job to the correct team member is very important and something a leader must know how to achieve.

• Juice out the potential

Knowing what one’s strength is and assigning the most suitable task accordingly is one thing and making sure that the task is being finished in full swing is another. Every member of the team has potential, it is the manager’s responsibility to see it. The ability to see potential in someone majorly comes from experience. For new leaders, one can accept that they are growing and this ability will eventually come to them after leading a certain amount of teams. They must keep observing and taking their lessons. The most important lessons are learnt not by achieving a goal, but by picking up small teachings that the process teaches you. A good leader is someone who brings out the best in their team through motivation and trust.

• Trust and motivation

The full potential of a team can only be achieved when every member reaches their complete potential. It is the manager’s job to push their members of the team to bring their best to work. Motivating the team members to explore their potential and work diligently with conviction is something only the manager can do. It is a sign of a good leader if they trust their team members. Here, trusting their team members is showing faith  in the person that they shall complete their job properly. This imbibes a sense of responsibility in the team member to match up to the leader’s expectations.

• Speaking carefully

During a project, there will be moments where the work pressure takes the better of the leader. In these moments it is crucial to make sure that no team member is offended by just the mere tone of speaking. It is essential to be tough when needed but a good leader is someone who recognises the thin line between being authoritative and being arrogant.

• Creating a positive work environment

The team is going to spend majority of their time working in the office environment, hence it is necessary that the environment is buoyant. A space where someone would want to work and give their best, where ideas can be generated, a space which has a positive energy is essential for achieving success in the task. One can achieve a space like this by making sure it has proper ventilation, adding a bit of greenery to the space, etc. The energy which is needed can only be generated through the sheer determination and willingness of the manager as well as the team members.

This is your guide to manage a team efficiently and bringing out the best in team members. It is essential for a leader to understand what works and what doesn’t work for their team. With proper planning and sensible delegation, a person can definitely succeed as a good manager.

For more blogs, stay tuned. Let’s connect on social media! I’m a Mumbai-based corporate trainer, speaker, and educator. For enquiries, contact me on 9819648070 or write to me at riti@ritikapoorchopra.com.