When I started my latest position as a team leader of a bomb disposal unit, I was nervous and anxious that being a team leader would be too hard. What if I failed to provide a clear vision, and the team struggled because of me? What if I am the limiting factor, hindering the team’s success instead of enabling it?
Being a team leader is hard; it requires that you take extreme ownership and responsibility for everything that goes wrong on a team. For many managers, this pressure is too much, which leads them to focus on unimportant but easier tasks, often through micromanaging.
If you are on the way to becoming a leader or just starting as a manager, you’re at the right place. This article will present to you the experiences and lessons from my 12 years as a leader and also from interviews with active team leaders.
Difficulties Of Being a Team Leader
Leaving the bomb disposal at school and joining the team, I was very nervous. It was my time to prove to the team that I had learned the necessary skills to keep us safe and to solve the mission. I knew I had performed reasonably well at the school, but it was becoming more and more real; now, I will be assessed by the people I will be working with for the next couple of years.
I remembered the old saying, “First impressions last,” And this made me even more nervous. Do I only have one chance to make a long-lasting impression?
Before we answer that question, I want to show you what the respondents said in my interviews regarding the biggest mistakes new leaders make.
The Biggest mistake new leaders make
When we conducted interviews and polls for an article about what a leader should do in the 1st 90 days, a few themes arose.
The first theme can be summarized as taking extreme ownership of the team’s actions regardless of the outcome.
Visualize your plan so that it can be questioned by all members, not to criticize but to help the group solve the task. When it goes wrong, own it, no matter what.
Joakim A
You have probably seen this behavior with previous managers; they keep details or plans to themselves to avoid being criticized, even though they will be criticized even harder if the team fails in performing their duties.
The second theme is about the leader assuming a position of authority and autocracy due to their role in the organization.
Acting selfishly, feigning expertise, asking more from one’s subordinates than of oneself …
Bill G
At Sancus Leadership, we know that trust is the foundation of a team; if you don’t have trust, you don’t have a team, only a group of people. Trust is often defined as predicting that someone will act in a way that also benefits you; it is, therefore, reciprocal rather than one-directional.
I believe the lesson to be learned is to be a part of the team, not above it, you need to share their difficulties, and you must make sure that they also benefit from working on the team. If you want them to follow you, you must also make sure they have a reason to do so.
The third theme that arises from the polls and interviews is also connected to trust. But this time, the trust you as a leader have in your employees and teammates. A widespread problem, and maybe you are also guilty of this, is not allowing the employees enough autonomy, also known as micromanaging.
Do not do your staff’s job. Let them do what they should do. Instead, support and provide guidance. Do not question their activities because you do not know the entire logic behind everything, yet.
Johan N
Many would say that this type of leadership behavior is a highway to getting yourself into managerial problems; the best way to show someone that you don’t trust them or that they are not good enough is to interrupt them while they’re doing something and complete the task for them.
I would like to add a bonus that didn’t show itself in the polls or interviews but that I believe is incredibly important. As a leader, we must focus on long-term benefits and not only on short-term satisfaction.
I used to push my guys really hard so that when we went on deployment, we would have the best possible opportunity of staying safe and solving the tasks. Other teams would do the opposite and take the day off or not fully focus on the task. I live by making things difficult today so we can have a better time tomorrow.
Genuine care for your team is to do what is long-term beneficial, not something that will give you a high five today.
Genuine care for your team is to do what is long-term beneficial, not something that will give you a high five today.
The Potential Benefits of Being a Team Leader
Being a team leader usually involves having more freedom and authority over the direction of where the team is going. When your team is busy solving routine tasks, you might be able to choose your tasks.
This brings me to the next benefit of being a team leader, having the power to choose a course of action that will take you and the team towards organizational goals. For me, this is one of the most exciting parts of either; we get to analyze and use how to get where we want to go.
On the more emotional front, once you have built trust and a legit skill set and the wins start rolling in, your team will begin showing you gratitude and appreciate what you have done for the team. They will see you as an important part of the business. At this stage, you have indeed become a person of service, you have served your people, and you have served the organization.
Is it worth being a team leader?
With all this being said, being a team leader is the best job in the world. It is also the most difficult one, but the rewards are tenfold; I have always loved working with people and helping them improve a specific skill, succeed in business, and in some real sense, become better human beings.
Being a team leader is definitely worth all the trouble; it will sometimes be extremely demanding but sometimes also immensely rewarding.
How To Make Your Life Easy as a New Team Leader
Make the first impression unimportant
Above in the article, we discussed the impact of the first impression; today, I know that first impressions are only vital in certain circumstances. If you only have a few interactions with your team, then each interaction weighs heavily. Still, if you lead correctly and meet your team as often as possible, each interaction will be a data point that adds up to the sum of all your actions. This means that multiple positive interactions will quickly outweigh a poor first impression.
First impressions are only vital if you don’t have a second, third, et cetera. So lesson number one is to spend as much time with your team as possible so they can gather information about you and your leadership.
