Whether you’re entering into team leadership for the very first time or looking to refresh your skills in a shiny new job, the role of Team Leader can be a complex one. These days, a Team Leader is required to wear a number of different hats – all of which need to be accessorised with some important hard and soft skills and, in this article, we’re looking at how empathy will make you better at your job.
Making The Team
Depending on the type of company you work for, the role of Team Leader can encompass a variety of duties. Be that as it may, the great leveller is that the job will involve motivating and monitoring a team of employees to ensure that they’re doing what they should be doing – when they should be doing it.
As with any peopley type role, this one requires a degree of empathy (among other skills) and if you’re new to all this team leadership courses are a great way of getting yourself up to speed. A term that’s bandied about a fair bit these days, empathy is really not that mysterious – it’s simply the art of putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes. This allows you to understand where somebody is coming from and to therefore better support them.
How To Become A Better Team Leader
It’s good to talk
It should go without saying (but as we’re talking communication, we’ll say it anyway) that effective communication with your team is vital. Part of this means telling people what to do – but this is by no means all. A Team Leader who does nothing but bark orders at others is, quite frankly, unsuited to the job and will quickly find themselves resented and ostracised. Empathy is a really important part of communicating with your team as it’s all about listening as well as talking. When you issue instructions to team members without properly listening to their problems and pain points you’re likely to come across as tone deaf. This, in turn, will quickly lose you respect. If an employee trusts you enough to tell you about an issue, you need to listen carefully and to then factor this into what you’re asking your team to do.
Mastering the art of motivation
So, you have an exciting new project on and it’s all systems go – how come your team isn’t all fired up about it? It could be that you’ve gone charging ahead without actually considering how your team might feel about it – for example; will it put extra pressure on them? Will they need extra resources? Is there a benefit to them? All of these things speak to motivation which is the secret sauce that powers a team to do great things. A big part of the role of Team Leader is to monitor staff morale and to take action when you spot a motivation dip.
Feeling the needs
The great thing about the modern world is that we’re now aware – more than ever before – that diversity is a great thing in the workplace. Whether it’s an employee with a physical disability or somebody who struggles with anxiety or depression, the workplace needs to be a space that is equal for all. So, you’ve employed somebody with special needs – well done you. Have you also got into the habit of thinking about what the average work-day looks like for that person? If not, have you spoken to them about it? Empathy allows us to see the workplace from someone else’s perspective – and it’s often an eye-opener. Put empathy into practice by speaking to team members about their needs and then get proactive about tackling those needs and making things better for that person.
A problem shared
It’s a rare workplace that doesn’t run into sticky wicket moments and it’s how you handle these problems that will make all the difference. As Team Leader, you’re the one that people will be looking to when a project hits a speed bump and empathy is very much a thing here. When it’s your job to solve an issue it can be tempting to just give out orders but this is unlikely to get the job done. Instead, harness the power of empathy to look at all sides of the issue and all of the people involved to understand the impact that your solution might have. You can then go ahead with your solution with your team on side.
Getting the balance right when bonding with your team
A team is of course, by its very nature, a relationship – and a really important one too. You’ve no doubt been told that it’s not a good idea to get too close to members of your team and, to a degree, this is good advice. You do, however, need to encourage empathy. This means creating an environment in which your employees respect and trust you enough to come to you with their thoughts. In this instance, empathy works both ways – as well as being able to take the emotional temperature of your team, you also need them to do the same for you. By doing this, you create a team that is pulling together – and whose first question is always “what can I do to help?”
Trust in the process
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how important trust is within a team – but I’m going to anyway. You need to trust that your team will complete the task in hand to the best of their ability. Your team needs to trust that you have their back at all times. This two way street absolutely cannot happen without empathy and will, instead, simply become disjointed and disconnected.
Using Soft Skills To Firm Up Your Team
You most likely didn’t see empathy listed on the job ad when you applied to become Team Leader but that doesn’t make it any less important. While qualifications and experience are, of course, super important in your role, you also need a handful of soft skills to make you a well-rounded leader and on this list, empathy is right up there. When we make the effort to understand how others tick, we’re able to use this intel to create a more productive and more motivated team and so empathy should be top of your list in every aspect of your job.