Effective Leadership #10 - Preparing to Lead

Hello Steemians, Hope you are all wonderful. Welcome to yet another article in Effective Leadership series. So far we have been seeing many learning articles on how we can lead. From this article onwards let's focus on how we can actually lead others. The success of the team is purely dependent on how an effective leader leads the team. The following will be very important for being an effective leader.

• Facilitate
• Inspire
• Implement

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If a leader tries to control the team, things may not be very smooth. Instead, if a leader is focusing on the above points towards the path of success, the outcome will be very effective. Preparing to lead the team is an ongoing process. It can sometimes even be a challenge to an effective leader. In order to lead the team, the leader should first get to know the staff members under their administration and interact with them to understand their capabilities. After understanding about them, a framework can be set which will make them work comfortably for you. Later in order to motivate and inspire them, some sort of challenging goals can be set.

Gathering Information

This is an important step for a new leader or an existing leader taking over the new situation or team. The first step a leader should take during such situations is to do an information gathering to understand the resources available. The resources need not be just people alone. It can also be related to policies, opportunities, the current challenges etc. This information can be gathered easily by approaching the right leaders or people champions in the team. If it is going to be a bigger team, then it will be ideal to speak to some key person there and get their views. If the team is very small, a meeting can even be organized with every individual of the team to understand more about them by asking questions. This will be very helpful in understanding their views.

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Understanding what they think about the organization and their contribution towards the growth and success of the organization can also be discussed with them to get points in their perspective. With all the questions you ask them, you will not only learn about your new responsibilities but you will also learn about the people concerned. This plan can also be executed in modern ways by sending out surveys to the team and making them or motivating them to participate in the surveys.

Questions that you can ask your staff members

Below are suggestions to some of the common questions that you can ask your team members to understand more about their responsibilities as well as your responsibilities.

• What are you trying to achieve?
• What are the steps you have been taking to achieve?
• What major issues/challenges do we face?
• What do you think others are thinking about the organization - good or bad?
• Are we properly organized to achieve what we want in the way we want?

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Answers that a staff gives for every above question will easily help in getting an idea of their intentions. Sometimes the answers can be really interesting and very helpful for the team and organization growth.

Establishing a framework

The framework is very important to determine the way in which the leader and the team members can operate. The framework should be more comfortable for both leader and the led. In order to get good effective output from the team, an effective communication is important. Make sure the systems are correctly in place for an effective communication between the leaders and the staff members. Setting goals and responsibilities can be helpful in determining who will work on what and how the goal can be achieved. If the team members are missing any tools to work effectively, it is the duty of the leader to facilitate them with the tools that will be necessary for effective functioning of the team.

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Understanding Do's and Don'ts

Do's	Don'ts
Do use all means to communicate effectively with your staff.	Don't ask people to do things that you wouldn't do yourself.
Do strive to regard your associates as component people.	Don't forget that trust is a two-way process that can take time and effort to establish.
Do try to create a positive atmosphere, free from rigidity.	Don't take sides or show any favoritism to any staff member.
Do show your staff members loyalty and support whenever it is required.	Don't dissuade staff from speaking out.
Do set challenging, ambitious goals for the staff members.	Don't be vague about team member's roles.

Establishing Objectives

Objectives are important for the success of the projects as well as the organization. A leader should always align himself with the objectives or the organization. If the objectives are not clear, they should speak with their manager's and realign them. Once the organizational goals have been established, it can be channeled to the team members as well. The team should be clear about their goals. They should understand the objectives or the organization and should be clear on the purpose of their activities. They have to be clear how their activities help the overall plan set by the organization. Working on one big goal without any milestone can be difficult. The overall goal of the organization should be broken down into several tasks and these tasks should be executed by the team gradually.

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The goals or objectives set for the team members should be challenging and at the same time achievable for the staff members. If it is like that, the staff members will be inspired and motivated to work on that particular task. The goal should also be relative the skill set of every individual within the team. An ownership and responsibility is created if a staff member is working on a collective goal or shared goal. This will increase the team spirit ultimately giving the quality outcome. The leader should be communicating with the team regularly to check on the progress of the objectives and realign them if necessary. When communicated with the staff members individually, there can also be new ideas emerging out of the conversation.

Hope you had an interesting read. Share your views on the managerial skills and leadership skills in the comments section. Meet you again in another article in this series.

My previous articles in this series:

Effective Leadership #1 - An Introduction
Effective Leadership #2 - Focusing on Quality
Effective Leadership #3 - Learning From Others
Effective Leadership #4 - Gaining Experience
Effective Leadership #5 - Comparing Leaders and Managers
Effective Leadership #6 - Developing Strengths in General
Effective Leadership #7 - Building Personal Strengths
Effective Leadership #8 - Mastering Roles
Effective Leadership #9 - Evaluating Key Leadership Roles

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