When it comes to leading a tech team of people, there needs to be some sort of a strategy and a plan. Every good leader pays attention to every step they make and are very careful about the role of the leader. Tech team leaders need to be focused, dedicated, and empathic to be able to do their job properly.
So, if you feel like you need to improve your leadership skills, or simply want to learn about leading a tech team, just keep reading. We’ll break down the 7 essential steps for successful leadership in tech teams. You’ll quickly learn what it takes to be a good leader.
Let’s dig in.
1. Set Clear Goals
The first thing a great leader needs to do is to ensure everyone’s on the same page. Mutual goals bring teams together and enable people within the team to work closer together.
This is why the team leader needs to reinforce the mission of the work they’re all doing together. The best way to do this is to:
- discuss goals and improvement plan
- welcome each new project with enthusiasm
- explain how everyone’s contribution makes a huge difference
Creating this sense of togetherness and sharing mutual goals is the best precondition for building strong teams. People will feel like a part of a huge family and will be able to rely on each other with more trust and confidence.
2. Provide Guidance
The reason you’re the leader of the team is that you’re the most skilled of them all. While this is something you should be proud of, it’s also something to use for a greater cause.
A true leader is the one who works on giving guidance and mentoring to his team members.
Be open about your intention to help everyone learn, improve, and become better at their job. Make sure that you always:
- supervise the work your team members are doing
- provide help when needed
- give a thorough explanation about why you did something
- have their back when things go wrong
source: Pixabay
“The world of tech is an endless learning field. There’s always something new to master and understand. Be a teacher for your team members and you’ll build a strong team of hard workers” says Hannah Lawrence, a head editor at Supreme Dissertations.
If your team members see you more as a mentor and less as their superior, they’ll be able to trust you more. Also, they’ll try harder to improve their skills and acquire the knowledge you’re selflessly sharing.
3. Give Feedback
The power of feedback should never be underestimated. If you want to be a true leader, your team needs to hear back from you after every major move that they make.
Therefore, make use of both positive and negative productive feedback.
- positive feedback
Give praise for the hard work, dedication, successfully completed project, or handling a complicated issue the right way.Don’t just say “great job”. Go beyond that and show that you truly care for the hard work the team members have invested in a task. - negative feedback
Use it as a teaching aid, not a scolding aid. It’s not easy being in a tech team, and mistakes sneak up unexpectedly.So, when giving negative feedback, always support it with advice on how to do better next time. This will help your team members overcome the same obstacle better next time.
The whole point of feedback is to draw conclusions and do better the next time. As a leader in tech, you have to be detailed and concise each time you’re giving feedback.
4. Monitor Your Industry
Another quality of a great leader in a tech team is to always monitor the industry and stay current.
Tech is such a field that you can never say you’re done learning. Every day something new happens, new trends appear, and things change rapidly. As a leader, you have to keep up.
This means that you have to be guided by the following rules:
- never stop learning
- keep an eye on your competitors
- do research
- read extensively
- follow the major tech companies and influencers
- adopt new trends
It’s also important that you work on self-improvement and find a way to adopt the new technologies, trends, and strategies you learn about. You can do this by visiting seminars and workshops, and learning from the best.
By staying current, you’re actually working for the whole team. You’ll be able to teach them new things and guide them to their development.
5. Be Well-Organized
A team leader needs to have great organizational skills. Working on improving these skills is of utmost importance for being a great project manager.
You have to be alert all the time and stay updated on everything that’s happening within your team. Then you need to juggle all those things together and be able to take control.
Here’s what that means:
- create and organize the team’s schedule
- assign tasks
- set deadlines
- prioritize
Your team needs you to be able to organize their projects and make a correct estimate of how much time they need to fulfill their tasks.
6. Learn Proper Task Delegation
When it comes to assigning tasks to your team members, you have to be careful about how you do it. It’s important that you learn about proper task delegation.
Here’s what you need to learn about:
- understanding which tasks are easy to handle and which are not
- recognizing the potential in junior engineers and knowing their limitations
- always challenging your team members with tasks they’ve never handled before
- making sure you’re observing how your team is doing
“A great leader and a true mentor always needs to push the limits of those in the team. Give them a task they feel they can’t handle and be there each step of the way to prove them wrong” says Derek Pearson, a team manager at Grab my Essay.
source: Pexels
7. Encourage Innovation
You never know what hidden talents your team members might have. And, if you don’t encourage creativity and innovation, you might never know.
This is why you have to nurture an inspiring and productive environment in your offices.
You have to find a way to motivate your team members to:
- speak openly about their ideas
- give suggestions
- oppose your opinion
- try to do things differently
Technology is not a black and white field. There’s always something that can be done differently and new things that can be introduced.
Let your team members speak about their ideas and help them shape those ideas into actual strategies, techniques, and plans.
Final Thoughts
The world of tech is an open book. A tech team leader needs to have an open approach as well. Working on your self-improvement, and serving as a role model to your team members is the key. Also, motivating them to learn, innovate, and create will make immense changes in the way your team works.
The steps above will help you be a better leader. Follow these steps and start working on your personal and professional growth today. Try Hibox today for an all-in-one collaboration and communication tool to manage your tech team’s projects and tasks.
