Focus on These 7 Leadership Competencies to Be a Better Team Leader

Your strategy is only as strong as the ability to execute at the frontline. You can have all the great plans, six sigma workouts, and brilliant competitive positioning in the universe, but if the human beings doing the real work lack the competence, confidence, and creativity to pull it off, you’re back to muddling through.

The team leader role is a tough gig. Team leaders are uniquely squashed between supporting the folks doing the heavy lifting (e.g. producing the product or serving customers) and the leaders above rolling out their strategy and vision. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. Many team leaders feel they have limited power to change the system or culture (an issue we address in BYOO: Build Your Own Oasis). To make matters worse, many team leaders are promoted into the role based on their exceptional technical skills and general good spirits, without much scaffolding or support.

In all the frontline teams I’ve worked with over the years, I see 7 vital roles to exceptional execution.

7 Vital Roles of an Exceptional Team Leader

Team leaders wear many hats, not always all at the same time. Concentrating on these 7 roles in your leadership development efforts will go a long way to exceptional frontline execution.

#1 The Translator:  Don’t Motivate Until You Translate

• Key Question:  What’s most IMPORTANT?
• Key Behaviors: Stays on top of the industry and competitive trends; Helps his or her team understand how their work fits into the bigger picture; Works to ensure other departments know what we do and why it’s important.

#2 The Builder: To See More, Be More

• Key Question: How do we IMPROVE?
• Key Behaviors: Challenges each team member to continuously improve their skills; Addresses performance issues head on; Provides consistent, candid feedback.

#3 The Connector: Trust Them to Trust You

• Key Question:  How can we best work TOGETHER?
• Key Behaviors:  Communicates frequently through multiple channels; Provides opportunities for cross training; Helps the team surface and discuss their conflicts productively.

#4 The Galvanizer: Help Them Taste the Win

• Key Question:  How do WE make a difference?
• Key Behaviors: Rallies his or her team toward a compelling vision of the future; Asks great questions that inspire employees to do more; People on his/her team are excited about what they are up to.

#5 Accelerator: Burn the Script

• Key Question: How can I HELP?
• Key Behaviors: Finds ways to eliminate wasteful and redundant work; Runs efficient and effective meetings; Includes the right people in decisions so projects move along efficiently.

#6 Backer: Detect, Then Protect

• Key Question:  How do we accomplish MORE?
• Key Behaviors: Proactively removes roadblocks for his or her team; Helps team members recover from setbacks or disappointments; Will “take a bullet” for the team.

#7 The Ambassador: Polish the Boundaries

• Key Question:  How do we SHARE our success?
• Key Behaviors:  Provides the team with opportunities to communicate their results to key stakeholders; Advocates for team members and their careers; Helps employees build a strong network of position relations with other departments.

2021 Update For Team Leaders