Tips and Tricks On Effectively Managing a Team

Whether you’ve managed many teams over the years or are entering an entirely new role, knowing a few tips and tricks when it comes to effectively managing a team will help you—no matter your past experience.

Even if your job title doesn’t have the word “manager” in it, many roles still have some element of team management in them. Managing a team effectively is about understanding that the employees on your team are making your vision—or your company’s vision—a reality, and it’s your job to get out of their way.

It’s important not to force your employees to work a certain way and understand that if they’re getting the job done, then the way the work is completed doesn’t matter as much. Jason, manager at JJsHouse.com, sets goals to help his team succeed together.

“When I want my team to achieve something, I set a goal for all of them. Setting a goal for just one team member is a narrow focus and isolates team members,” Jason says. Instead, he encourages his team to work together on projects like dress designs and color coordination. That way, their successful venture is a boon to the entire team.

Another important element of managing a successful team is in publicly recognizing and rewarding hard work and privately discussing failings. While management styles differ between teams and companies, this is one of the few pieces of advice that hold true no matter what type of environment you work in. Managers who publicly humiliate or discuss employee’ failings only serve to alienate their employees on their team and breed resentment. However, managers that make a point to publicly reward hard work they make the intended recipient feel valued and show the rest of the team that their hard work will also be rewarded.

Yvonne, manager of VeryVoga.com, uses this tactic for her team:

“Whenever one of my employees goes above and beyond, I congratulate them in our weekly team meetings. A great side effect is that it encourages other team members to praise each other as well, which creates a better environment and more cohesive team.”

The only rule with this tactic is in making sure the reward is consistent—otherwise, you’ll be seen as playing favorites.

As with most management tactics, consistency is also going to be key. Being a manager is about giving your employees a structured system they can rely on. We all flourish with structure and safety and having a manager that maintains this consistency will allow employees to flourish, to feel safe to try and to work to succeed.

As a manager, you need to set the example for your team with what is permissible and with what you want to see at work. If you demand your team is in at a certain time but you are always late and people stop showing up on time, or you lose your temper easily but are shocked when an employee does it, you are simply creating an environment where this behavior is permissible.

Instead, be the manager you want your employees to emulate. If you are the perfect worker, your worker’s will follow you.

Speaking of a perfect worker, it’s also important to ensure that you protect the health of your employees by making various care services available to them. Options like a chaplaincy service, psychiatric or mental well-being service, and other general well-being services can massively improve your employees’ behavior, boost their mood, and make them more productive at work. Making such services available shows your workers that you care about them.