There’s more to leading a team than just telling people what to do. You want to lead your team effectively, and not a lot of people can do that. To do so, you need to lead with consistency and constantly pursue your personal development and the development of your team. If you want to lead your team in a more efficient matter, consider using the following tips.

Find Your Management Style

One of the first things you should do is find your management style and stick to it. A boss who constantly flips their opinions on how they want things done is annoying, not effective, so you want to stay consistent in how you lead those around you. Not doing so will lead to insecurity and frustration among your team, not efficiency. When you do find a leadership style, make sure it won’t contradict what you’ve previously laid out for your team or the direction you’re taking everyone. 

Set Goals and Track Progress

As a leader, you should set both individual and collective goals for your team, then track the progress for said goals. Doing this will set a clear goal for everyone to strive toward and motivate them to aim for where the company is headed. Not only will creating goals for your team give them something to strive for but tracking everyone’s progress will let you know how the team works together overall and let you look at their daily progress. This will help you find any potential weak spots within the team and let you work on improving them.

Give Constructive Criticism

There’s an art to constructive criticism, and as a leader, it’s your duty to learn it. Constructive criticism is when you offer rational opinions on another person’s work with both positive comments and feedback on what could be improved. This is friendly, not an attack, and you should make sure it comes across as such. All of your feedback should be helpful, specific, and sincere, with the goal of helping your team improve. 

Treat Yourself Equally

No matter what, you should not be giving yourself special treatment compared to your team. Your team looks up to you and follows your lead, so everything you want your team to do should be what you do as well. If you’re not going to follow a direction you give your team, why should they? The best thing you can do is always lead by example; your team will follow suit.