10 Practical Team Management Skills &Tips to Develop Them

October 27, 2023March 5, 2024 Shailja Kaushik

Creating a perfect amalgamation of productive and innovative attitudes among team members requires excellent team management skills. In the same way that a conductor leads an orchestra, a team manager strives to bring all of his team members together so that they work in harmony, effectively, and efficiently. The ability to navigate challenging situations and come up with creative solutions to get the business moving is a key component of the art of managing a team. In this blog, let us understand the meaningful skills required to foster a high-performing and enthusiastic team.

Table of Contents

Team Management – An Overview

The main task of team management is to coordinate and organize a team and enable team members to perform their tasks to achieve a common goal. To manage a team, the team leader or manager must know how to support, motivate, encourage, and develop the skills of team members. Effective team management leads to a thriving work environment. Everyone is motivated to work, which prevents burnout.

The soft skills associated with team management are necessary to ensure good team performance, such as leadership skills, creative thinking, problem-solving, empathy, attention to detail, interpersonal communication, attentive listening, etc. The better a team manager is at these soft skills, the better that person will be in his or her role as a team manager. To become a better leader, you should read through your career-related job posting to comprehend dynamic responsibilities and know where you need to improve.

Difference Between Team Management and Team Building

The basic differences between team management and team building are:

Team Management	Team Building
Team management focuses on the functions of a team.	In team building, the goal is to form a cohesive team.
It emphasizes a team’s daily tasks and makes sure that everyone is on the same page.	It aims to improve team members’ capabilities for cooperation, problem-solving, and mutual trust.
Team management entails tasks such as assigning/tracking work, providing feedback, and making decisions.	Hiring new candidates, providing training, partnership formation, workshops, and activities to promote collaboration, mutual trust, and problem-solving skills among team members are all part of team building.
Effective team management requires an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the team members to work together more effectively.	Effective team building requires the teammates to have open communication, empathy, a sense of camaraderie, and a shared understanding of team goals.

12 Team Management Skills You Should Develop

Here are some important skills you require to handle a team effectively.

#1. Continuously Striving to Improve Oneself

Developing team management skills does not come with a stagnant and self-righteous attitude. Simply having the opportunity to lead a team does not entitle a person to be a good team leader. A person must motivate herself/himself to develop and grow in accordance with the situation. This means continuing to develop your patience and perseverance. To lead a team effectively, you must first set an example for your members to follow in terms of responsibility and being accommodating.

#2. Convincing and Effective Communicator

This entails the right articulation of words to convey a message. At the workplace, concise and clear communication is the key to leaving no room for doubt and confusion. Becoming an effective communicator will enable you to convey every detail of the work and processes that the team is responsible for achieving together. This makes it clear to everyone involved in the task what duties they are responsible for.

Here are some pointers for improving your communication skills so you can manage your team well:

Know what you want to say and how you want to say it
Speak with confidence
Be an attentive listener so that the team members feel heard and understood
Pause briefly to think and respond
Ask questions to the other person for clarification when needed
Maintain eye contact and composure throughout the conversation

Ace business communication to communicate effectively at your workplace.

#3. Develop Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

To acquire strong skills in dealing with teams, you need to master your emotional intelligence, among other things. It refers to a person’s ability to deal with his or her own emotions and those of others without being influenced by them. Great leadership is characterized by a strong EQ.

Here are some ways you can work on yourself to increase your emotional intelligence:

Always Try to Be Aware of Your Own Emotions: For example, if you feel uncomfortable when you see one of your team members, your body language will easily show your emotional state. To avoid this, be aware of your emotions and try to maintain a neutral stance so that you can bring everyone on your team.
Practice Self-Regulation: To make sure that your emotions are under control and to prevent any outbursts that can potentially lead to misunderstandings, one must practice self-regulation.
Build Interpersonal Skills: You can develop strong interpersonal skills by striving to be empathetic and becoming a ‘people person’, which are very much part of team management skills.
Maintain Transparency: Transparency is important to support your team by providing context and information in real-time, ensuring everyone knows who’s doing what and by when. It helps build mutual trust and understanding in a team.

Some ways to build transparency as a team leader are:

Create and maintain transparent communication channels for all team information.
Give team members constructive feedback to help them improve their work.
Document and share all necessary information that the entire team needs to know. Keep your team members informed about any changes promptly.
Let the team know what is expected of them in terms of performance and behavior.

#5. Concentrate on Providing Support Instead of Strict Management

Effective team management skills involve offering support over stringent management. In your role as a team leader or manager, it’s crucial to consistently prioritize the well-being of your team members and make efforts to bolster their pursuits toward attaining a personal career as well as team objectives.

Here are some recommendations in this regard:

Demonstrate leadership skills through your supportive actions rather than merely commanding your team members to do things.
Establish a precedent for how you expect your team members to conduct themselves.

#6. Understand Team Members’ Strengths and Weaknesses

The collective strength of the team can only be fully developed if the team leader or manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. Some may be good at solving problems, while others are good at contributing creative ideas, and so on. At the same time, each team member has some weaknesses that need to be addressed so that they can continue to grow.

Here are some ideas for utilizing team members’ strengths and improving their areas of weakness to foster an environment that is conducive to success:

Avoid generalizing opinions and drawing comparisons between members because each one of your teammates has their unique strengths and weaknesses.
Chart a personalized approach to help your team members work on their weaknesses. Give them opportunities at work that will enable them to challenge themselves and grow.
Do regular assessments and offer praise when you see improvement in a team member’s work.

#7. Set Clear Boundaries

It is one of the most important team management skills. While it is good to be a supportive and compassionate team leader, implementing disciplinary actions is also necessary. In doing so, you are setting clear boundaries regarding work commitments and maintaining professionalism. Make it clear to your team that they need to be disciplined in their job and that no leniency can be allowed.

Some ways to demonstrate this particular skill are:

From time to time, make your team members clear about their roles and responsibilities within the workplace.
Define realistic boundaries for working hours, meeting availability, email response times, and other interactions.
Except in urgent situations, refrain from sending work-related messages after working hours.
Refrain from making a problem personal. Discuss the matter quickly and in private if a team member acts in a way that is inconsistent with the rules or expectations.

#8. Foster Collaboration

Good team management is required to foster a sense of collaboration among team members to work together towards shared goals. In turn, it creates a sense of belonging. Everyone on the team feels like they are part of one unit, making it easier to achieve the objectives of what the team has to accomplish together.

Here are some tips to foster collaboration:

Ensure that team members communicate openly with each other.
Create an environment where team members can brainstorm ideas and solve problems together.
Build camaraderie and trust among team members through team-building activities.
Foster a culture of teamwork by rewarding team members for their efforts.

#9. Be Open to Change

Keeping an open mind towards changes at the workplace is important for demonstrating effective team management skills. To maximize team performance, it is necessary to be willing to try new ideas, adapt to changing circumstances, and be flexible.

Here are some ways you can demonstrate your flexibility to adapt to any changes:

Sometimes, a teammate might be struggling to do a task despite several attempts because it may be out of his or her skill set. In this case, try to re-assign the task that aligns with the skills of that team member.
Listen attentively to welcome different perspectives of team members in a meeting and allow others to share.

#10. Recognize and Celebrate Success

The importance of team management skills also lies in celebrating the success and great performance of the team. This acknowledgment not only inspires team members but also creates comradeship, resulting in long-term success and a sense of accomplishment. Celebrating accomplishments together will:

Boost the team’s morale
Promote a pleasant and thriving work environment
Reinforce the value of collaboration and hard work

How To Develop Team Management Skills?

To rise higher in your career prospects and achieve your career objectives, you have to make efforts to build the skills required to lead. Ask yourself the following questions to reflect on how you can develop team management skills:

Q. Are You Good Enough with Your Current Skills to Lead a Team?

You should have leadership skills to lead a team effectively. You must do a self-assessment of your skills (both social and technical). This means that you need to self-assess your strengths and weaknesses, how well you can communicate, how well you can work with your co-workers, whether you need to learn a new technical skill, and other factors that account for your management skills.

Q. What is the Next Step After Assessing Your Current Skills?

After analyzing your skills, set goals for your professional development. Determine the areas in which you need to improve and the time frame for achieving the goals, and make sure you actively showcase your career improvement efforts.

Q. Do You Seek Feedback?

Ask your team for feedback. If you’re unsure about your current skills or where you should prioritize development, reach out to your colleagues and ask for feedback. This allows you to identify your strengths and weaknesses. What is most important is how you choose to respond to the feedback. The constructive attitude will be that you demonstrate a willingness to learn.

Q. Where Can You Look for Opportunities to Practice Your Skills?

It’s your workplace where you will get the perfect opportunity to practice and demonstrate your managerial potential. For example, if you find that a project has stalled due to poor communication, identify the point of confusion and make a note to avoid it in the future. Or if a project has stalled due to micromanagement, find methods to help you manage the project from a high perch rather than from the bottom up.

Q. Should I Take Management Training?

Taking a professional management training course can help you understand the essential aspects of management skills more deeply. Although the workplace is the best place to learn practical skills, taking a professional course can give your team management skills more substance.

Conclusion

Managing a team can be hard at times because it involves accommodating everyone so that no one feels left out. Professional management skills, particularly in the workplace, require you to be a good listener, a good communicator, and a highly responsible individual. Start building your team management skills to climb the corporate ladder of success.