Tools for Team Leadership: Delivering the X-Factor in Team Excellence

1-What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization?

Leadership is considered as the X-factor for the success of a team concept. It necessarily does not mean that the team is over-dependent on one or two members of the team. Rather, it means that there is willingness shown by a few people on the part of all team members to take the task of influencing and leading people and events to move forward. For any leader, there are plenty decisions which are crucial to the success of the team. Some of these decisions are consequential, while others are trivial. The most important decisions which are made by a leader can be;

1. 1. Vision: Identifying a clear vision is crucial for the health of a team and the organization. Any team exits for a reason. If the team is not clear about its destination, it will lose its way.
   2. Strategy: After identifying the destination by defining the vision, the next important decision of the leader is to pick the right path or strategy to achieve its vision.
   3. People: Another most important decision which leaders have to make is to decide on the right people for the team.

2-Communicate effectively is vital for both local and virtual teams. So, how can we pick the right channel for our message? How can we avoid communication fatigue?

With the bombardment of messages and emails from every side through digital communication, communicating an important message through to the audience has become a task in itself. Communication has always been vital to the success of a team. All collaboration depends on communication within a team. With the emergence of globalization, remote and virtual teams have emerged. It has raised the bars for efficient communication. For sending a message, the selection of the right channel has become crucial. For this, the following steps can be followed;

1. 1. Identify the audience who is targeted and find out the channels this audience usually uses
   2. Analyze the message, select the channel which allows more room for the message to be communicated
   3. Select interactive channels, if feedback is needed

It is also helpful in breaking through the communication fatigue. Employees are bombarded with emails and memos all the time. It leads to ignorance of important messages. One can prevent this by changing the channel of communication. Another solution can be to use interactive channels for getting attention. Furthermore, pictorial or visual representation of the message can also be used as an alternative (Huszezo, 2010).

Reference

Huszezo, G. E. (2010). Tools for Team Leadership: Delivering the X-Factor in Team Excellence. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.