A crucial part of being a team lead is to lead a team, and by extension yourself, to better performance at work. It’s an upward hill at the start, but the sooner you develop a proactive strategy for doing so, the stronger your team gets and the easier it is to manage them.
Unsure what goes into a strategy for improving team performance? Let’s start with tackling these five fundamentals:
1. Set KPIs (key performance indicators)
Before you and your team can set out to achieve success, you need to work together to define it. You can't expect an individual to contribute to a project they have no context of.
Establish benchmarks for success, for the team as a whole and for individual positions. Depending on the size of your team and the roles of each person, you can be flexible with how those look. Consider OKRs, objectives and key outcomes, and SMART goals as frameworks or techniques for setting KPIs to define your team’s goals.
If the primary objectives of any position or project are well defined and communicated, your team will always know the appropriate direction to be moving in.
2. Create and rely on systems and processes
Once everyone on your team understands exactly what each of their roles are, you can move on to explaining how they are carried out. Their responsibilities will be carried out better if you can also establish well-organised methods for finishing typical chores.
For instance, having established procedures for running sales meetings or what is necessary to start a new campaign means you won't have to spend hours planning before each campaign, and your team won't have to rush to compile statistics before weekly meetings.
Instead, you can all learn the same set of procedures. Systems make cooperating and passing tasks between employees more orderly, in turn lessening the mental strain on your team.
3. Deep dive into performance improvement plans
Even the most motivated members on your team occasionally fall short of work performance standards, despite having defined goals and procedures in place.
Start by just talking to them and trying to understand why they’re not performing up to the clear standards that have been set for them. You never know—a simple misunderstanding or something that can easily be fixed could be the reason.
If the problem persists, you might need to hold their hands for a bit to guide them in the proper direction. In such a situation, a performance improvement plan may be useful. Present a plan of action and timeline with clear steps to take, and provide your team with all the necessary resources.
4. Review regularly
While annual reviews are part of a more traditional concept of management, the current workforce is far too dynamic for a single annual performance evaluation. Instead of relying on a once-off meet, try to see your team as often as you can without interfering with their work or being redundant.
You can hold weekly team meetings (also known as standups), alternatively you can try monthly or quarterly individual reviews.
Because of this timetable, your team will meet regularly enough for you to know what they're working on and how it's progressing. While individual meetings allow you to zoom out with someone and look at their bigger career, team meetings are an opportunity to assess progress on ongoing initiatives and keep things moving.
Most importantly, regular reviews enable you to take proactive measures against any potential performance difficulties before they materialise.
5. Motivate and empower
And finally, remember to bring your team spirit. As a team lead, you assume responsibility for both the performance and attitude of your staff. Fortunately, enhancing the first frequently enhances the second.
As a leader, you should make an effort to maintain your team's sense of engagement and motivation.
We'll leave it up to you to decide what works best for your business and how to do it in line with that culture. However, there are several tried-and-true methods for increasing employee motivation, such as incentive programs like bonuses or perks, fostering deeper bonds among team members, and approaching management from the appropriate perspective yourself.
These five suggestions will hopefully help you to become someone who manages the to-do lists of the organisation's staff, to becoming a leader who supports their subordinates' growth and success.