The role and responsibilities of a Team Leader
In businesses it is becoming the norm to have multiple people working collaboratively together on different areas of a project. In these teams, it is always important to have a team leader to guide and motivate. Team leaders can clearly be defined using John Adairs situational leadership model. This theory states that every team is made up of three main elements: Task, Team and Individual. When a team begins working on a specific project the team leader is required to focus on the goals of the team, what resources are needed to achieve these goals and any deadlines that can be set to monitor progress (task). In considering this, it is important to look to your team member’s strengths in order to focus on how the tasks will be divided amongst the team, how often the team meet and how they will measure success (team). In addition, it is the obligation of a team leader to ensure that individuals are working to their full potential, so that they are communicating and engaging with one another where necessary. An example of this could be health and safety or compliance protocols the members need to adhere to (individual). The above relates to my role directly as I am responsible for encouraging the team to not only utilise all the systems available to them to their full potential, but also to play on their particular strengths to complete the job to the highest standard, including ways of being more productive and driving down inefficiency. I lead and coach the team with a newly implemented system and provide continuous training as this system is updated every month. I have built a trust network with my team so they will always be honest throughout the day with me as to why certain jobs may not be done.
The responsibilities of a team leader can also be divided further from the three elements evaluated above to co-ordinator, facilitator and coach. Co-ordinator focuses on the task