Regardless of the professional skills at hand, many leaders encounter serious challenges in their journey to establish a collaborative and healthy working atmosphere. That is because effective team management requires time, serious efforts, and dedication along with professional skills.
Leading a team is not a piece of cake, but when done correctly, you will reap all the fruitful benefits it offers, whether it be successfully handling tough projects, inspiring your team to go above and beyond to present innovative solutions, or boosting motivation and creativity within the team.
It becomes even more crucial when you are leading a software team. As a leader, you face many challenges in working with different professionals who may sometimes be sensitive to receiving feedback regarding identified drawbacks.
Consequently, whether you lead an on-site or remote software team, you need some important skills for effective management. Here is our roundup of the best strategies to maintain cohesive teamwork.
- Evaluate Significant Metrics
To measure your team’s efficiency, you need to utilize appropriate metrics first. Typically, companies establish KPIs to gain a comprehensive view of overall teamwork. At their core, KPIs are perfect methods to highlight both your business’s strengths and weaknesses.
You can track different KPIs, such as customer satisfaction and customer retention rate. If you incorporate these metrics, it will help you ensure that your team builds high-quality and reliable software that meets user needs.
You may simplify the process by utilizing Full-Time Equivalent tools to assess your business’s potential productivity. This method is foolproof for measuring your software team’s efficiency.
While many consider calculating Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) a hard-to-use tool, there are some rules on how to calculate Full-Time Equivalent (FTE), such as creating a list of all staff, including employment type, working hours,etc. That can help you. With FTE you can get a deep overview of the overall productivity of your employees within a team, department, or the entire company.
- Be Clear About your Expectations
Clearly defined expectations are a vital part of every successful collaboration. Additionally, it is crucial to communicate openly with your team and define project goals, each teammate’s roles and responsibilities, and your expectations.
Establishing a working format early on is also important. Specifically, define how your team should interact, what kind of team management tools they should use, how they should share feedback, etc. This will enhance the accountability of your team.
- Concentrate on Goals
Instead of focusing solely on goals, many managers concentrate on working formats. For example, many expect their team to come into the office early in the morning, take breaks at fixed hours, and stay in the office until the end of the working day. However, this approach is becoming less and less relevant these days.
Offering your team flexibility and the opportunity to choose working conditions, whether they are remote or on-site, will boost their motivation. If you can’t fully operate the remote, then you can offer hybrid graphics. It will help your employees feel valued and will significantly reduce stress at the workplace.
As a result, you will have a motivated team that won’t just count hours to end their work and leave the office. Instead, you will have a team with whom you can address whenever you need them, and they will be ready to assist you. Simply put, less micromanagement, more focus on goals, and establishing a motivated team will become easier.
- Document Tasks
Another important component of managing your software team effectively is documenting tasks. With that aim, you can opt for project team management software aligned with your needs and budget. With the right software at hand, you may create a productive workspace for your entire team, regardless of their location and time zone.
This becomes particularly advantageous when overseeing remote teams. It is possible to create numerous workspaces and projects in a single virtual space, facilitating seamless team collaboration.
Additionally, such software enables monitoring the progress of each team member, so you can provide feedback as necessary.
- Be Transparent
Transparency and honesty are the building blocks of successful teamwork. So, be transparent not only when communicating expectations and outlining project details but also in the process of calculating salaries.
It is equally important to communicate clearly about benefit calculation, mentioning what metrics you will use. You may make this process smooth and transparent by using a pay stub generator for the team.
- Assist in Problem Solving
Even with top talent on board, there is no assurance of avoiding situations where the team may encounter problems. For example, your software team might miss deadlines due to issues in one stage, preventing progress, or perhaps the workflow surpasses the team’s current capacity.
In this case, you have two options for problem-solving: hiring additional staff or reviewing your priorities. At first glance, helping hands seems like the perfect solution, but the second option is more advisable.
Let’s discuss why. In general, your teammates are already familiar with the project they are working on. They probably have their own style of work as well. Introducing a new team member would require time for them to become involved in the project and integrate into the team.
As it is to say, instead of bringing benefits, hiring new people could potentially become a reason for new problems. Therefore, a wiser choice would be to enhance communication, re-prioritize tasks, or provide additional training to your existing team.
- Recognize Achievements
Effective team management goes beyond delegating and prioritizing tasks appropriately. It also means recognizing the team’s efforts by showing your appreciation. Showing your appreciation means valuing your team. It also shows that you don’t take their job for granted. Valued people are more inclined to become loyal and motivated employees.
To get to the point, you can strengthen the team with employee recognition awards. You may provide annual big awards or monthly recognition awards. The point is to show your team that you acknowledge their efforts.
- Schedule Team Meetings and One-on-Ones
Team meetings are an inextricable part of the job. Typically, managers hold short daily meetings to check the task progress of each team member and to be aware of any issues. These meetings are crucial, as they showcase the progress of employees, help identify drawbacks, and assist those team members who need additional help.
However, some people may not feel confident enough to talk about their problems during team meetings. It is vital to hold one-on-one weekly or monthly meetings with each member. Therefore, you will encourage them to openly talk about problems. It will help you address any roadblocks and drive project success.
- Organize Team Building Activities
You have probably come across team building as a benefit offered by many innovative companies. Decades ago, these kinds of activities were not supposed to be so effective. Typically, organizations didn’t incorporate team building into their working culture. Some considered it a waste of time, while others underestimated its effectiveness.
However, team building has proven to be a simple yet effective tool to noticeably boost team motivation. That is why it is becoming more and more popular in modern workplaces. These activities help people become closer, spend time outside of work, cheer up together, and foster positive vibes. They also help maintain healthy relationships in the workplace.
- Provide Training
If you want to lead a professional and highly skilled team, then offer them opportunities to expand their skill set. For example, you can provide them with training or relevant classes. Investing in your employees is not gonna sleep away unnoticed. Professional employees will not only help propel your business forward but also be more loyal to a company that invests in their education.
To provide training, you can purchase subscriptions from renowned platforms like Udemy or Coursera, or organize in-house classes. If you choose the second option, you can encourage your senior professionals to share their knowledge with colleagues. Thus you can enhance collaboration and foster a knowledge-sharing culture within your team.
- Motivate Your Team
To establish a productive team, you need motivated employees. You can boost employee motivation, for example, by sharing positive feedback, giving your employees authority, trusting them, and embracing creativity.
Collaborative teams are the most productive ones, so take action to establish a supportive workplace. You can achieve this by organizing team buildings or creating custom coffee table photo books that tell the story of collaborative work experiences. It’s a great way to collect warm memories and remind your team about the importance of collaboration.
Wrapping Up
Effective team management is an art. To become a master, you first need to be passionate about your work, then understand what kind of professionals you need in your team, hire them, and ultimately put in a lot of effort to retain and motivate them.
We have skimmed through some basic steps you can take to create a collaborative workplace. It’s the basis that will help you establish a strong and loyal team. However, you can get creative and integrate other tips that align with your goals and cater to your team’s specific needs.
Remember, effective team management is an endless journey of growth and adaptability. Keep an eye on new trends that innovative companies incorporate into their team management strategies.
