Leading a New Team

Leading a New Team

It is not a pathetic scene to see novices being appointed for leadership positions. Some are ridiculously clueless on the first step to take when finally in office. Soothingly, the leadership instinct infused in every man helps him to navigate at moments such as this. Apparently, changes in leadership are inevitable at strategic moments in organisations {NGOs, Faith-Based (churches, mosques etc), Community Based, Voluntary Associations etc}. While some organisations operate a rotary system where leaders are selected or appointed to lead departments or units in the organization within a specified time frame, other institute hire or appoint a new team leader due to change in either the environment {technology, competitors, suppliers and buyers}, architecture of the organization or the vision of the organization. Assuming YOU are this new team leader, appointed or hired either from within or outside the organization, you are saddled with providing answers to these questions: how do you meet management or stakeholders’ goals and yet keep the team motivated to perform and win? How do you make alive a seemingly lifeless team? What are the greatest challenges you would face while trying to accomplish that which you have been chosen or hired for? How do you cast your vision and gain the buy-in of a team with players having conspicuous unaligned agendas? Seeking to understand the following would help a great deal to navigate well at your resumption in office. 


     1.  The Situation

Seek to understand the circumstances that brought you into the present leadership position. A thorough assessment would help you evaluate, to a large degree, the expectations of the major stakeholders. It is a horribly arrogant or insensitive blunder to make assuming responsibility with a sheer neglect of the shared history of the team or presuming it was all bad before you got there. Trust is earned. And leadership is built on the solid ground. Thus, you need to earn the right to lead the team irrespective of your appointment pattern. Maximize your intuitive ability. Rightfully discern the situation at hand, juxtaposing past events with the present and foreseeing what future trends portend.


      2.    The People

A leader could get nothing done except with people. An exemplary leader can work with and through a team. People are your asset. The right people your greatest asset. However, it’s only a thought away for the supposedly wrong guy to be the top gun on the team. Every leader must learn to maximize the troublesome Jacks on his team. Never shy away from problematic or unresolved issues. Be open. Study every individual on the team. As a leader, you must learn, via any resource at your disposal, to study people from afar or close by. I remember once working with a 45-man team {core leaders} as a University undergraduate, I designed a table using Microsoft Excel on my PC to gather insightful info regarding my leaders ranging from their identity, potentials, passion, strengths and weaknesses, relationship status, academic and financial strength to their perceived sphere of influence, and so on. In another team I led, I used my journal for this purpose. I refer to this input from time to time. “Guy, why put yourself in such stress?” Someone just asked! I wanted to relate with our team members more closely. It was a bid to sharpen my sensitivity to spot any graceless mien, displayed by any leaders, at my slightest gaze. I aimed to establish a connection…feeling their pains and celebrating their gains…seeing them beyond the fellowship’s positional leadership structure. Of course, my discoveries, however organized, could not and did not reveal all the intricacies of my fellow leaders, it was one of the factors that aided the win-win experience we recorded after the dispensation. You might not be a detailed leader as such, knowing that leadership is deliberate, take the discipline to know your people. It is gradual, evolving and adventurous. Know your people’s temperaments, breakpoint, yielding point etc. More importantly, this would give you a scan of how to stretch them out of their comfort zone and not their gift region. 


     3.   The Vision

Having understood the situation behind your emergence into leadership and the people you’d work with {or WIN with as a like to use it}, you must also aim to run with a shared vision. Shared vision here does not imply that every team member begin to suggest a vision for the team. The different operating heads of an organization are obliged to run with the vision set by the point man. While it is important to write vision, leaders must take it a step further by creating vision ~ that participatory atmosphere witnessing the contribution of every team member. People tend to own what they create. Ensure your vision accomplishes the Management’s objective, connects the past with the present while providing direction for the team, and propels passion in your team players. Stay focused and discipline on your vision.   


     4.   Timing

A good interpretation of the season or phase that the organization is presently thriving in, is of utmost importance. Beyond the organization, what time is it with respect to the Industry? What are the recent global trends and what are their likely implications regarding the firm. World’s Leading Forecaster on Global Trends, Professor Richard Scase defined leadership as understanding times, seasons and trends and knowing actions to stay ahead of the game. His definition is very similar to {or culled from} the Biblical Sons of Isaachar who had expert knowledge of the times, the best corresponding actions and had their kinsmen at their command. Hence, you must rightly discern the timing that brought you into the organization or the new team. 


     5.   Priorities

Outline the basic needs - the areas that need your whole concentration. Understanding priorities help you know what decisions to make per time and ultimately actions to enact. However, you must learn to harness the power of priority backed with concentration. Impliedly, you not only know what to do, you also strive to get it done. Great leaders focus seventy percent of their time and energy on their strength; twenty-five percent on learning; and five percent on their weakness.

Conclusively, leadership is dynamic and you’d most likely meet situations you might not have even read about in any leadership material. The points above too are not exhaustive though foundational. I charge you to always trust that leadership instinct within you. There’s a guide we can all get from within however dependent on what we have fed that inner entity with. Raise the edge always! Take the LEAD!

Femi TIAMIYU

#LEAD360

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