Successfully Managing a Team: 10 Strategies You Can Use

Updated 14 July 2023

Good employee management can help a company succeed and meet its goals because employees feel they contribute to the company's productivity and accomplishments. As a manager, it's important to set reasonable expectations and create a positive work environment. Effectively managing people is a valuable skill, especially when your employees have different goals and expectations. In this article, we explain what managing a team means and provide 10 strategies for doing so effectively.

What does managing a team mean?

Managing a team means leading other employees to reach their deadlines and career goals. Typically, the primary goal of managing a team is to coordinate employees to complete specific tasks. This might include assisting the employees with tasks or answering their questions. Managing a team can involve skills like:

Communication: As a manager, you may use written and verbal communication with your employees. The information you communicate can include task assignments, directions or company-related updates.
Collaboration: When working with your team, you might need strong collaboration skills to help encourage your employees to work together and ensure they meet your project goals.
Analysis: Typically, managers use analysis to help them gauge how their employees are performing over set time periods, and they usually share this analysis with employees in performance reviews.
Time management: In a management role, you're usually responsible for managing multiple projects at one time, which may require good time management skills. These can help you prioritise which tasks you and your team should complete first.
Organisation: Strong organisational skills are useful, especially when you're managing employee records and performance reviews. You might also benefit from using these skills when you're archiving completed projects for future reference.

Developing these useful skills and others may help you manage your team more effectively. They can also help you ensure your team reaches its highest level of success.

Get your personalised job feed on Indeed

Be the first to see new jobs in your area

10 strategies for how to manage your team effectively

If you're interested in learning how to manage your team effectively, here are 10 steps you can reference to help you grow as a leader in your company:

1. Communicate effectively

Communicating effectively means using verbal or written communication and also listening to your employees. Periodically meet with your team and ask how they're doing with their goals and accomplishing tasks to show you care. This can also help you understand more about your employees and establish trust with them. Use your communication skills to provide constructive criticism so employees know what they're doing correctly and what to improve upon. Active listening skills can be useful throughout these types of discussions. Another element to consider when communicating with employees is to provide them with frequent updates so tasks don't surprise them.

2. Consider body language

Understanding body language may also help you better recognise how your employees are feeling and help you use positive body language toward them. For example, open body language, such as facing someone and keeping your arms at your sides, indicates that you're approachable. If you use closed body language, like avoiding eye contact or crossing your arms, you might show that you're not willing to engage with others. Being conscious of nonverbal communication, like body language, may increase your approachability as a manager.

3. Monitor your time

Managers can be responsible for multiple tasks, which makes the ability to monitor time very important. When delegating responsibilities, it might help to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team. This can help you determine who to give each task to, allowing you to maximise the time of everyone on the team. You can also make sure your meetings are clear and concise because shorter meetings may help you allocate your time elsewhere. Use tools like detailed schedules or checklists to help you monitor your time effectively.

4. Manage employee performance

Managers can motivate and encourage employees to perform at their highest ability. When having discussions about individual performance metrics, it's important to remain respectful and calm. If an employee hasn't met their goals consistently, you might intervene to provide them with constructive criticism and improvement plans to help them meet their goals regularly.

Structure these conversations with positive feedback at the beginning and end to remind your employee of their positive contributions. When sharing constructive feedback, provide them with actionable steps they can take to meet their goals. Throughout these conversations, you might assure your employees that they can also share their ideas and opinions so you can work on supporting them in their career objectives.

5. Provide your employees with training

Providing the employees you manage with training opportunities can show them your investment in their individual success. The training you provide may vary depending on the industry you work in and the direct duties they have. You may be able to obtain funding from your company to cover any registration fees for the employees who choose to participate.

6. Act as a mentor

There are many ways you can act as a mentor for your employees, including providing them with helpful tips, being readily available to assist them as needed and working with them to set personalised goals. Specifically, you can work to help them align their goals to boost their productivity and create a more collaborative work environment between team members.

You might also ask senior employees who are successful in your company to work with entry-level team members. This can be especially useful if you manage someone who's interested in working in another department within the company or in a higher-level position. To learn about what your team members' goals are, you might engage in one-on-one meetings with each member of your staff.

7. Set boundaries

When managing a team, it's important to set boundaries to ensure professional etiquette is present in all situations. For example, you might establish a way for your team to communicate with each other or resolve conflicts internally. To determine boundaries for your team, you can reference company policies and engage your team in discussions to identify the ones they find important. Including everyone in these discussions might allow for a more collaborative and healthy workplace environment.

8. Engage employees

An engaged workforce allows managers to help their organisation excel. Recognising employee achievements and rewarding them for their accomplishments is one way to keep them engaged. It's also important to reward employees for hard work and the willingness to help their team succeed. This can help you keep exemplary employees on your team and increase employee loyalty, as employees feel like a valuable part of the group. There are many ways you can reward your employees, including:

Gift cards
Hand-written notes
Certificate awards
Company-wide recognition

The methods you select may depend on your individual company or management style and the resources available to you.

9. Offer technology tools and support

Providing employees with the technology tools they need to accomplish their daily duties is beneficial because it allows for more streamlined operations. Additionally, technology might make employees feel empowered to continue learning and growing in their industry. If your employees have questions about specific technology features, you may act as a guide or reference for them when they need assistance. For example, if someone you manage is using a new communication tool and struggling to upload a document, you might help them navigate the problem by providing them with steps to complete the task.

Another way you can offer support to your employees is by creating detailed guides they can use while they're working. For example, if your employees need to reference different coding languages, you might provide them with a document with coding shortcuts. The number of guides you create might vary on the work your employees complete.

10. Make yourself accessible

Making yourself accessible to the individuals you manage can also help promote a healthier workplace where employees feel comfortable discussing their challenges and career goals with you. This might also help you build stronger relationships with your employees, which is useful when you need to have difficult conversations. For example, if a project your team worked on didn't meet its goals, you might gather them for a constructive group conversation rather than only meeting with specific individuals. Doing this can help everyone on your team learn how to better approach similar projects in the future.

The Importance of Managing a Team Through Change (Plus Tips)