6 tips to be an effective team manager

Team management skills are essential for today's manager. Being an effective manager is after all the key to your own success. Here are some tips to handle your team right and win them over to work and a winning attitude.

Leaders are born and not created may be true - but everyone has the potential and ability to be an effective team leader. Team management is a skill that can be mastered - and you can do it easily enough, as long as you have an open mind and hold no prejudices towards anyone.

Here are some tips to handling your team and winning them over to work and a winning attitude:

• Don't play favourites: This is one of the most frustrating prejudices that most team members face - a boss who plays the favouritism game. Some members of the team can apparently do no wrong and others no matter what they do are never right. Fighting the prejudices of such a boss is usually an impossible situation for team members and highly de-motivating. Team dynamics will suffer if certain individuals always get preferential treatment. As a team manager you need to insure you have no favourites. Personal likes and dislikes must be kept out of the purview of daily work. You are bound to lose a lot of good employees if you play this game.

•  Give credit where due: As an effective manager always acknowledge the good work done by an employee and be sure to give credit to the person directly responsible for the work. At a senior level you may interact only with managers, but when you are really pleased with some work done, be sure you include the juniors who were involved with implementation, in your accolades. A quick email or few words of praise will go a long way in boosting the morale of employees and establishing you as a boss who appreciates employees for their hardwork.

•  Let employees make mistakes: Give your team members the freedom to take their own decisions and manage things. Never be afraid to give responsibility to your team - only when you repose confidence in their abilities will they be encouraged to meet your expectations and push themselves to greater heights. Of course your guidance and support is important and you need to be there to help them learn from their mistakes in case things dont work out.

•  Network effectively: As a team manager you need to be aware of your team's strengths and weaknesses and be sure to highlight individual strenghts to your own seniors. You need to insure that your supervisors are informed and kept aware of the team's progress and achievements as also any problem areas the team per se may be facing. (Read: 5 networking tips for introverts )This projects you as a capable leader in the eyes of the team, as they can be assured that with you as the leader - they would be taken care of and need only focus on giving their best at work.

• Set processes: Once you have a motivated team ready to give their best, make sure processes are as streamlined as possible for smooth functioning and the team is given a certain standard to maintain. As a good manager you should view things at a strategic level and find ways to improve processes and procedures so that your team can perform more efficiently.

• Align team goals with organisational goals: Finally as an effective team manager it is important for you to give the right direction to your team and be sure that your team goals are aligned with company goals. Example, if the company is in cost-cutting mode, be sure your team is implementing this in all possible ways. It is important for you to have a team consensus on all organisational issues and if you have effectively managed the earlier five steps, you will have a team who is willing to co-operate and be led by you.