Tips on Becoming an Effective Group Leader

Nobody wants an incompetent leader leading their group, and nobody wants to be an incompetent leader either. Yet, we only ever witness a few people who are capable of managing a group by themselves correctly and properly. It would seem as though these people were born to be leaders and are on their way to become even bigger individuals someday.

But what if we told you that you too can be an effective and competent leader? Yes, you would still need experience to become seasoned with regards to leadership; but there are certain areas you can improve on when faced with a situation where you are a group’s leader.

These tips aren’t like Cinderella’s fairy godmother’s magic though, where you would instantly become a more effective group leader. Instead, think of these tips as Mulan’s Shang’s training regime to help mold you into a worthy, effective, and competent group leader. If you do not mind to put effort to improve yourself, then continue reading this article to find out how to become an effective group leader.

Why it is important to be competent

Whether you were chosen via votes or you volunteered for the position yourself, it is important as a leader to not let your groupmates down. As a leader, you can either lead the group to success or you can lead them into internal chaos and turmoil. This is one of the reasons why it is important for a group to have a reliable leader who leads them.

This is not to say that member participation should be minimal, however. Group members should still do their part with listening to instructions, raising ideas, and executing group work together. However, there will be no instructions to follow and no group work to be done without the approval and instructions of a leader.

Being a competent and effective group leader can also benefit you as well and not just your whole group. Being competent allows you to develop your leadership skills further and make you an even better and experienced leader. You can also gain confidence for your skills when handling a large group of individuals and can also write your leadership experiences in your resume to help make it look more attractive.

How to become an effective group leader

As previously mentioned earlier in this article, you still need to put a great amount of effort to improve your leadership skills and these tips are only here to help guide you to become a more effective and competent leader. You can find some of these tips to be more effective than others depending on your personality and leadership method, but hopefully these can help guide you to become a more competent and effective leader.

Get to know your members

If you want to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each of your groupmates to utilize them to their fullest potential, then take some time to get to know your members first. And if you already know your groupmates for a long time, then this saves you a lot of time to be reallocated to planning and group brainstorming.

Getting to know your members not only allows you to gauge each of your members’ strengths, but also allows the group to become a lot closer and well knit. By doing so, the group can function much better and will be united in achieving the group’s goal.

Utilize everyone’s strengths

If you want the group to work as efficiently and effectively as possible, then you can assign tasks based on every group member’s strength. This saves you the time and effort of teaching new skills to your group members in order for them to do a specific task. Plus it is only logical to assign the creation of the group’s logo to an artistically talented individual rather than one who lacks the gift of artistry.

And while it is also good to let your group members do something out of their comfort zones, there will be times when the time allocated to the creation of a group output is limited and your group needs to work as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Communicate

Communication is an essential tool an effective leader must have and must promote this to his/her group members as well. Proper communication allows for lesser misunderstandings between individuals in the group and also promotes a healthy work environment to work in. Your group members can also share their own ideas with regards to the project and make improvements.

Learning to communicate properly and to promote communication between group mates is something that you should work on if you really want to become an effective group leader. It sets a better mood, allows for correction of mistakes, and promotes proactivity within your group members. 

Avoid criticisms

Constructive criticism is one thing and negative criticism is a whole other thing. You must avoid the latter one as it can lower the group’s morale and lead to a less enthusiastic group. Instead of pointing out the mistakes your members made and making sure they know that they made a mistake, try to calmly make suggestions to avoid making the same mistake again.

There is nothing you can do to change the past, no matter how much of a good leader you are. So why not let go of the mistakes done in the past and try to work as a group to avoid making the same mistake twice? This shows that you are mature enough to accept mistakes and competent enough to guide your group not to make the same mistake again.

Praise success and learn from failures

A successful output should be praised while a failed output should not be shunned, but rather learned from. The same thought process occurs with the previously mentioned tip with the key difference being that this time, you should celebrate success. Praising a job well done can do wonders to boost the group’s overall morale and help them become more enthusiastic about their assigned tasks.

Become an example

The best way to encourage your group mates to do their tasks enthusiastically and religiously is to do those tasks enthusiastically and religiously as well. become an example for your members to follow and lead them with enthusiasm so that they too, will be enthusiastic about the output.

Nobody wants a leader that just bosses them around and sits on a chair all day. This only shows an incompetent leader. You can assign tasks to yourself as well and utilize what you are most capable of doing to help lessen the burden of your members and to show a good example to them. Becoming an example allows you to showcase your other skills aside from leadership and also shows you are an effective and capable leader.

Encourage

When your group is down in the dumps because of a slump, lack of fresh ideas, or failure of your first prototype, then it is the leader’s job to encourage your group members to keep a positive attitude and continue to pursue the group’s goal.

Encouragement of your group mates can also occur even when they are not feeling down. Encourage your group mates to speak their ideas out loud to promote better communication, encourage them to do their best in every task assigned to them, and encourage the group to work together to become more efficient.

Promote timeliness

Whenever you assign individual tasks to group members, always try to promote timeliness when they submit the tasks to you. Doing so makes it far easier to set a schedule for the tasks to be done and when to submit them. Timeliness in submitting assigned tasks also lessens any chances of disruption of the schedules of other group members and thus creates a harmonic and rhythmic flow of group tasks.

Set clear goals

Before the start of any group output or activity, an effective leader must first set clear goals to be achieved by the group in order for the group to have a clear trajectory of where to go. By doing so, you and your group members can have a specific goal to work on and will most likely work together to achieve that goal.

Your goals should be something attainable yet feels difficult to execute. By doing so, the group will feel a sense of achievement once that goal is reached. The group’s cooperation and teamwork will also improve, and most importantly, your members will trust you more as you have successfully guided them towards the goal you have set. 

Enjoy and have fun with your group

The last bit of advice we can give you for you to become an effective group leader is to enjoy the time you have with your group and have fun. After all, nobody wants to work in a depressing and work intensive environment. Try to crack up jokes or to just communicate and enjoy as a group to help break the ice and to promote a healthier environment for you and your group mates. You don’t have to be the best leader in the world for your group to enjoy and have fun, but the best leader in the world is someone who can make his group members have fun and enjoy.

Now that you are one step closer to being an effective and competent leader, you may want to improve other aspects of yourself as well, especially in academics. And one of the best ways to improve your academics is to hire a capable and skilled tutor. Lucky for you, we have just the right place to hire a highly skilled and capable tutor.

Introducing FamilyTutor, Singapore’s number one home and online tutoring agency. FamilyTutor is a home tuition agency with thousands of capable and skilled home tutors ready to teach every student from pre-school and beyond university level. We offer a variety of subjects to choose from with prices at market value. If you ever want to improve your academic performance, the consider hiring a home tutor from FamilyTutor to get you started on the track of academic excellence. 

Carelle

Carelle

Carelle is a teacher who has been through the ups and downs of the teacher and learner life. She wishes for every learner to gain educational satisfaction that will help embody the people they want to be in the future.

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