Team Management - Definition, Importance & Example
What is Team Management?
Team management is a series of steps and coordinated activities performed by leaders or managers along with a group of individuals referred as team to perform given tasks in stipulated time period. Team management is an important concept in every field where individuals with different skills work together to achieve a common goal. In business, team management is the collective and orchestrated effort of all employees to achieve organization objectives.
Importance of Team Management
Every organization comprises of many employees who are assigned a particular role in their job. Each individual performs their job and tasks as per the requirement. But the collective effort of everyone is what companies want to achieve their business goals. This is where team management and team work are essential.
Team management is essentially managing a team. Team building exercise, any issues among team members have to be resolved, the best skills have to be used and the business goals have to be met as a part of team management. The concept is closely interwoven with other skills like leadership, time management, decision making, good governance, communication making etc.
Team management is essential is managing any team. Depending upon the business requirement, there are different types of teams:
1. Cross Functional Team
2. Self Directed Work Team
3. Special Purpose Team
4. Shamrock Team
Whatever the team output required, the basic principles and strategies of team management are similar.
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8 Tips for Effective Team Management and Strategy
Team management is an important skill which is required by any manager. Companies have to identify leaders who can control, direct and maximize the output of their team. Some tips and strategies for effective team management are:
1. Communication
A good stream-lined and honest discussion with team members is essential for effective team management. The team members have to be constantly communicated business ideas and company strategies which the leadership is thinking about so that employees are aware of what the company’s vision is.
2. Motivation
Effective team management requires constant motivation of employees.
A strong team requires that all the members are motivated and full of positive energy to complete their tasks.
3. Feedback
Feedback of employees by seniors as well as peers is important for effective team management.
Companies evaluate employees using techniques like 360 degree feedback and help employees improve.
4. Transparency
Having a transparent organizational structure is critical for time management.
Subordinates and team members should have easy access to top management, discuss new ideas, revolt certain wrong practices, employee voice should be heard etc.
5. Delegation
Effective team management ensures a team leader uses delegation of authority while giving work to members. This helps in employee’s confidence who feel that the manager trusts their work skills and abilities.
6. Flexibility
Team members who have flexibility at work using methods like work life balance help in their business output, which is important for effective team management.
7. Reward
Recognizing the efforts of team members through rewards, awards, prizes, promotions etc. are essential for good team management as this helps in employee confidence.
8. Training.
Updating employee skills with regular training and development helps in strong team management. New skills, tools, learning methodologies, training sessions etc. help sharpen employee skills and thereby improve team output.
Key Advantages of Team Management
There are a lot of advantages of a properly managed team.
The 4 main advantages are:
1. Team Enablement
With proper team management, the leaders can find the gaps in the teams' skills and help them fill them through group trainings and discussions. Team members can help each other in leaning and understanding of the overall objectives and get enabled.
2. Increase in overall employee job satisfaction
Effective team management can lead to better understanding of the team members, managers and leaders. This leads to increase in overall job satisfaction among the team members. Teams work in synergy and understand each other better.
3. Effective collaboration
Proper team management leads to working collaboration among the group. Teams can divide work effectively as per the skills of individual team members and individuals. This can lead to overall improvement of the output
4. Improved Results
If the team works effectively through proper management, then the overall synergy makes sure that the output is improved and better results are seen from the team. Effective teams can achieve much more as compared to disengaged and unmanaged teams.
Examples of Team Management
There can be several examples of team management in every domain in life like business, politics, sports, leisure etc. Some examples of team management are as follows:
1. Team management in business
Consider a marketing head who has to sell his products in a particular geography. He or she has to manage different teams like the product team for ensuring good product quality, brand team for packaging & design, marketing team for outdoor communication, sales team for managing sales etc.
Hence, a marketing manager had to align all team to ensure good sales which is possible through effective team management.
2. Team management in sports
Any team sport like football, basketball, cricket, rugby, hockey etc. requires effective team management. The coach or team manager ensures that the players have a good bond & are highly motivated to win. The team manager also managers the team doctors, PR manager, player consultants, club board etc. to ensure that the sports team functions effectively to win games, trophies and earn profits.
Hence, this concludes the definition of Team Management along with its overview.
This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.
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