These are the typical responsibilities of a team leader.
Provide team leadership and coaching
- Create an environment oriented to trust, open communication, creative thinking, and cohesive team effort
- Provide the team with a vision of the project objectives
- Motivate and inspire team members
- Lead by setting a good example (role model) – behavior consistent with words
- Coach and help develop team members; help resolve dysfunctional behavior
- Facilitate problem solving and collaboration
- Strive for team consensus and win-win agreements
- Ensure discussions and decisions lead toward closure
- Maintain healthy group dynamics
- Intervene when necessary to aid the group in resolving issues
- Assure that the team members have the necessary education and training to effectively participate on the team
- Encourage creativity, risk-taking, and constant improvement
- Recognize and celebrate team and team member accomplishments and exceptional performance
Focus the team on the tasks at hand or the internal and external customer requirements
- Coordinate with internal and external customers as necessary
- Familiarize the team with the customer needs, specifications, design targets, the development process, design standards, techniques and tools to support task performance
- Assure that the team addresses all relevant issues within the specifications and various standards
- Provide necessary business information
- Serve as meeting manager or chairman
- Initiate sub-groups or sub-teams as appropriate to resolve issues and perform tasks in parallel
- Ensure deliverables are prepared to satisfy the project requirements, cost and schedule
- Help keep the team focused and on track
Coordinate team logistics
- Work with functional managers and the team sponsor to obtain necessary resources to support the team’s requirements
- Obtain and coordinate space, furniture, equipment, and communication lines for team members
- Establish meeting times, places and agendas
- Coordinate the review, presentation and release of design layouts, drawings, analysis and other documentation
- Coordinates meetings with the product committee, project manager and functional management to discuss project impediments, needed resources or issues/delays in completing the task
Communicate team status, task accomplishment, and direction
- Provide status reporting of team activities against the program plan or schedule
- Keep the project manager and product committee informed of task accomplishment, issues and status
- Serve as a focal point to communicate and resolve interface and integration issues with other teams
- Escalate issues which cannot be resolved by the team
- Provide guidance to the team based on management direction