Being a team leader is tough. You must balance the needs of the organization with the needs of the team members. You coach, counsel and develop. You mediate conflicts of personality and performance.
In short, you’re either the solution or the problem.
Whether you inherited your team (most likely) or chose the members yourself, you as team leader are responsible for making the team work.
While it is tempting to blame the team (“they didn’t work together” or “she is the real problem”) you need to realize that YOU are responsible for getting them work together and for dealing with whoever is problematic.
Do as much correctly as you can and you’ll avoid many problems. Practice the basics of good team building. But when you see a problem, seek a solution and make sure the problem is addressed rather than ignored.
Team leadership is about taking responsibility. Once you get past blames and excuses, you can do the difficult but important work of a team leader.
Take responsibility for being the solution
