One of the greatest difficulties we encounter in our professional career (and also in our personal or sporting career, or with some kind of project) is learning how to manage the talent of a team.

When we work as a team everything becomes more complex, but when you have to be the one to lead that team, manage their talents and have the main responsibility, everything becomes even more complicated. The big key to achieving this is that we understand that this development does not depend on authority or magic rules… but on your own personal development and on key psychological skills .

How to manage a team?

A team can be working, in a venture, in some kind of competition, or even in your family (a family is a team mode, as its members have or should have common goals). When we reach that situation we find ourselves with great doubts , since nobody has taught us how to do it. We feel fear, insecurity, difficulty to communicate, to know how to say no, to motivate them, and we feel that each member of the team follows a free path and finally those common objectives are not fulfilled. What are the key skills that lead you to achieve this?

Professional development is actually personal development . In order to grow as a professional (a fundamental motivation in life, since through work you do a service to the world in which you live) it is necessary to grow as a person. The key personal skills that help you to improve as a professional are the management of emotions (which influences every decision you make and your state of mind), your productivity (the way you motivate yourself, encourage yourself, manage time and resources), your communication (if it is sufficiently assertive, transparent and empathetic) and above all personal relationships. This is where a key personal and psychological skill comes into play: authentic leadership.

In the last 10 years I have accompanied as a psychologist and coach professionals in their personal change processes to learn how to manage their teams in empoderamientohumano.com. To help you, the first step is to register for free in Empodérate (personal skills development program key to professional development).

The most important key is trust

Leadership is often misunderstood as a position of guidance, command or power. Nothing could be further from the truth. Leadership is actually the ability to positively influence others. This is something necessary in a work team, in sports, in some project, as teachers, educators, and also as parents. A leader is a person who takes responsibility for the team, trusts the people on that team and knows how to accompany them in their growth. A leader, first of all, creates other leaders (does not keep the knowledge).

The big key to managing your team, then, is trust . When the team does not achieve the expected results or achieves them with too much effort and stress it is because there is not enough cohesion and harmony between the members of that team. This is caused by a lack of trust with the person who should manage the talent of that team (overconfidence is also a form of mistrust).

Cohesion, motivation and empathy

When people trust that person, unity, cohesion, and consultation are generated, and at the same time, that leader supervises and delegates to them (but without hyper vigilance). Instead of building a formal authority, based on blind obedience, a moral authority is built, based on trust . When you trust and they trust you (which implies a whole process of change), the relationship with the team becomes closer, they come to you, they look to you for advice or help, and that helps them to unite the team and to achieve the proposed objectives.

Another essential skill is empathetic and assertive communication. The leader knows how to transmit what is necessary, with kindness, empathy, trust, closeness, authentic interest in the other and their needs, but also establishing clear limits. This is actually an emotional process, where the way you manage your emotions is at stake (fear of the other’s response, insecurity, distrust, etc.).

Finally: learning to manage your emotions. This process of change implies that you must learn to manage your emotions in a more functional way, so that they accompany you in that process through trust, security and illusion rather than through fear, stress, anxiety, anger or insecurity.

To make others grow is to help yourself grow . It is one of the most uplifting processes of change in both professional and personal life.