What are the best team leadership models for inexperienced teams?

In my experience, transparency and clarity of communication are absolute key. Especially in more inexperienced teams, it is vital to communicate constantly and act with utmost transparency. When i first got to manage a somewhat larger team of 20 people +, it was new for me as well as for the teams who were mostly junior. Being honest, straightforward and keeping a non hierarchical, inclusive approach to people management at the time helped to navigate more easily.

That's correct! Situational leadership is a leadership approach that recognizes the importance of adapting one's leadership style to suit the needs of individual team members and the overall team dynamic. The four styles of situational leadership are directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. For inexperienced teams, leaders may need to utilize more directing and coaching styles. This involves providing clear instructions, feedback, and guidance to help team members develop their skills and build their confidence. As the team gains more experience and competence, leaders can gradually shift towards supporting and delegating styles.

In my experience, delegating and information sharing. When I start any new position I always start by being silent for while and just listening, after I reach a certain level of understanding the details I start building system for the area and give everyone full delegation for his area and I get step back and monitor and give some advices if needed. Then I share suitable level of information to be guide line for everyone in different areas. And sequentially everyone is serving the target with minimum level of supervision. This will make every member of the organisation feel like decisions maker and effective member.

Situational Leadership is easily my favorite model to apply on a daily basis, especially with inexperienced team. The beauty is in its simplicity and flexibility, one can (and in fact should!) apply several managing styles to the same person. You can do that even during the very same conversation, assuming you are discussing different topics and on the fly realize that colleague have different stages of readiness/experience. It also provides you with clear idea how to guide people, tailoring your managing style in coherence with their learning curve. Highly recommend to try it out!

Agree. It is well suited for inexperienced teams to provide necessary structure, support and guidance that team required. Leaders can empower team members to grow, learn and become self reliant.

I would say leading a team of inexperienced members requires building trust and foster an open communication, setting clear expectations, and providing ample training opportunities. It's essential to empower team members, delegate tasks, and offer constructive feedback regularly. Fostering a collaborative environment, equipping the team with necessary resources, and promoting continuous learning are also crucial. Patience, leading by example, celebrating small wins, and encouraging work-life balance remain key!

Transformational leadership is all about allowing each team member to collaborate to design the best ideas. Project Managers are a great example of this as they are no one's boss, but they tell everyone what to do... it embodies the highest levels of Influence. Inspire the team members a voice, empowerment, and support.

The most crucial aspect of managing a new and inexperienced team is to communicate with clarity. Providing a clear and concise vision of the goal that we aim to achieve together will help in creating precise targets for the entire team. It's important to involve each and every member of the team and make them feel valued, no matter how small their role or experience is. It's essential to approach the team members as human beings (listening, empathy, community). Think back to your own journey and remember what made you feel appreciated as a junior. Create a supportive ecosystem that allows room for everyone to learn and grow within internal limits. Servant leadership style suits my values and needs.

Transformational Leaders have some qualities that Charismatic leaders don't : 1. They prefer to be in the background - pushing from the back, rather than walking in the front. 2. They prefer to work with a small group of competent people who can carry forward the legacy. 3. They take out time to mentor and coach this small group of people so that they are able to perform at their peak. 4. They are always on the lookout for opportunities to scale up the enterprise. 5. They believe in building processes and systems that are not person-dependent. 6. They are fair and transparent in their communication because they believe in creating a culture that build and bonds teams. 7. They ask thought-provoking questions, instead of giving answers.

Having worked with various teams throughout my tenure, I've recognized the unparalleled potential of Transformational Leadership for novice groups. This model hinges on the power of a shared vision. When a leader passionately communicates a compelling vision and embodies those ideals, it acts as a beacon, guiding even the most inexperienced teams. For teams seeking direction, this model, which places emphasis on inspiration and motivation, can be transformational. The vision paints the future, and the leader’s commitment to that vision fuels the team's journey.

In my experience, Servant leadership is one of the most engaging for team members. I use it even if the team isn't inexperienced. We all don't know what we don't know. If everyone feels like they have a voice, creativity and innovation is taken to the next level. On the other side of that, sometimes the most experienced team members are the most resistant to working toward the same vision. Being a servant leader and admitting that I too am always learning has helped me to grow as a leader. I always want my team to feel like they can bring their concerns to me; experienced or inexperienced. Nothing is irrelevant.

Regardless whether it’s an inexperienced team or otherwise, servant leadership should always be at the forefront. It’s about being a vessel for the the development of your team and colleagues. Who doesn’t want to work with a leader who desires to lift you up, put your needs first and care about your development. Now this isn’t about being a doormat - this is about being a good role model and leading with good heart. That’s the Type of people who make work environments a good place to be!

I've been very recently introduced to the concept of Servant leadership, and oh boy, it became my favorite since. Servant leadership is the most challenging form of leadership and it requires a great amount of devotion and sacrifice from the leader. If you consider your team's success as your only success, and team's failure as your failure, then welcome to this form of leadership. Empathy takes the front seat here, along with listening and healing. This works not only for inexperienced teams, but for everyone.

To create a high performing team, you need to first get to know your team members, their grievances, fears of the unknown and also it is important to connect with them on a personal level. It is only when the leader builds trust with the team members and the team members have faith in the leader that he/she listens to the team and works and makes decisions in their best interest only then the team will perform and work towards the end goal with team leaders vision in sight.

In my experience, servant leadership is right choice for the in-experienced team. True that the listening, empathy and healing are so critical for the both experienced/in-experience team. The moment they have all these, the team bonding will go sky high and during that maturity when the team have a very good hold on projects, we should focus on showing the right future direction to the team will yield transformational outcome as well. For example, for one of the migration efforts, though our team is in-experienced taken up as a challenge from the existing vendor & 3rd party industry leader executed with very high quality and delivered with success.

Adaptive leadership embraces a flexible approach where any change is accepted without any resistence as per the need of the hour. It's the mindset which is developed over time. This leadership style plays a vital role in keeping the team motivated and making them more adaptive. Challenges are taken up as opportunities for betterment. Actions are tracked and continuous brainstorming is done thriving innovation and experimentation. Feedback culture helps to learn faster and improvise at each stage. Learning from past mistakes results fosters growth and the team collaboratively move forwards towards the shared vision.

In my organisation, change is the only constant. My years in leadership has taught me that a one size fits all approach does not yield results. I find with my team scattered across the globe; the adaptive leadership approach works best. It was difficult in the beginning but now the team takes ownership for many things, and this help us to be resistant and agile to deal with all the different things that we are faced with daily. This is not the only approach I use; I do change it up to ensure my team stays motivated. Very important to also create a platform for them to feel safe to raise their challenges and concerns.

It’s important to realize that leaders set the bar for the whole organization. They inspire and motivate other stakeholders — more often than not, good leaders stir people to do what is required of them, and even go beyond that, without giving orders or bossing people around. They set the example everyone follows organically and naturally. Choosing the right leadership model enables leaders to see the bigger picture and determine which course of action can make the most and biggest positive impact on the organization. John Maxwell, who is widely recognized as an authority on leadership says, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

In the volatile world of technology, mastering adaptive leadership is crucial. For fledgling teams, my primary role is diagnosing situations — understanding challenges and identifying opportunities sets the foundation. This is followed by mobilizing the team, ensuring they rally around a cohesive tech vision with ownership and enthusiasm. As the team matures and gains agility, my emphasis shifts to effective intervention: constant monitoring, timely feedback, and making strategic adjustments. Throughout this journey, flexibility and responsiveness are key, ensuring that our technological pursuits remain innovative yet rooted.

To me, the main pillar of Adaptive leadership is Change Management skills. How well you champion changes within your organization, department and teams, defines your Adaptive leadership. This is based on 'Starting with Why', i.e. reasoning, defining the change, then implementing, providing resources to practice and flourish and replenishment - which forms the ADKAR model. Frequent follow-ups and feedbacks are crucial behind a successful leadership approach here.

'Inexperienced teams' hopefully have the right attitude to learn. Skills can be learned, attitude is in-built! It is important for the leader to be patient and create a safe environment where mistakes are celebrated for their learning and not repeated. A team that learns together will become stronger each day and very soon will become a high performing team.

My so-called 'organization' had only two people who were at the helm about a decade back - me and my co-director. We were the ones executing projects, bringing in business, preparing the reports and generally doing everything with the support of 2 coordinators. We were traveling for almost 20 days a month and then wondering why our organization was not growing. Then one day, I had a Eureka moment, when one of the participants in one of my training programs asked me a question in all innocence "Who is taking care of your organization if you are out for 20 days in the month?" Today I have a team who executes projects even better than me. And my travel is down to 8 days a month and that too only for special critical passion projects. :)

Adaptive leadership is the one which will suits for inexperienced team set up. Most of the time leaders need to be a trainer and mentor to get the desired out put in flexible roles

I personally find it very helpful to understand my own and my Team member's DISC Profiling. This can have a direct impact on leadership style choices. DISC profiling is a tool that helps people understand their own and others’ behavioural styles and preferences. It can also help leaders improve effectiveness and performance by adapting their style to different situations and people. DISC stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness, which are the four main personality types in the DISC model. Each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, and there is no one best style for leadership. Knowing our own style and the styles of our followers, leaders can communicate better, motivate more, and resolve conflicts easier.

The issues we may witness in inexperienced teams would be people unwilling to take responsibility; people jumping to commit but lacking competency or context and / or the team sitting stuck in the “storming” stage of team development with unclear roles and ways of working. My recommendation will be: - 1:1s to seek transferable skills and make sure personal strengths are utilized - introduce clear responsibilities including validation and decision making norms - celebrate small wins - compelling vision for the future but also honest acknowledgment of the present