How Are Team Leaders Selected?

What would be the answer to :

1. The reason for a person to be chosen as a team leader over another?

2. What would be the biggest challenge in a team leader career?

The Team Doc Says…

The way a team leader should be chosen is to find the person with the strengths to be a good leader.

That is not the way many team leaders are chosen however. What has typically happened in the past when team leaders are chosen is that the person with the most technical knowledge ends up in that role. This provides a disservice to the company and a disservice to the organization.

Leaders (and most team members for that matter) should be selected on organizational culture fit, not technical skills that are trainable on the job. If you remember this one rule — hire for culture, train for skill — you will have good success putting the right person in the right role.

The biggest challenge in a team leader career is to maintain just the right balance between empowering team members and helping them grow and working within the bureaucracy of the organization.