How Long Should a Team Leader Remain a Team Leader?

I was wondering if you had any information, or know of any sources that would have information on how long a team leader should remain in that position on high performance teams. I’ve found answers from 1 month to forever, but would really like to nail down a best practice for a Team leader handbook I’m taking part in.

The Team Doc Says…

As long as that person is being effective. I would not place any hard and fast rules or even identify best practices for how long a team leader should remain in that role. As soon as you give it a number, people are going to start using that as a measuring stick and that’s the wrong direction to go.

What you do want to do to determine when is the right time for a team leader to move on is ask questions. Here are a few to start with.

• Is the team leader guiding the team where it needs to go?
• Does the team leader aspire to something different?
• Would the team leader, the team and the company get a better “win” if the team leader were leading a different team?
• Has the team transitioned from one stage to another (e.g., idea stage to implementation) where the team leader is less suited to guiding the team?
• Are the strengths of the team leader the right ones to continue leading the team?

This should get you started. What you can do for your best practice guide is develop a series of questions like the ones above to help drive the decision making for the best time to move a team leader.

What do you think reader? Do you have additional suggestions? Please leave a comment.