How to Lead a Technical Team

Technical teams play a key role in many organizations, but leading technical teams can be overwhelming. Technical teams have specialized skills that are suited for particular jobs, so having someone with strong leadership qualities to manage the team is essential.

As tough as it may seem, managing technical teams is something you can learn. Find out how to lead technical teams and learn about the challenges you might face below.

• What Is a Technical Team?
• How Do You Lead a Technical Team?
• What Are Challenges With Leading Technical Teams?
• Wrapping Up: Managing Technical Teams

What Is a Technical Team?

A technical team is a team that has a specialized skill set in the technology field. The members of your technical team are the individuals responsible for making sure the technical side of everything works, which includes everything from managing hardware and software to e-commerce and more. 

Because technical teams have more specialized skills, it can be difficult to be a hands-on leader without sharing those same skills. If you’re familiar with technology and leading in challenging times, you can be an effective leader.

How Do You Lead a Technical Team?

Managing technical teams can be difficult because you don’t always know the specifics of the task at hand. Learning more about technology can help you overcome leadership challenges, but there are several steps you can take to effectively lead a technical team.

1. Set clear objectives

Technical teams usually work in a more rigid way, which means they benefit from having clear objectives that they can work toward. Part of leading technical teams is setting clear objectives that team members can work toward.

As a leader, objectives should be clearly defined and easy to measure. Measurable goals allow you to achieve tangible results that contribute to the overall goal or project. Even small goals can help keep your technical team on track. 

Because technical teams often play a key role in projects, setting clear objectives can also help you meet deadlines.

2. Delegate wisely

Understanding your team and their strengths and weaknesses allows you to delegate in a way that contributes to the success of your organization. Along with decision-making skills, delegating is one of the most essential leadership skills.

As a leader, you need to understand which team members are good at which tasks. When you’re planning a project, you can assign people to the tasks they excel in — which helps you complete your project faster without sacrificing quality.

3. Develop technical competence

Leading technical teams doesn’t require expert knowledge, but you should have some technical competence. If you don’t have a lot of technical knowledge, now is the time to learn.

Having a basic understanding of the role technology plays in your organization can help you become a better leader. The more you understand your technical team, the better you can delegate and set realistic objectives that benefit the team. It’s also easier to communicate with team members when you understand the intricacies of the field.

4. Communicate effectively

Communication is one of the most important skills when you’re leading technical teams — and it’s not as easy as it might sound.

Good communication starts with active listening, which goes beyond listening to the words people are saying. As an active listener, you’re showing team members that you’re listening and providing feedback. Speaking is important sometimes, but there are times when it’s better to listen to what your team members have to say.

Of course, it’s also your job to clearly communicate expectations. Being a good leader requires a balance of speaking and listening.

5. Build a strong team culture

A strong team culture brings everyone together to work toward a common goal, making it easier to get more done as a team. Recent research shows the importance leadership plays in company culture — 52% of survey respondents find leadership development has the greatest impact on improving a company’s culture.

Building a strong team culture — like many parts of leading technical teams — starts with how you interact with team members. It’s your job to lead by example to create an environment where opinions are valued and collaboration is encouraged.

Leadership accountability is also a crucial part of building a strong team culture. When you can step up and accept responsibility when things don’t go as planned, your team can stand behind you as a leader.

6. Offer training opportunities 

Technology is constantly changing, and it can be difficult for team members to stay up-to-date with the latest standards when they’re spending all day at work.

If you want skilled technical team members, give them opportunities to further their education with training. Training is a great way to learn new skills and refresh old ones while also allowing team members to keep up with the latest changes in technology.

When you encourage continued education and provide training opportunities, people are much more eager to learn.

7. Provide resources and support

Empathetic leadership is all about understanding the position of your team — which includes knowing what they need to do their jobs effectively.

As a leader, it’s essential to provide the resources and support team members need to be productive. Your team may need new software or other technology, or they may need educational or mentorship opportunities. Leading technical teams requires leaders to determine what their team needs and provide the necessary resources and support.

8. Manage conflicts

When it comes to leading technical teams, conflicts are inevitable. As the leader of a technical team, having strong conflict resolution skills is a must, as conflict can trickle into other areas of the organization if not properly managed.

Technical projects can be challenging, and those challenges can lead to conflicts. There are several ways to resolve a conflict as a leader, from establishing open lines of communication to knowing how to compromise. One of the benefits of peer advisory groups is getting an opportunity to learn about different conflict resolution methods from leaders across various industries.

The sooner you resolve a conflict, the sooner you can get your team back on track and start working toward big-picture goals.

What Are Challenges With Leading Technical Teams?

While leading technical teams can be highly rewarding, there are several challenges that are crucial to understand. To lead a technical team, having technical acumen and excellent communication, empathy, and leadership skills is a must. By balancing technical expertise with leadership skills, you can effectively manage a technical team. With that said, familiarizing yourself with potential challenges can help you prepare for roadblocks that can stall growth and productivity. Take a look at some of the top challenges with leading technical teams below.

1. Unity

How many times do you hear the word “I” from your team members in a meeting? Excess use of the “I” word is a red flag that your team is not a team but a group of individual contributors, all of whom believe they have the answer to the solution. Too many individuals with the “I” will limit the creativity, collaboration, and innovation of the group.

Coaching Tip: Look for the outliers in the group, who have less of this tendency and who understand that a cohesive team can accomplish more than a group of individuals. Pair these individuals with your “I” people so they can learn how to move from “I” to “We.”

2. Indecisiveness 

When they are put into teams where there is no one right solution, the ability to come to a timely decision can be a challenge. When launching a team with an abundance of technical experts, make sure to develop team norms. These are the rules of engagement, what behaviors are expected and what will not be tolerated. Be proactive and set guidelines for how decisions will be made; otherwise, you will get stuck in “no decision land”.

Coaching Tip: As the leader, you need to communicate the strategic vision of the company and translate it to the people you are leading so the team doesn’t develop a better mouse trap that the market doesn’t want or need.

3. Overconfidence

Oftentimes, you will be dealing with very smart people and some of them want to continually demonstrate how smart they are. The most blatant behavior is the guy who invariably will respond, “I knew that.” This bad behavior can ultimately create an environment where other team members don’t want to deal with the person and will shut down in meetings.

Executive coaching tip: Work with these individuals to ask themselves the question: What will saying, “I knew that” gain for me other than showing others how smart I am? Over time, you will know that there has been improvement because other team members won’t look for ways to avoid the person.

4. Inability to let go

Many experts dread giving up tasks and activities for fear that it may be viewed by others that they aren’t the experts. Or they don’t trust the capabilities of the people they are working with on the team. They become the roadblock to meeting project deadlines because they take on most of the workload and won’t delegate.

Coaching Tip: When working with technical experts who struggle with letting go and delegating, explore what holds them back. Explore how they can remain an expert by mentoring others while delegating. If there is a trust issue, discuss with them the data they have to back up their lack of trust. Ask for specifics.

5. Poor collaboration

Technical experts often are introverts and thus not ones who share their thoughts and opinions. It is important for a team to function cohesively and everyone practices open and honest communications.

Coaching Tip: When forming a new group or integrating a new team member, lay out the guidelines of what information needs to be shared. Encourage members to share their opinions as well as facts. Be the first one to share your opinions and recognize and highlight when others do the same.

Being a coach to your subject matter experts can increase their performance as well as the team’s performance. And if you don’t feel comfortable in a coaching role, get some executive coaching training or hire a coach.

Wrapping Up: Managing Technical Teams

Leading technical teams may seem like a daunting task, but you don’t have to be a tech expert to effectively lead a team. Setting clear objectives, delegating, and communicating can help you become a better technical team leader.

When it comes to managing technical teams, Vistage is here to help. With Vistage peer advisory groups and coaching programs, you can learn from experts and improve your technical team leadership skills. Contact Vistage to learn more about how our services can help with leading technical teams.

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