Working with a tech team can be challenging and fast-paced. From dealing with clients, to managing the team overall, the possibilities of losing sight at the overall wellbeing and performance of your team members are high. This can sometimes lead to leaders asking the question “_Am I being the right leader for my organization_?”.

First off, we want to say “**_You’re doing just fine_**”. Sometimes being a leader can be so overwhelming with all the responsibilities you need to do. It takes years to build your credential and to develop a high-performing team that’s why we created this article to guide you in your journey.

Here are five tips and reminders on how you can lead your team effectively and improve their performance:

### Performance Analysis

According to [Transformation Academy’s](https://transformationacademy.com/) Org Leadership Certification, analyzing an employee’s performance composes of 3 different steps:

1. **Employee Expectations** - this composes of 3 steps:
    1. **Expected Outcomes/Goals** - Clearly articulate to the employee what they will be required to do and how and your employee will measure progress
    2. **Areas to be Addressed** - List the specific tasks, behaviors, outcomes, job responsibilities, tools, skills, and so on that a specific role requires.
    3. **Expected Results/Performance** - Identify the expected results from the defined outcomes, establish a measurement criteria or a timeline that will help in identifying its success.
2. **Employee Needs -** Identify if the employee is capable of executing the desired outcomes/ or goals. If not, assess what they need to make it possible. Do they need training? Is the expected outcome or goal on par with their level of proficiency? Are they willing to undergo training for that outcome or goal? These are a few of the questions that you can use to evaluate.
3. **Analyzing the Performance -** Review the goals you had identified, as well as areas you previously identified as needing to be addressed, including specific tasks, behaviors, results, job responsibilities, tools, skills, etc.

### Effective Communication

I cannot elaborate further how much communication is imperative in tech teams. From delegating tasks to providing feedback, it’s vital that what you inform and say to your team is understood correctly. 

One way that you can encourage effective communication is paraphrasing. Let your team repeat what you said and vice versa. Make sure that both parties confirm they understood what has been communicated.

Another crucial component in establishing effective communication within your team is to create a conducive and safe space for them to voice out their thoughts. Take time listen to their views and opinions and build trust within the team’s relationship. If you learn to develop this, you will be in awe on how much ideas and strategies your members can come up with to help you in the development of your team.

### Feedback Loops

According to [Techtarget](https://www.techtarget.com/searchitchannel/definition/feedback-loop), a feedback loop is the part of a system in which some portion (or all) of the system's output is used as input for future operations. The loop usually consists of four (4) steps:

1. Gather feedback
2. Analyze feedback
3. Act on the feedback
4. Follow-up with the action of the feedback

A feedback loop can be negative or positive, but the steps still remain the same. We can identify if a feedback is negative when it’s addressing concerns or issues that cause inconvenience to a customer or slow down a particular process. Positive feedback however, is when we listen to a concern that amplifies growth and effectiveness of a team’s output or process.

What’s good about feedback loops is that they let you act on a specific concern without wasting too much time. A team jumps directly to the feedback, analyzes it, acts on it, and follows-up on the updates from the action.

### Hire a Coach (or be one)

In this generation, employees are looking for a leader that exhibits a coaching mindset. According to the [Future of Work Report](https://www.growmotely.com/report/) conducted by Growmotely, 54% of professionals appeal most to coaching, growth, and expansion alongside remote working for their careers. 

With the pandemic happening in the last 2 years, most professionals are no longer interested with office perks like free lunches and ping pong tables, but more on working with an organization that has a growth mindset and leaders that care for the growth of their team member’s careers. This is where coaching and coaching mindset for managers come in.

To develop a coaching mindset, you need to consider the growth and goals of each member of your team, and not just the team as a whole. This includes their career plans, personal, development, learning development, and performance management. Hiring a coach can help managers and leaders with this because of the specialized programs and sessions they make to address the mentioned concerns. If you want to develop a team that is productive and effective, mentoring them on their technical skills is just not enough. With a coach, leaders are ensured that their team member’s are waking up and going to work with a better version of themselves.

### Rest

With the tight deadlines, deliverables, and overall hustle and bustle of tech teams, rest can be sometimes be underrated. Give time for your team and yourself to regenerate from work. It can be in forms of meditation, fun gatherings, or even simply having a good night’s rest. It’s also very important that your team isn’t experiencing burnout. If any of your members are showing signs or has been sharing about experiencing burnout, act on it as soon as possible and provide solutions or action plans on how to resolve it.

Take a step back and reflect on the activities that make you happy or calm. Incorporate it in your daily routine. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes a habit and will be something that you look forward to daily.

Hopefully with the list of things we wrote down, you are able to apply this to your own team and build more effective and high-performing individuals! You don’t have to apply these all at the same time. Try to experiment and tweak some of the things mentioned here that will best fit your organization’s culture and values.

Managing a tech team can be a challenge, but working with a performance coach can help you overcome any challenges. Coaching can boost your tech teams performance, here's how: 

How to improve your tech teams performance with Coaching