Being a leader sounds great until you have to resolve a conflict over coffee, motivate your team on Monday morning, and explain for the tenth time that “brief” is not synonymous with free interpretation. Leadership is not magic – it is practice, mistakes, growth, and a healthy dose of distance.
Leadership is not a position. It is the ability to influence others, build commitment, and lead a team towards a common goal. In theory, it sounds great – but what does it look like in the day-to-day work of a leader? What does it really mean to manage a team and motivate people?
Where to start?
Before you start using any techniques, it is crucial to understand your role. A leader is not someone who has power, but someone who builds authority through action, communication, and consistency. This is someone who can apply the principles of team leadership, recognizes people's potential, and is able to adapt managerial actions to the realities of the situation.
A good leader knows the stages of forming a team, understands the motivations of individual employees, supports the development and building awareness of team roles, is able to set goals and build commitment.
All of this makes up the ability to manage a team. It requires not only knowledge but also practice – that is why the development of leadership skills is increasingly taking place in the form of workshops that activate participants, where you can learn and practice aspects related to managing people.
How to avoid the most common mistakes?
Many leaders – especially at the beginning of their journey – repeat the same patterns. They lack reflection on the individual behavior of employees, they try to manage “equally”, according to one, rigid formula. They treat the team as a monolith, and yet each person has a separate story, personality, motivation and needs. Management in this approach becomes ineffective, because it ignores the real differences in the level of commitment, competence and professional maturity of individual people.
Meanwhile, the true power of a leader does not lie in imposing one style, but in consciously adapting it to the situation and the person. A leader who wants to be effective must be flexible.
That’s why it’s worth knowing the situational leadership model, which assumes that effective leaders adapt their actions to the readiness and competence levels of their employees. You’ll talk differently to a novice who’s just learning the ropes than to a seasoned expert who needs mostly autonomy and recognition.
This model distinguishes four main leadership styles: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. No one style is better than the others – each is appropriate in the right context. The ability to apply them smoothly, depending on the employee's stage of development, is key to the effectiveness of the entire team.
What's more, searching for alternative roles that a leader can play in relation to his people opens up a completely new perspective. A leader doesn't have to be just a superior - he can be a mentor, a mediator, a partner in conversation. This approach increases trust in the team, facilitates communication and allows for real development of employees - not only professionally.
Motivating Employees – What Really Works?
There is no single universal key to motivation. What works for one employee may not work at all for another. Therefore, effective employee motivation requires knowledge of motivational theories, but above all – attentiveness to people.
A leader should know the basic motivational systems, understand how the evaluation system works, how to conduct effective evaluation and development conversations, be able to communicate effectively with the team, and recognize factors that influence increased motivation.
Imagine two employees: Ania and Michał. Ania values clear rules, stability and systematic feedback. Regular conversations about progress and quarterly goals motivate her – she gains a sense of security and direction. Michał, on the other hand, thrives when he has the freedom to carry out tasks and feels trusted. When a leader tries to manage them identically – for example, by giving a task without a specific context – Ania feels lost, and Michał thrives. Conversely, when he starts to control them down to the last detail – Michał gets frustrated, and Ania feels relieved. This simple example shows that without personalization of motivational approaches – efficiency suffers and people lose commitment.
It is also extremely important to adapt management actions to individual employees. Motivation is not only about money – it is also about appreciation, development, autonomy and meaning.
Effective management of employee teams – what does it mean?
Effective team management is much more than delegating tasks or enforcing results. It is primarily the ability to consciously combine organizational goals with the needs of employees. A leader who really wants to influence a team must know not only project management methods, but also the mechanisms of group processes, the basics of motivational psychology, and above all – demonstrate genuine attentiveness to people.
People who manage teams of employees should be able to define both common team goals and individual goals. They should be able to implement agile work methods where they are justified and bring real value.
Agile working methods
Also known as the Agile approach, it is a way of managing projects and teams that assumes flexibility, iteration, and rapid adaptation to changing conditions. Unlike traditional, linear planning models, the agile approach assumes that reality is dynamic – therefore, it is better to operate in short cycles, with frequent feedback and readiness to correct course. This allows teams to respond faster to customer needs, test solutions in practice, and constantly improve their actions.
In practice, they are based on work in so-called sprints, i.e. short periods of time (usually 1-2 weeks), after which there is a review of the effects and the introduction of any changes. Teams organize daily, short meetings, where they discuss current progress, encountered difficulties and the plan for the next day. A key element of this approach is also setting priorities based on the value that a given task brings to the client or team - not everything has to be done at once, what counts is what is most important here and now.
Agile work also means moving away from micro-management in favor of greater team autonomy. In such a model, the leader supports, coordinates, and takes care of the conditions for effective cooperation, but does not impose tasks or control. A well-implemented Agile approach strengthens the independence, responsibility, and commitment of team members because it gives them a real influence on the way goals are achieved.
Implementing this method of work is not reserved for technology companies. They are also increasingly used by sales, marketing, HR teams, and even educational and administrative organizations. For leaders, this means the need to acquire new competencies: the ability to make decisions quickly, be open to change, conduct dialogue in the team, and build an organizational culture that is not based on a rigid plan. This is a challenge - but also a huge opportunity to increase efficiency, speed of action, and satisfaction in the team.
ACT
Intuition is not enough to effectively lead a team. It is necessary to know the procedures, understand the factors of success, and be able to accurately diagnose potential and challenges. It is in this area that team coaching sessions and coaching work conducted in the ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/Training) approach are becoming increasingly important.
ACT brings a new quality to team management – it teaches the leader to develop psychological flexibility, or the ability to act in accordance with values, even in the face of stress or pressure. In practice, this means that the leader does not try to get rid of fear, anger or uncertainty at all costs, but learns to act despite their presence. Instead of blocking or ignoring emotions, they begin to treat them as a natural element of reality that can be worked with. As a result, they become more resilient, aware and effective in everyday team management.
Team coaching sessions conducted in the spirit of ACT are not just a soft addition to management - they are a specific tool for developing self-awareness, resourcefulness and responsibility of the entire team. A leader who is able to adopt an ACT perspective learns to separate what is important and strategic from what is momentary and emotional. Thanks to this, they can consciously direct their people management process, while supporting the goals of the organization and the development of employees.
This approach also allows for a redefinition of the role of a leader – not only as a manager, but also as a mentor, a person who can create space for authentic conversations, reflection and action in accordance with values. In times of dynamic changes, excess stimuli and pressure for efficiency, such an attitude becomes not only desirable but also necessary.
Team communication
One of the most common reasons for conflict and decreased engagement is poor communication. A leader who can clearly express themselves, actively listen, and explain intentions becomes predictable and builds trust. This, in turn, translates into greater motivation and effectiveness of the entire team.
It is worth knowing and practicing:
- paraphrases that help ensure that we understand the other side,
- setting boundaries that define what is acceptable and what is not,
- different ways of communicating – depending on the situation and the person.
Delegating tasks
Delegation is not about “throwing off” tasks. It is a well-thought-out process of assigning responsibility with clearly defined rules. Well-executed delegation develops the employee and allows the leader to focus on strategic activities.
Key elements include:
- an appropriate delegation process – not just the “what”, but the “how” and “why”,
- matching tasks to employee competences and motivation,
- the art of delegating tasks in a way that builds engagement, not resistance.
In practice, this means that the leader does not have to control everything, but has an obligation to support wisely. It is also a space for building authority – not through force, but through consistency and clarity of action.
Mentoring and coaching
In modern leadership, an increasing emphasis is placed on an individual approach. That is why the basic techniques of mentoring and coaching work are so important. They allow you to get to the heart of problems, support development and have a real impact on the motivation of individual employees.
Leadership training courses that include a modern approach to management often offer the opportunity to practice these methods in terms of developing leadership competencies. Participants will learn practices that can be immediately applied in everyday work – both with the entire team and in individual contacts.
Structuring time and self-management
You can't manage a team if you can't manage yourself. That's why it's so important to structure your time, plan, set priorities, and rest. A leader who is constantly tired and distracted won't be effective, and their team will sense it immediately.
Continuous education
A good leader does not rest on his laurels, he constantly educates himself and strives to be the best. Training aimed at novice leaders does not have to be full of theory. It is worth investing in programs that focus on experience, experimentation, discussion and practical practice of aspects related to the real challenges of a leader. It is good if training is discussed in the context of real cases, taking into account the organizational culture in force in a given company.
In the "leadership" challenge, after completing seven modules, participants will learn how to effectively motivate people, conduct effective assessment and development conversations, implement motivational systems, and how to deal with the pressure they face.
Building a team – awareness of roles and development phases
Every team goes through different phases. Knowing the stages of team formation allows a leader to better understand what is happening and how to respond. It is not enough to just assign tasks. You have to know when to support and when to simply give the team time.
A leader should take care of:
- building awareness of team roles – everyone has their own strengths,
- showing the functioning of the team as a whole, not just the sum of individuals,
- supporting the search for alternative roles that develop flexibility.
In this context, leadership is also the ability to see people in a broader context – their history, goals, limitations and dreams.
Leadership is a process, not a role
Being a leader is about constant learning, reflection, openness to feedback and readiness to develop. It is a process, not a state. There is no single moment when you can say: "I am ready, I can do everything." Leadership is not about achieving a title or position - it is about building yourself and relationships with people on a daily, conscious basis. It is the ability to listen even when you have a ready answer. It is the courage to admit a mistake and the readiness to start over.
Whether you’re just starting out or you’re already managing a team, there’s always room to do better. A good leader understands that a team isn’t a set of roles and positions, but people with emotions, ambitions, fears, and potential. And that it’s their job to create an environment where that potential has a chance to come true.
At the end of the day, it's not just about "managing a team" - it's about inspiring action. It's about building a space where people feel meaning, influence and agency. It's about creating a culture where you don't have to enforce everything, because the team wants to give more of itself. It's about not only being a manager, but someone who sets an example, strengthens, helps grow. Because it's those leaders who stay in memory - not those who demanded the most, but those who helped others become better the most.
