Developing team leader skills

What you will study

Teaming, teambuilding, and teamwork are often interchangeably used terms to ensure a group works together. However, teams are no longer defined by functional areas but as groups of people working collaboratively and taking on responsibility for a shared goal. So, while the team leader guides the process of defining goals and establishing learning and achieving the wellbeing of the team, according to Dyer and Dyer (2020) it is team members who ‘set goals, make decisions, communicate, manage conflict and solve problems in a supportive, trusting environment in order to accomplish their objectives’. This, in turn, can involve teams in managing their own learning and ensuring their collective wellbeing. 

The course comprises four units: 

Unit 1: How teams perform
We begin with looking at the value and characteristics of teams today, the importance of a shared team purpose and the current challenges of teamworking in the VUCA world (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), often leading to dysfunctions of a team. 

Unit 2: Developing team skills
Based on the findings of the challenges and dysfunctions of teams, we explore teamwork skills and how to communicate effectively to build trust, handle conflict, and act respectfully within a team. 

Unit 3: Delivering value to the organisation
Once the basis of communication and trust is formed, the team is ready to commit and deliver value to the organisation. You'll explore the value of well-designed objectives, the importance of empowering team members through leadership, and some of the techniques behind decision making which enables the growth of both the team and the organisation. 

Unit 4: Building a resilient team
Establishing a resilient team is key to remaining competitive as an organisation. This unit takes the next step into team resilience by exploring approaches of agile teams and the value of team coaching and team diversity. 

You will learn

On successful completion of this course, you should be able to:

• understand the challenges of teamworking in an ever-changing environment
• apply a variety of techniques to develop your teamworking skills in practice
• create a team charter with agreed goals, roles and responsibilities
• build team resilience
• reflect on key learning and applications to your professional practice.

Teaching and assessment

Assessment

There an end-of-course quiz to test your knowledge and understanding. Once completed and successfully passed you will receive a digital badge and a course completion certificate which you can download as a record of your learning.

Regulations