How to Manage a Large Team?

In an era when teams are often geographically dispersed and projects are increasingly complex, effective leadership in business is more important than ever before. So, how do you manage a large team to achieve goals efficiently? How do you manage employees so that they feel good and work productively? Here are some tips.

1. An Organized Leader Equals an Organized Team

The foundation of effective team management is a clear definition of goals and expectations. Team members need to know what they are striving for and what the priorities are. For this reason, it is crucial to define goals, divide tasks, and set schedules at the beginning of each project. Clear communication prevents misunderstandings and enables the team to work more effectively.

2. Delegate Tasks Wisely — Managing Projects Within the Team

Delegation is one of the key skills in team management. It’s not just about assigning tasks, but about entrusting responsibilities to those who have the right skills and potential to carry them out effectively. Well-thought-out task delegation not only eases the burden on the leader but also motivates team members and allows them to develop their skills.
When managing a large team, it’s vital to regularly monitor progress. The leader should stay up-to-date with task completion to quickly respond and adjust strategies if necessary. Project management tools like TastyTask, can greatly simplify this process by allowing real-time monitoring of progress.

This way, every team member knows what they need to work on and has access to all the resources required to complete the task in one place. If something is unclear, they can always tag the project manager in a comment to get an answer.

3. Technology Supports Team Management

TastyTask, as a tool for task delegation and project management, streamlines the organizational landscape of a company, but managing people is a slightly more multifaceted topic from a technological perspective.

Source: Task management system TastyTask, tastytask.com

What else can be useful in an organization to enhance its functioning, especially in terms of team management?

• Tools for measuring and reporting working hours (e.g., TimeCamp)
• Tools for managing data, designing sales or marketing processes, monitoring communication, and automating various business elements (CRM, e.g., HubSpot)
• Tools for handling absences and calculating vacations (e.g., PeopleForce, Personio)
• Tools for project visualization (e.g., Miro, Jira)
• Tools for editing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. (e.g., Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) — thanks to web solutions, today you only need a web browser to use them.
• Tools for conducting anonymous employee surveys, e.g., Officevibe, Glint, Bleexo, Culture Amp.

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4. Build Trust as a Person Who Can Be Trusted

Trust is the foundation of any effective collaboration. The team leader should strive to create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas, feedback, or concerns. Regular meetings, open communication channels, and encouraging the exchange of opinions foster trust and a deeper understanding of each team member’s needs and expectations. Always remember that negative feedback from an employee stems from a reason and doesn’t have to indicate ill will. Managing teams requires putting your ego aside and admitting to a lack of knowledge or poor judgment if those situations occur.

The same principle works in the other direction. Effective feedback provided by the team leader to subordinates is a key element that allows the team to grow and improve their work. It is important that feedback be specific, fact-based, and aimed at support rather than criticism. A well-conducted feedback process helps solve problems at an early stage and strengthens a sense of responsibility within the team.

Apart from individual work styles, everyone has a personality type that the team leader must connect with. In a large team, you often encounter people with different skills, experiences, and work styles. The leader should be able to leverage these differences to the team’s advantage.

Instead of trying to standardize how everyone works, it’s worth appreciating their individual talents and creating conditions where each person can contribute as much as possible to the project — which, from the team leader’s perspective, often means finding a compromise that benefits both sides.

5. Motivate and Encourage Training

The team’s motivation largely depends on recognizing and rewarding their achievements. The leader should regularly appreciate the efforts and successes of their employees. These don’t necessarily have to be material rewards — sometimes a simple, sincere thank you, public recognition, or the opportunity to participate in interesting projects is enough. It’s crucial that each team member feels their work is noticed and valued. Otherwise, team morale drops, and resignation letters may start landing on your desk over time.

Every team, even the most well-knit, needs continuous development. Organizing training sessions, workshops, or mentoring programs helps enhance the team’s skills and prepares them for increasingly demanding tasks. Investing in team development brings long-term benefits, resulting in higher efficiency and innovation in project execution. However, growth isn’t just about additional training — it’s primarily about daily work, avoiding stagnation, and tackling new projects. These last elements provide the most stable skill growth, since we encounter them almost daily — cumulative effort always yields results. Ultimately, everything we do at work, both positive and negative elements, essentially works like compound interest.

6. A Well-Rested and Happy Employee Is More Productive

It may be a truism, but it’s often overlooked. Work-life balance — or rather (and more healthily!) life-work balance — has enormous importance. An employee under pressure may — if it suits their character — take on the challenge, stay longer, and work harder… but only for a while. The balance between work and personal life is crucial for the long-term efficiency and job satisfaction of team members. As a leader, it’s essential to ensure that the team isn’t working at the limit of their endurance. Promoting a healthy balance, offering flexible working hours or the option to work remotely, and encouraging regular breaks and rest can significantly increase the team’s engagement and productivity. Taking care of employees’ well-being translates into their loyalty and better job performance. Otherwise, the organization might quickly gain the not-so-honorable reputation of a “sweatshop” within the local community (and industry-related discussion groups), which won’t attract new talent — they’ll go elsewhere.

Remember!

Developing a feedback culture, defining clear roles, skillfully resolving conflicts, promoting a balance between work and personal life, and the other points we’ve listed are crucial elements of effective team management. By keeping these aspects in mind, leaders can create a work environment that not only fosters goal achievement but also strengthens the engagement and growth of every team member. How do you manage people? Above all, honestly.

Also, remember the technology that simply makes team management more effective. Spend some time researching new tools, test them, and see that pen and paper are only effective solutions up to a certain level of project complexity — after that, it’s time to level up.