Getting the most out of your IT team

The only way to succeed as a leader while getting the best from your IT team is by setting up your team members to succeed. To do that, focus on results and productivity, not the punch clock. Take stock of your team members' talents and reshuffle the deck if it means that your team has a better chance of success. Assign people to projects that they are passionate about. Put your best performers on your biggest opportunities. Create a culture of performance by setting aggressive goals and holding your employees accountable for regularly reporting on their progress. Trust your team members, and let them know it. Avoid blame by doing a post-mortem to determine what went wrong and to learn from it. Foster innovation by killing projects the right way. Don't provide all of the answers; instead, make your employees think. Build consensus by letting people know why you have made a particular decision.

Learn more about effective team management:
- read the article at TechRepublic

ALSO:
- read this for tricks on keeping the "A" team in place
- and this on the group dynamics: the golden team