Leadership in Three Directions

Team leaders need to manage in three directions as depicted below:

leading in three directions

As a manager, they are responsible to their superiors in the organisation for the resources they manage and for their contribution to tackling the issues that the organisation faces.
As a focal point, they link to others in the organisation to help them access the services and capabilities of the team.
As a leader and supervisor of the team and its members, they ensure that the team works well and develops the team climate and capabilities.

In this toolkit, we have focused on the last of these - the team leader as a leader and supervisor of the team. This is not to devalue of the other two roles, but simply that an effective team will enable the team leader to fulfil them better.