Keeping your team on the straight and narrow is fairly easy - as long as each individual feels supported. The difficult task is in making them feel motivated towards the common goal - making your team grow and prosper. So what can you do to make your team feel valued and supported?

Motivating your team

First, learn to value the individual. It's all very well wanting your team to run smoothly and presenting a united front, but you must get to know each individual's skills and abilities first. It may be that one member of staff is excellent at rewarding pupils while another has a talent for devising sanctions. Perhaps you have someone in your team who has real vision when it comes to mentoring or is a brilliant data handler.

Find out who in your team is or will be seeking promotion. You have a certain responsibility to offer them opportunities to gain experience in leadership or other areas. Delegation is always cited as a method for relieving you of some stress-inducing jobs, but more importantly, it says to your team that you trust them and want them to have some responsibility. Many teachers are control freaks and it is hard to let go of responsibility, especially if you've gone through life feeling that you can do better than other people, but your team will feel more valued if you share some of the responsibility.

Important things to remember about delegation:

• Identify those teachers wanting to gain experience (and those happy without extra responsibility).

• Investigate their skills and the jobs they enjoy.

• Work out what you are willing/allowed to give up.

• Set out the transference of duties in black and white and make it official.

• Inform your line manager every step of the way.

• As you will retain some accountability, find a way of monitoring the progress of the task.

• Ensure that the teacher concerned reaps the benefits when the task is completed satisfactorily.

Empower your team with courses and other opportunities to further their knowledge, skills and career, make sure that they share the new information and suggestions with everyone else, and you should build up a strong group of people, all of who feel valued. Last, department social events and little thank you presents at the end of each term go down a treat!

Running a successful meeting

We've all been in the kind of meetings that go on for longer than their allotted hour and result in nothing except a crick in the neck and a foul mood - indeed some of us have to suffer these on a regular basis. It is fair to say that in a busy school, the most important way in which to make an impression - good or bad - on your team will be the way in which you deal with meetings. Here are some tips.

• Publish and distribute the agenda in good time.

• Start on time.

• Keep to the agenda - if someone skips a point, suggest that you all keep to the agenda so as to keep the meeting tight.

• Likewise, if new points are brought up, remind your team about the any other business section.

• Lead the meeting with a firm hand - at some point you will probably have to deal with some off-topic banter. As long as it doesn't undermine you or the message you are trying to put across, fine. If it does either of those or threatens to lengthen the meeting unacceptably, use a firm voice to say something like "let's get back to the agenda".

• Agree who is going to do what and by when, and make sure that this is published in the minutes.

• Distribute the minutes/notes of the meeting as soon as possible afterwards when people can still remember what was discussed.

Don't forget that minute taking is one of the 25 tasks that we should not be doing, but the existence of formal minutes is very important as they offer:

• A reminder to people (including you) who said they were going to follow up certain points, talk to other colleagues, find out further information and so on.

• Proof that certain points of the agenda were discussed and agreed upon.

• A simple record of what was said.

• A possibility for your team to see that you are following up on things and therefore moving the team forward.

When things go wrong

There will be times in your career as a head of year or head of department when you are not happy with a teacher's performance. Whether they are simply not fulfilling your expectations or whether it's more serious than that, you must deal with the problem quickly and effectively to prevent it getting out of control. After all - this teacher's performance could be affecting many youngsters. What's more, one ineffectual member of a team can affect the morale of the whole team, particularly if ignored by the team leader. So how can you steer your team member back onto the straight and narrow?

If the problem is one of classroom discipline or a small thing such as organisation, try the following.

• Identify the problem - have you heard about the problem from someone else or have you noticed it yourself? Don't act on anything you have heard second-hand until you have checked that it's a true and fair criticism.

• Always seek advice from a line manager - especially if you are new at the job or if this kind of task is your least favourite and most terrifying. There will be a precedent for most scenarios you will meet.

• Approach the member of staff from a sympathetic angle but try not to be patronising. An awful lot of angst can be avoided if you choose your words and attitude carefully. Remember that every staff member is different, and just as pupils have different learning styles, your team members all have different personalities. Don't try and deal with them in completely the same way.

• Just as you would a pupil, follow up the teacher's progress with what you've asked them to do and monitor the resulting improvement. If there is no improvement or any kind of refusal to follow your suggestions/instructions, seek advice from your line manager.

• Keep a record of all discussions with the teacher for reference and your protection.

• As soon as you feel that you have reached an impasse or that the situation merits a more senior member of staff, pass it on. Don't worry that your line manager will think ill of you - you will have kept them informed every step of the way.

• Keep offering your help and support throughout the process so that you are doing all you can to keep your relationship as healthy as possible under the circumstances!

Your team as a superpower

It is vitally important to the success of your team to present a united front to the pupils and your colleagues. When imagining the role that your team can play in the school, a really useful image is one of a line of you, marching through the playground, arm in arm. It might sound new age, and I am not suggesting you try it in a literal sense, but the idea that you are all working together is an important one. In a tutor team of eight people, for example, you have a good varied proportion of the school staff ready to work together for the greater good of your year.

Involve everyone in decision-making as much as possible, and ask for their help when you want to enforce a particular rule such as uniform. Impress on the kids that the tutors are a team and although their tutor will be their first port of call, any tutor will be glad to help in the event of a problem. If you can get your tutors to take on this attitude, you will be doing exceptionally well.

Consistency is also essential in a subject area, and although your team members must be given the opportunity to rely on you, the perfect situation would be for you all to rely on each other for different things.