---
title: "The 345 Rule: How to Be a Great Team Leader"
description: "In today's highly competitive environment, companies need a strong, wolf-like sales team to gain an edge. The key to such a team is the leader, and this article introduces the 345 Rule—covering three stages, four responsibilities, and five requirements—to help you become an effective team leader."
author: "周平建"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2017-01-05"
language: "en"
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---

# The 345 Rule: How to Be a Great Team Leader

> In today's highly competitive environment, companies need a strong, wolf-like sales team to gain an edge. The key to such a team is the leader, and this article introduces the 345 Rule—covering three stages, four responsibilities, and five requirements—to help you become an effective team leader.

In today's world, every industry is in a state of intense competition. To gain a competitive advantage, one of the key factors is having a capable and battle-hardened wolf-like sales team. The core of such a team is the development of the team leader, which is why we often say, 'A weak soldier is one, but a weak general is a whole army.'

Based on my observations over the years, I believe that to be a good team leader, you need to be familiar with the 345 Rule. The 345 Rule refers to: 3 stages, 4 responsibilities, and 5 requirements.

1
**Three Stages of Leadership for a Team Leader**

**Stage One**
When you are just starting out with only 2 or 3 subordinates, don't always try to project yourself as a leader. At this stage, you are just a 'senior salesperson' and must work alongside your subordinates. You need to be hands-on and lead by example, setting a good example for your team.

**Stage Two**
When you have 8 or more subordinates, you no longer need to handle sales yourself. Otherwise, you won't have time to manage your team and may easily come into conflict with them over interests. At this stage, you need to sit down and think calmly about some issues.

For example, how should you recruit employees? How to train and coach them? Which salespeople are performing well and why? Who is underperforming and where are the gaps? How to motivate employees? How to communicate with them? What conflicts exist within the team?

You should enter the 'managing people and affairs' phase, observing each salesperson's work status, thinking about the team's future direction, and gradually advancing team development.

**Stage Three**
At this stage, you have become a mid-to-senior manager in the company. You need to do two things: first, use corporate culture and team culture to influence and lead the entire team; second, learn to delegate authority and activate the second-stage leaders among your subordinates.

When a person is at the bottom, success comes from personal improvement; when a person is at the middle or senior level, success comes from the improvement of subordinates.

2
**Four Basic Responsibilities of a Team Leader**

1. Selecting subordinates: Focus on talent, follow the path of elite soldiers;
2. Setting requirements: Focus on defining the correct results, supplemented by correct steps;
3. Motivating subordinates: Focus on leveraging strengths and mobilizing enthusiasm;
4. Developing subordinates: Focus on helping them find the most suitable position, not just climbing the ladder.

3
**Five Requirements for Being a Good Team Leader**

1. Dare to take responsibility and set an example for subordinates;
2. Find your own positioning:
   - First, clearly know what mission your team is to accomplish and what cause it is to fulfill. Break down the team goals into stages.
   - Second, more importantly, know what role you play in the team, what your strengths are, and what the team's weaknesses are. Only by perfectly combining the team's weaknesses with your strengths can you achieve goals faster. Always know what kind of leader the team needs.
3. Arrange work reasonably;
4. Don't let rules become a dead letter;
5. Innovate in management:
   - First, don't copy others' experiences; taking things without adaptation is not acceptable.
   - Second, don't always look at how things were done before. Old experience is valuable, but often it is no longer suitable for modern management, especially for the post-80s and post-90s new generation employees.
   - Third, inject vitality into management to create maximum benefits for the company and individuals.

-END-

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