Team leader cover letter

Team Leader Cover Letter (With Examples)

Being a team leader requires a lot of soft skills that aren’t necessarily taught in school and getting those skills and qualifications across in a resume is rather difficult. They don’t fit neatly into bullet points like classes and professional skills do.

That’s where your cover letter comes into play. A cover letter is an excellent way to point out your soft skills and express why you’re the ideal person for the job. This is part of the reason a cover letter is not something to throw together without thought, and it’s not something you can skip entirely.

Why Cover Letters Are Important for Leadership Jobs

A leadership position requires some experience and the ability to work with people, inspire and encourage them, and lead. These are not skills you can learn in school, as there isn’t such a thing as a leadership degree.

Your resume will go over your professional experience and you’ll be able to list some of your qualifications, but a cover letter lets you get into the important parts.

Not only that, but recruiters and hiring managers all say that they prefer to see a cover letter included with a resume. It makes the applicant appear more professional and serious about the position.

That said, cover letters can be hard to write. That’s why we’re here to help. At Zippia, we’re experts in what jobs are out there and what recruiters want from their applicants. We’ve put together our best advice for writing your Team Leader cover letter.

Parts of a Team Leader Cover Letter

Don’t get overwhelmed by the blank page. The best way to start writing your cover letter is to start with the basics. The essential parts of a cover letter for a team leader are the same as the essential elements of any other cover letter. It’s best to start there and then go back and add some personal touches and information to make yours a stand-out.

• Your contact information. You want to make it easy for the hiring team to contact you. This needs to appear at the top of your resume somewhere.

• Employer’s contact information. You can skip this section if your cover letter is getting too long. You want to shoot for a cover letter that is concise and fits on one page. But if your letter is too short, this can fill it out and make it look more professional.

• Salutation. The most common (and outdated) salutation is “To Whom It May Concern.” Sure, that’s a safe approach but it’s not likely to catch anyone’s attention. If you can find out the name of the person who will be reading the cover letter, it’s a great idea to include that in the salutation.

• Opening. Use your opening to create a first impression that will get you noticed and get people interested in you as a candidate. Try not to be too generic or formulaic.

• Cover letter body. The perfect cover letter body only has three paragraphs. They’re all meant to be pretty short, so you need to be bold and to the point.

  • First paragraph. List your qualifications, experience, soft skills, and accomplishments. Grab their attention and let them know why you’re the only qualified candidate for the job.

  • Second paragraph. Focus on why you are a good candidate for them. Make them feel confident that hiring you is the right choice to make.

  • Third paragraph. Thank the reader for their time and offer to be available for additional information or requests.

• Closing. Don’t be overly friendly. Even if you’re stressing how approachable you are in your cover letter, stick to a professional and forgettable closing. “Sincerely,” “Best Regards,” or “Appreciatively” are good choices.

• Signature. In an email cover letter, your typed name will serve as a signature. There’s no need to add a written one in this situation so you can simply skip one line after the closing and then add your typed name. It’s a good idea to repeat your contact email and phone number after your name.

• Attachment. Some people like to add some notations at the bottom of a cover letter. If they’re including an attachment, say a resume or reference list, they will note that there’s an attachment(s) so the reader knows there’s supplemental information.

Team Leader Cover Letter Opening

The opening will honestly be the hardest part to write. It needs to be personal and exciting and grab the reader’s attention. We’ll give you an example but you’re going to get the best results if you spend some time working on customizing one for yourself.

Now, that’s an opening to be proud of. It highlights your successes and lets the potential employer know your strengths. But, of course, your opening will be tailored to your experiences.

Team Leader Cover Letter Body

From here on your cover letter will get easier to write. The first paragraph in the body is a little tricky because you need to call out your experience and qualifications. The second paragraph gets easier because you just need to sell yourself. The third paragraph can be copied from our example. Let’s take a look.

Team Leader Cover Letter Closing

The best approach is to sum up your closing quickly and succinctly. Thank them and move on.

Example of a Team Leader Cover Letter

Now that you’ve looked at all of the parts of a cover letter, it’s time to put the whole thing together and see how it looks.

Cover Letter Tips for Team Leads

It’s almost time to write your cover letter and send it out. But there are a few tips that can help you add some polish and leave you feeling confident about your approach.

• Achievements. If you have some achievement statistics that you can share, that can go a long way toward solidifying your claims. Any awards, goals, reports about the success of your team, etc. should be included.

• Novel ideas. Many times, team leads are asked to create a teamwork atmosphere. This can take ingenuity and some interesting approaches. If you’ve implemented steps that bring your team together, make sure to share them.

• Above and beyond. It’s not uncommon for team leads to step onto the floor and help do the job when necessary. If this is part of your experience, let the reader know that you do what you have to to get your job done.

• Additional information. In our example, Kelly included a standard process to detail the work that gets done and how it’s organized. This can be exactly the illustration that’s needed to show your expertise.

• Proofread. Errors are inexcusable. It’s a great idea to ask a few other people to read your cover letter and any additional information you’re submitting to make sure it’s error-free.