I think the Army would make a serious mistake if we made a distinction and said, "You are a manager, and you are a leader." So my philosophy is that we are all leaders! We also must be responsible managers or stewards of resources entrusted to us. We would make a serious mistake to think that we could be one and not the other. -- General John Wickham.Leaders should not think of themselves as simply managers, supervisors, etc.; but rather as "team leaders." Thinking of yourself as a manager or supervisor places you in a position of traditional authority based solely on respect for the position, which places you in a position of power. By understanding the personal work preferences and motivations of your team members, you as an individual, rather than your position, will earn their real respect and trust. All the tools discussed so far in this guide, such as counseling and planning, provide the basic structure for developing a team. But to go from a group to a team requires a few extra steps.
This means that the people under you are not simply followers who blindly go where you go, but rather are a group of people who are supportive of collaboration in order to achieve a common goal through mutual knowledge and skill sharing. What is a Team?A team is a group of people coming together to collaborate. This collaboration is to reach a shared goal or task for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. A group of people is not necessarily a team. A team is a group of people with a high degree of interdependence geared towards the achievement of a common goal or completion of a task rather than just a group for administrative convenience. A group, by definition, is a number of individuals having some unifying relationship.Team members are deeply committed to each other's personal growth and success. That commitment usually transcends the team. A team outperforms a group and outperforms all reasonable expectations given to its individual members. That is, a team has a synergistic effect -- one plus one equals a lot more than two. Team members not only cooperate in all aspects of their tasks and goals, they share in what are traditionally thought of as management functions, such as planning, organizing, setting performance goals, assessing the team's performance, developing their own strategies to manage change, and securing their own resources. A team has three major benefits for the organization:
Most teams aren't teams at all but merely collections of individual relationships with the boss. Each individual vying with the others for power, prestige and position. - Douglas McGregorFrom Group To Team -- Getting ThereBe Enthusiastic -- it's ContagiousBecome enthusiastic about one aspect at a time. Start by initially looking for a quick problem to be solved. Most teams trace their advancement to key performance oriented events that forged them together. Potential teams can set such events in motion by immediately establishing a few challenging, yet achievable goals.First, find a problem and start to talk about it with the team; do not delegate it to an individual or small group, make it a project for everybody. Choose a simple, but distracting work-related problem and solicit everybody's views and suggestions. Next, get the problem solved. Demand urgency against a clear target. There is no need to allocate large amounts of resource or time to this, simply raise the problem and make a fuss. When a solution comes, praise it by rewarding the whole team. Also, ensure that the aspects of increased efficiency, productivity, and/or calm are highlighted since this will establish the criteria for success. When the problem has been solved, find another (preferably bigger) one and repeat. Develop a Sense of UrgencyTeam members need to believe the team has an urgent and worthwhile purpose. Establishing a sense of urgency and direction will help them know what their expectations are. The more urgent and meaningful the need to reach a goal, the more likely it is that a real team will start to emerge. The best teams define their performance expectations, but are flexible enough to allow changes to shape their own purpose, goals, and approach.Set Clear Rules of BehaviorTeams develop rules of conduct to help them achieve their purpose and performance goals. Some rules you might want to consider:
Keep Them InformedChallenge your team with fresh facts and information. New information causes a potential team to redefine and enrich its understanding of the objectives, thereby helping the team to set clearer goals.Grow TogetherTeams must spend a lot of time together (bonding), especially in the beginning. Yet potential teams often fail to do so. The time spent together must be both scheduled and unscheduled. Creative insights as well as personal bonding require impromptu and casual interactions.Reinforcement Works WondersExploit the power of positive feedback, recognition, and reward. Positive reinforcement works as well in a team context as elsewhere. For example, by being alert to a shy person's initial efforts to speak up, allows you to encourage continued contributions.Other methods include:
Team ElementsAs a leader, there are a number of elements that you must help to create in a team. Teams learn and demonstrate behaviors that are not exhibited by mere groups. These characteristics represent the essential elements of an effective team. Your team will not normally form on its own, rather there is almost always someone who was the catalyst for bringing the team together. This someone must be you. It's okay for you to be the focal point at the beginning, but at some point in time the ownership of the team needs to shift to the other members as a whole.
Common ElementsA team goal - Although your team might have a number of goals, one of them must stand out. For example, "To produce 10% more widgets than last year without hiring additional personnel." A supporting goal might be, "To provide 40 hours of yearly training for each member." Everyone must know, agree upon, and be committed to accomplishing the team goal.Productive participation of all members - This has four levels:
Trust - Openness in critiquing and trusting others. A sense of belonging - Cohesiveness by being committed to an understood mandate and team identity. Diversity - This must be valued as an asset. It is a vital ingredient that provides the synergistic effect of a team. Creativity and risk taking - If no one individual fails, then risk taking becomes a lot easier. Evaluation - The ability to self correct. Change compatibility - Being flexible and assimilating change. Participatory leadership - Everyone must help lead to one degree or another. Teamwork
Steps to Team Problem SolvingStep 1 - Define the goal. A team needs to know what to focus on. You can lay out the basic goal, "reduce workplace accidents" for example, but it is important to let the team define and expand the goal.Step 2 - Not only must the "what" be solved, but also the "why." The team should identify what's in it for both the organization and the team. This is best accomplished by asking "What is the benefit?" In addition, creating a specific target that builds enthusiasm helps to make the objective appealing. Step 3 - Define the obstacles that will prevent the team from achieving what it wants. Focus on internal obstacles, not on the external environment. It becomes too easy to say, "We can't do anything about it." Internal factors are within their reach. Step 4 - The team now plans its actions or objectives. Lay out four or five concrete steps, and write them down. Not "we'll try" actions, such as "We'll try to serve customers better." Rather, you want actions that can be tracked and monitored. You cannot measure a "try" action. You want observable behaviors, such as "Greet all customers with a smile and a good morning" or "Customers will be served within 1 minute upon their arrival." Step 5 - Formulate actions to address. Step 6 - Take action now! This is the most critical step. It is what differentiates an effective team from a group. Groups have lots of meetings before, if ever, taking action -- teams get it done! Get commitment from individual team members to take action on specific items. Team LeadershipKeep the purpose, goals, and approach relevant and meaningfulAll teams must shape their own common purpose, goals and approach. While a leader must be a working member of the team who contributes, she also stands apart from the team by virtue of her position as leader. A team expects their leader to use that perspective and distance to help them clarify and commit to their mission, goals, and approach. Do not be afraid to get your hands dirty (lead by example), but always remember what you are paid to do (get the job done and grow your employees).Build commitment and confidenceWork to build the commitment and confidence level of each individual and the team as a whole. Effective team leaders are vigilant about skills. Their goal is to have members with technical, functional, problem solving, decision making, interpersonal, and teamwork skills. To get there, encourage them to take the risks needed for growth and development. You can also challenge them by shifting their assignments and role patterns. Get them out of their comfort zone and into the learning zone, but not so far that they go into the fear zone:
Staying in our comfort zone makes change and learning difficult as we have nothing pushing or pulling us (motivation). However, if we go too far out of our comfort zone, we enter the fear zone where no learning takes place because of the extreme discomfort. When we enter the learning zone, we become slightly uncomfortable as we are slightly out of place, therefore we change in order to fit in. Manage relationships with outsidersTeam leaders are expected by people outside of the team, as well as the members within, to manage much of the team's contacts and relationships with the rest of the organization. You must communicate effectively the team's purpose, goals, and approach to anyone who might help or hinder it. In addition, you need the courage to intercede on the team's behalf when obstacles that might cripple or demoralize the team get placed in their way.Create opportunities for othersOne of the challenges is providing performance opportunities, assignments, and credit to the team and the people within it. You cannot grab all the best opportunities, you must share it with your team. This will help you to fulfill one of your primary responsibilities as a leader -- growing the team.Create a visionA vision is the most important aspect of making a team successful. Teams perish when they don't clearly see the vision -- why they are doing what they do and where they are going. You must motivate the team toward the fulfillment of the goals. Workers want to be successful and they know the only way to do that is by following and achieving great goals.Are you ready to be a team leader?
You are comfortable in sharing leadership and decision making with your employees.
Common Problems
Leaders select too many members in their own image. As a result, teams become unbalanced with too many people overlapping in the same areas, while there are skill gaps in other areas.
Its time to do some rebuilding if you are facing any of the following problems:
Next, categorize the issues, such as planning, scheduling, resources, policies, tasks or activities the group must perform, interpersonal conflict, etc. Once all the information has been categorized, develop action plans to solve the problems. And finally and most importantly, follow up on the plans to ensure they are being accomplished.
Team Building Courses"Although team building and team training interventions often focus on similar concerns (e.g. enhancing communication, decision making, coordination) the means of approaching the concerns differ (Tannenbaum et 1991a). In team training, the specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be developed are determined prior to the start of training, and learning objectives are established. In contrast, team building is more of a process intervention, aimed at helping individuals and groups examine and act upon their behavior and relationships. Recent reviews concluded that team building appears to have a positive effect on the perceptions and attitudes of team members although results for behavioral outcomes were more equivocal (Sundstrom et al 1990; Tannenbaum et al 1991a,b)."Team building is a process intervention aimed at helping individuals and groups examine and act upon their behavior and relationships. Like any learning program, it needs to be implemented as a process, rather than a one-shot activity. Being developmental in nature, it does require a more long-term process than most other learning programs, thus an organization really has to examine itself to see if it has the resources, culture, and fortitude to successfully carry it out. Like any learning program, an organization that does it right can grow and benefit; when done wrong it probably becomes more of a waste of resources.During the team building process, learning do not always come from the activity itself, but rather from the reflection that is used after the activity has been completed, such as during an After Action Review. For example, one rope activity that is often used is instructing a team, who are blindfolded, to make a square out of the rope. Most teams are able to accomplish this without too much difficultly. Next, they are instructed to create an equilateral triangle (if it is a really smart group then ask for an isosceles triangle). This is where it gets a little more difficult as they not only have to all agree upon what a equilateral triangle is, but then also create one. Of course the real purpose of the activity is not being able to create a square or triangle out of a rope while blindfolded, but rather in the analogy that the activity provides in comparison to teamwork. And to really build that analogy, you have to have good follow-up questions. You need to get "deep," reflection, such as asking them to create a metaphor of their own. Part 2 - Matrix TeamsThis section was mainly focused on of transforming your department, section, etc. from a group of individuals into a highly functioning team. Part 2 is geared towards organizational members from different functions or departments collaborating to achieve a common goal (matrix).ReferencesBodwell, Donald J. (1996, 1997). High Performance TeamsKatzenbach, Jon R. and Smith, Douglas K. (1986). The Wisdom of Teams. Harvard Business Review Press. Tannenbaum, S. & Yukl, G. "TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN WORK ORGANIZATIONS." Annu. Rev. Psychol. 1992. 43:399-441. Margerison, C. and McCann, D. (1985). How to Lead a Winning Team. MCB University Press. Wellins, R., Byham, W., Wilson, J. (1991). Empowered Teams: Creating Self-Directed Work Groups That Improve Quality, Productivity, and Participation. Jossey-Bass.
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A Case Study on TeamsIn the book "How," Dov Seidman tells the story of the General Electric Aircraft Engine Assembly plant in Durham, North Carolina, that produces some of the most powerful and technically complex aircraft engines in the world. All work is done in teams of 20 techs whose only command from management is the date their engine is schedule to ship. They are responsible for all scheduling, ordering, process management, and deliverables. There are no time clocks, so except for a once a day meeting to allow the two shifts to synchronize activity, the workers come and go as they please. There is no cleaning crew, but the place is spotless. There is no tool lockup, but no tools ever come up missing.There is only one boss for over 200 techs -- Paula Sims. Not too long after she started, a tech came up to her and told her that "there was no need to follow-up with us to make sure we're doing what we agreed to do. If we say we'll do something, we'll do it." She thought, "Wow. That is so simple. I'm sending the message that I don't trust people because I always follow-up." When given the order to deliver a new engine, they did it 12 to 13 percent cheaper than other plants who had built the same engine for years. Their engines are perfect. As one tech put it, "I have a three-year old daughter. And I figure that every plane we build engines for has someone with a three-year-old daughter riding on it." The have gone eight years without a worker's compensation claim. There are only three pay grades: tech-1, tech-2, and tech-3. Each is based on skill level and training. Training allows them to "multiskill" so that when one person is on vacation, another can still build a turbine without that person. They have no process improvement program. They simply manage themselves. |
