Best Practices_ Managing People_ Secrets to Leading for New Managers - Barry Silverstein [16]
However, a strong team philosophy can make a positive impact that counters this mentality. Even as a leader, when you participate as a team member, you join employees on common ground—and you’re all on the same side.
Is there a team member who is always coming up with ideas or has a creative side but isn’t very organized? This person might be the team’s idea-generator, someone who functions as a “spark plug” and gets the team thinking broadly and imaginatively.
Does one of your team members have expertise in a subject, or in-depth knowledge of a system or process that might be of value to the team? This person could be the team subject-matter expert, the person others rely on for information and facts.
Is one of your team members particularly social and outgoing? This person might function as a liaison to other teams or take the responsibility for setting up team-building exercises and events.
THE BOTTOM LINE
EIGHT INGREDIENTS OF PERFORMANCE
In his classic book, The Wisdom of Teams, Jon Katzenbach says there’s no perfect recipe for building team performance. However, his research has illuminated eight ingredients that most high-performance teams shared.
Management imparts a sense of urgency and sets a clear direction.
Team members are selected based on skills and potential, not personalities.
First-time interactions of the team members are positive.
Management has set clear rules of behavior.
Immediate performance-oriented tasks and goals have been laid out.
The group has been challenged with new perspectives and information.
The group spends a considerable amount of time together.
Management exploits the power of positive feedback, recognition, and rewards.
SOURCE: The Wisdom of Teams by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith (Harvard Business School Press, 1992).
Formalize the Roles
Once you’ve matched the individuals with their roles, formalize these roles. If you have more roles to fill than you have team members, some members will need to take on multiple roles. This is not uncommon among smaller teams; you should still be able to accomplish your goals.
Define each of the roles as specifically as possible. What tasks must be accomplished? What are the dependencies of one role to another? Is it necessary for the responsibilities of one role to be completed before another role begins? Be sure that individual team members know not only their own roles but also those of other team members. This is one situation in which it’s good for everyone to know each other’s business.
Set the Course
Once all your team members know their own roles and each other’s, get everyone together to determine what needs to be done and when. They must take ownership of the process, begin to function cooperatively, and collaborate to complete the assigned tasks. Have your administrator provide a schedule that shows what needs to be done, when, and by whom. Jump-start the work with a meeting to review roles and reiterate your goals.
“A team is a living aggregation of individual talent. Sure, its collective capabilities may add up to more than the sum of the parts. But if we forget to nurture and cultivate each part, the sum can never achieve greatness.”
—Frank Pacetta,
author of Stop Whining—and Start Winning
Dos & Dont’s
HOW TO KEEP A TEAM STRONG
Personalities are apt to clash and tempers to flare when a team is at work. Try to prevent the resulting tensions from affecting your team’s progress.
Don’t support one team member over another when conflicts arise.
Do make an effort to be impartial in resolving disagreements.
Don’t harshly criticize any team member in front of others.
Don’t favor one employee over another in distributing team rewards.
Do encourage all team members to voice their opinions honestly.
Don’t expect every team member to be equally committed.
Do work to communicate a strong answer to the inevitable question, “What’s in it for me?”
MOTIVATING TEAMS
It sounds paradoxical, but motivating a team starts with motivating individuals.
While it is nice to think that people