The globalization of the workforce today requires teams that can complete tasks efficiently and effectively. A team based organization allows business to respond quickly to the rapid changes in our world today. Effective organizational teams have shown to be more productive, use resources more efficiently, make better decisions, offer better services and products and provide greater innovation and creativity (Northouse, 2016). So, how do we as leaders create these highly functional teams? Highly functional teams are dependent on great leadership.
A team can have a sole leader or multiple team members can share leadership responsibilities. Shared leadership, or distributed leadership, happens when members take on leadership behaviors that help to influence the team in a positive direction (2016). As leadership is needed one member will step up to the plate to help out and then step back once the objective has been met allowing other team members to do the same when required. This bobbing in an out of the leadership position by any qualified member of the team results in groups with higher levels of trust and cohesion and experience less conflict (2016). When leadership opportunities are shared by multiple team members, a larger number of issues can be tackled simultaneously. Even teams that exist with formal leaders can benefit from shared leadership (2016). With every team member willing to take on leadership roles to solve problems and tackle issues it will naturally result in greater team effectiveness.
The person who takes on a leadership role at any point, in any team, has an essential job function, and that is to monitor the team and act accordingly to help resolve issues that may arise. Effective team leaders should be able to create accurate mental models of what problem is occurring for a team (2016). Constructing a precise picture of the situation takes into account the issue, the environment in which it is occurring, available resources the team has access to and the organizational expectations as a whole. To respond in the most efficient manner, the leader will need to be flexible in their behaviors to meet the diverse set of needs of the team.
Through the research of Hackman and Larson & LaFasto, multiple markers of healthy teams are suggested (as cited by Norhhouse, 2016). As a leader, these questions could serve as a checklist when creating a new or assessing any existing team.
- Is it a real team?
- Does it have a compelling purpose and clear goal?
- Are the norms of conduct clear?
- Is there support from the organization context?
- Is there team-focused coaching?
- Does it have a results-driven structure?
- Is there unified commitment?
- Does a collaborative climate exist?
- Is there external support and recognition?
- Is there principled leadership?
Team: First, ask yourself if you have a real team. When asking yourself this question you may think that you have a team but instead discover that you simply have a group of individuals working side by side. A group of people working together does not constitute a team in this context. Teams should be skillfully designed and constructed and should not be thrown together out of need or convenience. Effective teams share a sense of team spirit and a sense of responsibility and commitment to each other.
Competence: Once you have established that you have a team you must assess their competence. Teams require a proper ratio of skills and abilities required to perform tasks. Training, access to information, the ability to work well with others, the ability to problem solve are all components that relate to competence. As a leader, you need to assess each team member individually and then the team as a whole to ensure your team has the correct mix of technical and interpersonal skills.
Goals: The goals that you set for the team should be clear, motivating and attainable. A leader must ensure that all members are energized and fully engaged in their objective. If the goals that are set are too complicated or unclear, the team may not have the ability or desire to reach the goals. As the leader, you must also check in on each team member to ensure that over time they stay focused and motivated towards that goal. Often, teams can fail because goals are replaced with new goals. For example, Jeff was committed to increasing sales by 15% this year, but once he heard about a new job opportunity, his old goal was replaced by his new goal of landing that new position.
Conduct: Standards for which team members are measured against are necessary for the development of a high functioning team. When the pressure to perform is on, people often perform at higher levels. Your role as the leader will be to set these standards as well as to provide feedback to members of the team to correct performance issues and to reward excellent performance when warranted.
Collaborative Climate: Having the right environment to work in is essential for team effectiveness. Trust is a critical component of assessing the nature of the team’s climate. When we are part of a group where trust is present, we are respectful, focused, willing to take risks, open and feel safe. As a team leader, you have the ability to foster the development of an open atmosphere within a team by creating a safe place where a variety of work-related topics are openly discussed without fear of negative consequences.
Structure:Structural components that effect teams are task design, team composition and standard of conduct. Different teams require different structures. For example, sales teams must know their product line inside and out and customer service teams must have access to information that will help them to effectively solve customer problems. The appropriate structures that support team members to reach their goals are necessary.
Principled Leadership: Finally, leadership is positively associated with effective teams. A successful leader will help members to recognize problems and address them. A successful leader will assist the team to work together to achieve goals. A successful leader will strategically place members in positions and situations where they can perform to their highest ability. A successful leader is always involved with the team providing feedback and guidance.
Working through each question on the checklist one sees how well their team measures up or does not. Maybe you have a poor functioning team because you realize that not every member of the team is committed to the goal. Perhaps the training that the customer service team has been receiving has not been adequate, and their competence is reduced as a result. Or, perhaps you are taking on the leadership of a new team that is already highly functioning, and you desire to keep it that way. From any position, this list of questions is highly useful for any leader to look at when creating a new team, beefing up a lackluster team or maintaining the health of an already high-functioning team.
Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
Kyle Eric Jacobson says
In my experience working with teams, I notice that more and more of them are adopting a shared leadership model as you mentioned in your post. Amos and Kilmoski (2014) mentioned that shared leadership involves the risk that team members will not step forward into leadership positions (as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 365). I have also seen shared leadership teams that either out of necessity or personal preference, one team member attempts to circumvent the shared leadership concept and tries to take control of the team. To gain the full positive effects of shared team leadership; how do you suggest the teams react to these problems? Or how do you suggest that a team leader who attempts to share leadership among other group members avoid problems associated with lack of leadership participation, or over leadership participation on the other end of the spectrum?
I think that the checklist you provided for effective teams is significantly valuable for team leaders to use in the development or refinement of teams. Northouse (2016) consistently states that teams are precisely designed to be effective, but I’m very curious about how a leader can begin to design a team using an existing group of individuals. Your post provides great criteria that a group can use to become an effective team, but sometimes teams or groups are highly limited by various factors that could hinder the skilled design process of an effective team. Do you think that it would be more effective to selectively replace group members; or to identify individual specialties in existing members and coach these members to create an effective team?
One thing that I especially enjoyed about your blog is that you boiled down many of the complexities surrounding the team approach to leadership, and presented it in a form that is easily understandable and prescriptive for current leaders who are undertaking the challenge of team leadership.
Well done!
References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice e7. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.