Successfully leading teams and making the transition from dysfunctional or low performing to high performing teams has a great dependency on the amount of trust between the team and the leader and, sometimes more importantly, within the team. Team members have a difficult time contributing their best to the team when they cannot trust each other to put the team’s interests first, complete their tasks and behave in ways that meet each other’s expectations. Although, great for making leadership decisions and actually leading a team, Hill’s Model for Team Leadership is also a excellent tool for empowering team members and building trust within teams (Northouse, 2013).
As a leader, the model above provides a very practical framework for monitoring and acting within teams. As Northouse (2013) admits, team leadership is an extremely complex topic and is made even more complex with the prevalence of virtual and globally distributed teams. Although team leadership is complex, the model lays out an easy (in theory) path to follow to assess a given situation, discern the appropriate area to address (i.e., internal or external), and provides the key options for bringing about a successful resolution (Northouse, 2013). Of course, as with all theories, the day-to-day application is much more difficult, especially considering that a leader is usually at multiple points within the model, dealing with different team members or challenges (e.g., project budget overruns), all at the same time. Effective leaders can, over the course of time and through repeated use, internalize this model and adopt it as their modus operandi. The chances for team success and delivering on team goals are certainly increased through this alone.
In order to greatly increase the chances a team will become high performing, the leader can involve the team members in the process and encourage the model’s application between team members and with external influencers to the team. The beauty of the model is that this transferability requires no special tweaking or adjustments. Once monitoring is established and a problem is uncovered, the leader can offer the team (or just the impacted team members), the opportunity to drive for resolution on its own or with his or her support. Mature team members are often in favor of being able to resolve the problems on their own, but want awareness and support from the leader before taking definitive action. A leader, still using the model, can prompt the team’s steps through the model by asking questions that adhere to the framework provided. Team members can use the model as a decision tree for working with each other and with outside teams as well. Just as a leader can begin to use the model as a natural course of action, repeated usage by team members will create the right mental and muscle memory for them to be able do it instinctively as well.
As an example, let’s say a team is responsible for providing analytics on a given application and the reporting system needs to be upgraded or replaced. Within the team, the leader has a project manager for managing the upgrade project and an analyst who will work with the new system and provide the analytics on an ongoing basis. For the purposes of this example, let us also assume that the project manager and the analyst are at odds with each other because the project manager is primarily concerned with implementing a cost effective solution that integrates well with the application while the analyst wants cutting edge technology in order to provide much needed insights that the current system cannot provide. The analyst complains to the manager that the proposed system from the project manager will not meet her needs, while the project manager complains that what the analyst demands will blow out the project budget. Using Hill’s model, the leader determines that this is conflict demands action, has both a task and relational component, and is internal to the team. The leader could examine the facts and make a top down decision that provides an adequate solution or, bringing the project manager and analyst together, he or she could encourage them to apply the model and find an alternative solution that meets both of their needs. By initially guiding the team members to collaborate together and revisit the goals of the project and the analytics and suggesting that they understand each other’s needs and restructure the approach, common ground and a third alternative can be discovered. By doing so, without a top down decision from the leader, the team members can build trust with each other and a stronger sense of their ability to impact the solution to deliver more value within the team. The potential such a path provides is very positive for those involved and for other members in the team who witness the conflict being solved with empowerment and respect.
The result is a team that becomes efficient and effective at overcoming challenges within the team and with those they interact with outside the team. With challenges reduced or quickly dealt with, the team can focus on delivering against their goals or KPI’s and doing so with excellence. That translates them into a high performing team that will develop a positive reputation within the company, making further interactions with others outside the team even easier.
Unfortunately success cannot be guaranteed through the application of the model because the nuances and details require specific solutions or mitigation tactics. For example, the team can be setting challenging goals and overachieving them only to have their efforts go unrewarded due to budget cuts. The team leader can escalate this all the way to the board, only to be told company survival comes (rightly) first. The team may rely on external service providers to make good on their promises for delivering a much needed product, but if they external provider fails, timelines will slip and budgets are in danger. It is worth noting though, dealing with such problems with a high performing team is much more enjoyable than with a low performing team. Applying Hill’s Model for Team Leadership is one of the best ways to create the trust and empowerment necessary to build a high performing team.
Cheers, Matt
References:
Image. Hill’s Model of Leadership. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 05, 2013, from http://www.uvm.edu/extension/community/buildingcapacity/images/team_leadership_chart.gif
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Image. Teamwork. (n.d.). Retreived 03 05, 2013, from
