For many years, I performed the role know as Expediter in my career. It was my job to take a team of aircraft maintainers and lead them effectively in order to accomplish the mission at hand. It took some time to learn the in’s and out’s of the job and a few mistakes were made, but eventually I got the hang of it. When at my best in this role, Ginnett’s Team Effectiveness Leadership Model (TELM) approach to team leadership described what I did to help the team succeed.
The TELM is designed to help teams work more efficiently. It helps a leader determine what a team needs and how to take care of those needs. The TELM states that the first thing a leader can do to improve effectiveness is to ensure the team has a clear sense of purpose and to know what the expectations are (PSU WC, 2014, L. 9. p. 8). This allows a team to not only know what the goal is, but how it will be measured. It makes it so there is little to no “guess work” involved in what needs to be done. As the expediter, I began each shift telling all my maintainers what they needed to do for the day. On top of telling them what had to be done, I let them know my expectations and what I considered quality work compared to what I saw as substandard work. This allowed all of my team members to know what was expected and what they had to do.
The second TELM step to increase team effectiveness is to design various inputs at the individual, team, and organizational levels. An input is what is available for a team in order for the team to work. These inputs can be psychological in nature or can even be the aptitude or ability of the team member (PSU WC, 2014, L. 9 p. 8). I would make inputs at the individual level by assigning the right people to the right jobs. I knew who my workers were and I knew who was stronger in one aircraft system compared to another. I would take this knowledge of abilities and create smaller teams in order to get a job done correctly. I would also create a team input by assigning a team with a spread of knowledge. I would ensure each team has a qualified maintainer along with an experienced one. If my manning would allow I would also add a trainee in the team to allow for proper training on the task.
The final step in the TELM model for team effectiveness is “Improving team performance through ongoing coaching at various stages, but particularly while the team is actually performing its task” (PSU WC, 2014, L. 9 p. 8). This would allow the team to work while at the same time learn and stay motivated to the task at hand. I would do this by checking in often on the team and getting progress reports. If the team was struggling with a particular job, I would tell them my inputs and motivate them to completing the task. Finally, I always left on a positive note to further my attempt to coach and motivate them further in the job.
As I said, I did not do all of this right away. It took a few years for me to develop this particular style. But once I did, I noticed an increase in motivation and efficiency in my teams. The Team Effectiveness Leadership Model helped show what I was doing and how it helped to make my team more effective.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2014). PSYCH 485. Lesson 9: Team Leadership. Retreived from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp14/psych485/001/content/09_lesson/01_page.html
Sheehan, R. (2013). Build High Performing Teams. [image]. Retrieved on April 13, 2014 from http://strategyleadershipmissionimpact.blogspot.com/2013/04/build-high-performing-teams.html