One of the major challenges in the world of leadership is taking on a new role where you are tasked with leading an already existing team. Stepping into an organization where standards and practices are already ingrained presents challenges. Getting to know the groups and teams within the organization is the first step in moving into a new role. Learning everyone’s roles and finding the right ways to navigate is integral to functioning as a team leader. Gauging team effectiveness and the challenges of geographically dispersed teams must be overcome in order to succeed. And with any level of leadership in organization, there is always some level of shared leadership.
For starters, who are these people that are now “my team” and how do they interact with one another? The person stepping into a new place has to learn all of the group norms. “Group norms are the informal rules that groups adopt to regulate and regularize group members’ behavior” (Feldman, 1984, p. 47). Sometimes group norms are molded and established by leadership and other times the group norms evolve into place over time. Is this team really a team or are they a group of people who happen to work together? What are their goals? Shaw (1981) explains a group can consist of two or more people who have influence over one another (as cited by PSU WC, L9, 2019). Teams, however, are made up of members or groups who work independently to contribute to a shared project or mission (PSU WC, L9, 2019). In my case, I have a team of people who work in groups to reach common goals.
Successful teams integrate their individual contributions together to create a collective success (Zaccaro, Rittman, & Marks, 2001). With so many independent personalities working together, there are bound to be disagreements. For example, I have two team members who share a workspace throughout the day. A folder on the workspace is used to house the following day’s calendar. One staff uses the folder only to hold the calendar and the other staff uses the folder to hold the calendar and documents that need to be shredded. Why this person opts to utilize the folder in this way is a mystery and because it’s a mystery, there is contention between the two staff members. Obviously there is communication to be had about this folder and a decision to be made as to what the folder should actually contain. It’s the little situations like this that allow me to really get to know the group.
Being new to the organization, my presence has forced the group to go back through Tuckman’s (1965) stages of development; commonly known as forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. As outlined by PSU WC L9 (2019), Tuckman’s first stage, forming, occurs when a group initially comes together. In my case, my arrival in the organization has caused the existing group to reform in a way that includes me. To help facilitate this stage, my leadership issued a welcome email to the whole organization that introduced me and provided a brief biography so that people would know a little about me when I arrived. For the team I lead, I sent a more personalized introductory message that included information about my likes and dislikes, in hopes of establishing a more personal relationship with them.
A couple weeks into the new job, we are approaching the storming stage. Previous to my arrival, the job duties of my predecessor were disbursed among many different people. Now that I’m in the position those job duties are slowly coming to me. Some of the team members are not so willing to hand the tasks over to me because they either enjoy performing them, or because they were previously receiving a stipend for performing work that is outside of their normal scope of work. The storming stage is now evident. As pointed out in this week’s lesson, however, storming may include disagreement, but if handled correctly, storming can lead to new ideas and move the group toward the next stage, norming (PSU WC, L9, 2019).
While I know we will be storming on and off as time goes on, we will also be moving toward overall normalization. Tuckman’s norming stage is the time when the group begins working together (PSU WC, L9, 2019). In my situation, I see our norming stage as being in full effect when the group is back to feeling at ease with leadership in place. My predecessor had been in the position for over 30 years, so my arrival has been quite the shock to everyone in the organization. I imagine our norming stage will arrive when the staff has faith in me as a leader. It will take time as I will need to prove my leadership skills and abilities as time permits. But once we get settled, we’ll be well onto our way to the performing stage.
When we reach the point of actively working toward a common goal by way of our individual contributions, we’ll be performing (PSU WC, L9, 2019). To get to this point, as the leader I have to be ready and willing to help my team accomplish their tasks (PSU WC, L9, 2019). This will include helping my team know how to manage their time, adapt to change, and problem solve to keep business operations moving smoothly. Part of team performance, in my opinion, is professional development. While it’s important to keep business operations moving forward, I also believe it’s important that the staff remain relevant not only in their fields, but also to continue learning and expanding their skill sets. By investing in professional development, the organization is helping to ensure the team is comprised of competent members.
The final stage of Tuckman’s stages of group development is adjourning. Added to the model a couple years later, adjourning is the part of the process where the group disbands or dissolves (PSU WC, L9, 2019). In my case, I do not expect to see the group adjourn anytime soon as I am hopeful that I will have a long career with this organization. That’s not to say, however, that some of our team won’t move on from their current roles. I do hope to see some team members promoting soon, and that will leave openings to bring in new staff to replace their previous roles, thus starting this process all over again.
References
Feldman, D. C. (1984). The development and enforcement of group norms. The Academy of Management Review, 9(1), 47-53. doi:10.2307/258231
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). PSYCH 485 Lesson 9: Team leadership. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2008237/modules/items/27074716.
Tuckman, B.W. (1965) Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384-399.
Zaccaro, S. J., Rittman, A. L., & Marks, M. A. (2001). Team leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 12(4), 451-483. doi:10.1016/S1048-9843(01)00093-5