New leaders are bound to make mistakes when leading a team of people. Periodically, one should pause and determine if they are leading a true team or simply a group of people with similar job tasks. Without that determination, it’s easy to lose sight of what a team really is. As a result, the leadership actions taken can have negative consequences.
If team goals can be achieved independently by individuals, members are not truly part of a team. To truly be a team, members must rely on each other to achieve the goal. As Rick Dufour describes in his comparison of groups and teams, marathon runners can all work towards and achieve the same goal of completion, but that does not make them a team. Dufour uses basketball to illustrate how a team must work together to achieve a goal. No one person can achieve the goal of winning a basketball game or championship. The goal requires a team effort (PSU WC 2020).
As a new leader, one of the first things I learned was goals had to be measurable. As a result, numeric metrics were added to all performance goals. If results had to be measurable, teamwork could be measured by the phone availability and number of calls individuals took. Growth could be measured by sales counts. Quality could be measured by a percentage of accuracy on a monthly audit of a small portion of an individual’s work. The numeric targets gave individuals a clear picture of the numbers they had to hit to meet their goals. The individual goals were designed to support team goals of growth and acting in capacity of an insurance agent, by taking a consultative approach to transactions handled and actively practicing next issue avoidance.
Much of my approach defied Larson & Lafasto’s Characteristics of Team Excellence. To start, I thought my numerically measurable goals were clear. Ultimately, the was charged with assessing client’s coverage needs and educating clients on available products to meet those needs, clearly document those discussions, and maintaining a high level of accuracy throughout the process. What happened was individuals on the team became laser focused on hitting their numbers, not what the numbers were supposed to motivate them to do. Gaps in coverage were often overlooked in favor of quick and easy options to sell a client to get credit towards individuals’ goals. The goals were not and elevating as they should be to achieve team excellence. They motivated the team to focus on the wrong thing (Northouse, 2016, p. 368).
One key resource missing to support a results-driven structure was core norms of conduct (Northouse, 2016, p. 369). The team members had a goal to act in the capacity of an agent, but they had no resource or training to interpret what that meant. Instead, they had access to instructional resources that were not designed for their role. Norms would have helped them align their actions to achieve desired results while giving the team a shared sense of they were all trying to accomplish.
Let’s circle back to the question of whether I was leading a team or a group. Every individual on the team could meet their goals without relying on each other. Instead of working together, the primary focus became the need to hit individual targets and compete with peers to achieve a higher paycheck at the end of the year. Significant leadership efforts to foster a culture of teamwork was sabotaged by individual goals. I was leading a group I called a team.
Without the proper resources, norms, and understanding of what acting in capacity of an agent means, some team members lacked the full competence needed to achieve team excellence and were rewarded at the same time for hitting numeric targets that did not translate to anything meaningful for the team (Northouse, 2016, p. 369).
My advice to new leaders on team leadership is make sure you understand what a team is before setting goals for the team. Use resources such as Larson & Lafasto’s Characteristics of Team Excellence to help put an effective leadership process in place and prevent your team from spiraling into a group of individuals chasing meaningless targets. If research exists on groups achieving “every person for themselves excellence,” I’m sure my original new leader approach hits all the proven characteristics to succeed.
References:
Pennsylvania State University (2020). Leadership in work. Module 9: Team Leadership. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2075467/modules/items/30110483
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 7th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.