Good - Team Leadership

Advisor's message

Management and leadership in a chaotic environment

“It’s time to move on.” “I have to make a decision.” The process of a team can make your teeth grit as you think about it. Now it’s finally your turn to lead the team. It’s your chance to have a great impact on the team. How do you shape these individual groups into the team you’ve dreamed of? What do you have to do? Suddenly, leading a team doesn’t seem so easy.

When I ask people to write down words that reflect their experiences with the team, the first few people often say things like, “They’re just messing around.” “They’re conflicted.” “The business plans are in limbo.” But these words are often followed by words like, “They’re accomplished.” “They’re shared successes.” “They’re fun.” “They’re just so uplifting.” Teams can be an oasis of excitement, energy, focus, and peak performance, or they can be a vast desert. What makes the difference?

Okay. This isn't rocket science. Almost anyone can lead a team effectively. What you need to have a clear understanding of is how teams work (and how they differ from individuals), the nuances of empathy, tolerance, and resilience, the focus on collaboration, and a few techniques that will help you overcome the hurdles.

This guide will give you the first and last of these points. It will help you understand where and how to use your emotional intelligence in team competition. It will also highlight key things to understand about leadership teams before you dive in.

First, as a team leader, you need to balance two different levels of responsibility. By managing, you mean driving, measuring, and collaborating the team's efforts.

When things go wrong, you need to keep an eye on the board. You don't want people wasting their time. So you need to make it easy for your team members to give you their best efforts. Good team management motivates team members. It also provides them with the opportunity to focus their efforts.

But management is not the same as leadership. Leadership guides people. It listens, observes, and influences individuals. It also sets the pace for the team. It makes team members feel valued. It also orchestrates their participation. It also shapes their sense of why they do what they do together. Leadership drives the team through their conflicts and confusions and toward their highest goals. It is the closest intervention that can get the team back on track.

In addition to management and leadership, a third area of ​​responsibility that many team leaders must address is the skills they need to be involved. One of the biggest challenges for team leaders is how to combine their skills without their own interests and perspectives to influence the team’s agenda. When this happens, you’ll find that other team members gradually withdraw their efforts. So be aware of this often-tricky area of ​​responsibility. People often misunderstand a team because of a member’s personality, which can lead to negative judgments. Sometimes this is true. But more often than not, team members’ behavior is driven by their organizational roles and responsibilities. So one of the keys to leading a team is to understand this area.

How to understand and effectively integrate the demands of these sectors into the team.

And remember that teams are designed to create a product from the collective effort of others. Don't let your team believe that "dividing the labor" without a project and enough time to work together will produce the desired results. As a leader, you should always focus on how the efforts and knowledge of team members can be combined to achieve a successful conclusion.

Finally, as a team leader, remember to enjoy the joy of sharing successes with your community.

Advisor "Annie Donnellon"

 

Anne Donnellon is a professor of organization at Boston College in Wells Fargo, Massachusetts. There, she teaches organizational design, negotiation, and cross-functional teamwork in the MBA and executive education programs. She is the author of "Team Talk: The Power of Language in Team Dynamics [Harvard Business School Press, 1996 ] " and other teaching papers. She brings a wealth of experience and insightful advice to this topic.

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What is a team?

“Things accomplished by a group of people working together are not what any individual could have hoped to do alone.”

"Franklin Delaney Rudd"

A team is a group of people who work together, and a group of people who do similar work report to one person.

But the type of team you will lead will be much more than just a brief description.

Team Leadership

Identifying team styles

 

Teams are not all the same in their design and in the demands placed on them by their members. To make matters more complicated, it is often found that not all teams are truly teams. Some groups are called by other names, depending on the nature of their work. The table on the opposite page provides a brief list of some of the many types of teams that are commonly found in organizational settings.

As you can see in the chart, in the case of a “functional team,” people who meet occasionally and occasionally are part of a group that works individually, not as part of a team structure. On the other hand, “gender teams” and “ad -hoc teams” are groups of people who work together toward a shared goal that fit the definition of a “high-level team.”

 

“Business Team”: A group of people who work together or separately to achieve the goals of a group that reports to a single leader. “Cross-Business Team”: A group made up of members of a business unit that is part of the organization and whose time is dedicated partly to the efforts of the team and partly to the responsibilities of other businesses. “Tiger Team” : A group made up of members of a business unit that is part of the organization and whose time is dedicated entirely to the efforts of the team. ( Ad-hoc) A team formed as needed, task force. A group that is formed temporarily to explore a specific opportunity or solve a specific problem.

Committee: A group formed on an ongoing basis to oversee and develop a specific philosophy, policy, or set of practices.

* A high-performing team. (1) A group of people who interact with each other with a common set of skills to achieve a common goal. (2) A group of people who approach their assigned tasks with a common purpose and are committed to achieving common goals.

Consider the benefits of the team

As Roosevelt wisely observed, a team can do more than any individual. The more effective a team is, the more powerful the results. The “synergy” created by the diverse skills, experiences, and motivations of its members allows teams to respond more quickly to changes in business, technology, and markets in our increasingly complex world. An effective team can create more, solve more problems, and make better decisions faster than any group of individuals working independently. Many people enjoy working in teams. As a result, they are able to delegate their best work to the team.

The benefits of forming a team include: • A broader base of knowledge and experience

Actions will improve. Creativity will increase. Perspectives will broaden. Effectiveness in handling problems will increase.

Yes.

You will be willing to respond to changes and take risks.

There will be shared accountability for assigned tasks. There will be shared commitment to goals. Task forces will become more effective. There will be a more stimulating and motivating environment for team members.

Understanding the problems of teams

When there are certain problems or difficulties, creating a team may not be the best solution. Why? Because teams don’t always work smoothly. In some situations, it’s actually better to solve them alone. You need to be aware of the hidden dangers of team leadership while having personal responsibilities. The most common problems are (1) the team’s goals are unclear and there is a lot of conflict. (2) the people in the team don’t work well together. (3) teams take time to lead.

When you plan to use a team, you need to consider some of the potential pitfalls as well as the benefits. • The many human emotions and reactions that

Conflicts among team members. • The interference of individual expertise in specific issues, the fact that the team process actually reduces the productivity of the team. The fact that time and energy are wasted as the team grows. The possibility of slow decision-making. The fact that other team members are dominated by factions or factions, which reduces the value of the team as a whole. These are things to consider.

“I’ve seen a few teams over the years that just don’t work as they should. You see individuals pursuing their own agendas that are at odds with the team’s agenda. They want to pursue goals that are unclear, goals that aren’t supported by upper management. You also see people who are not suited to the team, who aren’t skilled, who lack leadership, who lack processes, who simply don’t exist.”

"Steve Sullivan"

Vice President of Communications,