Building your Team

In part one in our crash course on building a productive team through solid leadership we discussed three important variables that should be part of your team-building approach.  Today we are going to continue with four more very important components to the task of creating an effective, productive, and motivated team.

1. Communicate your positions on key issues.  The leader’s positions must be clear and concise.  We tend to trust leaders when we know where they stand in relation to the organization relative to the environment.  In most organizations, major issues that affect the organization are being debated day in and day out. Undoubtedly you will form your own opinions on these various issues.  Your people will want to know how you stand on these matters so simply tell them.  And, on a given issue, do not be overly concerned about holding a consistent view over time.  As Emerson stated so well: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

2.  Involve team members in setting unit objectives.  Most books on management by objectives are missing a vital step.  Typically, the author recommends that the beginning point be a meeting between the supervisor and the employee to agree on the employee’s performance objectives for the coming review period.  What is needed before this meeting is a meeting of the key people in the group in which the team formulates the unit objectives for the coming year.  This would then be followed by the one-on-one meetings between the supervisor and each employee to agree on the employee’s performance objectives, which should be written to support the unit objectives.

3.  Involve team members in developing strategies.  Once the unit objectives are formulated for the coming year, it is then necessary to formulate strategies on how best to achieve the objectives.  It might be tempting for you as a manager to sit in your office and develop these strategies single-handedly.  Resist that temptation!  Set up a meeting in which you and your people formulate the strategies on a team basis. Assuming that your people have relevant knowledge and experience, the chances are good that you will generate better strategies than what you would have accomplished alone.  Most important is that your people will all say, “We did this ourselves.”

4. Involve team members in solving problems.  There should be many opportunities for involving your people in problem-solving activities on a team basis.  This does not mean that you should involve your people every time a problem arises. It does mean, however, that you should involve them when they are likely to make a significant contribution and when it is important to get their ownership of the solution.

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Building a productive team is no small task.  To take a number of diverse personalities and build them into a collaborative team is a challenge of the highest order that only a true leader can accomplish.  Such an effort is certain to encounter obstacles and frustrations along the way.  But it also is likely to encounter some pleasurable moments.  The important thing is always to keep in mind a vision of the productive team and not be overwhelmed by the obstacles and frustrations.

Building a productive team calls for an incremental approach.  Transforming an unproductive team into a productive team can not be achieved through a single bold and imaginative move or through some magical means.  Rather, it is necessary to do many small things over an extended period of time.  These are summarized in the following three guidelines that follow.

1. Decide on the type of team you are looking to build.  In the book “Game Plans,” Robert Keidel makes interesting comparisons between organizational teams and sports teams.  He focuses on three different sports teams: baseball, football, and basketball and shows their counterparts in business and industry. Keidel does not suggest that any particular sports team model is ideal, because any one of them might be appropriate under a given set of circumstances.  The point that is emphasized is to know exactly what game your organization or unit is playing (or should be playing) and then choose the appropriate model.

2. Communicate your vision.  We have stressed that one of the chief functions of leadership is to create a clear vision of the desired state of the organization.  This vision should be an exciting view of the future that will inspire the members of the team to put forth their best efforts.  The important thing is not to keep your vision a secret. Share it with your people and solicit their ideas on how best to embellish the vision and then convert it into reality.

3. Communicate your philosophy of management.  As a manager, you should have a basic philosophy of management: an elucidation of your concept of management and how the management function should be carried out.  Included in this philosophy of management should be a clear statement of values, goals, and strategies. It is important that they be consistent and that they support and reinforce one another.  Do not keep your philosophy of management a secret. Share it with your people. They will then understand “where you are coming from.” Most important, make certain that your day-to-day decisions and actions are a true echo of your expressed philosophy.

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