Developing New Teams

Here are the basic steps from day one to get a group functioning as a team. What I am writing about here is a new team. Recall that a team is a group of people with dissimilar expertise and talents who cooperatively work together to achieve an objective or goal. Part of cooperating is members voicing their unique expertise so the best means will be applied to get the best outcome.

It is probable that the team will be incapable self-government in the formation stage. So an expert facilitator or group leader will need initially to lead in a directive manner. Obviously the leader must be capable of delegating increasing responsibility to the group. The goal is, of course, to bring the team to functional maturity (they can govern themselves, but are not yet a high performing team) as a team. Therefore it is necessary to pass responsibility on to them as they demonstrate ability to govern themselves.

It can be difficult to let go. Most of you are familiar with kids. We all know stories, and they may be about us, about moms or dads that do everything for their infant and wonder why their infant does not show development. Obviously, they babies lack a reason and hence motivation. Why? They already got mom and dad doing everything for them.

Here is a case in point. My dad had me help him with a lot of electrical repairs and simple carpentry. However, to this day I still struggle as a handyman. Why? I was a human clamp, goose neck lamp, and procurer of whatever tool dad needed. He never trained me to me go beyond the tasks that I was competent. I just attended to dad’s needs as he did the job. He was not a teacher. Dad was a doer. The person who initially leads the group must be a teacher who will facilitate the group getting the skills to become self-governing.

The process of teaching begins with present to the group the goals and objectives of becoming functional mature as a team. First the team will see the agenda for the meeting and cover what makes for a clear and reasonable agenda. The facilitator will then model keeping the group on task in a way that is supportive. Notice the word “supportive.” In my experience I have seen two extremes of leaders. One I worked for called me into her office and asked me to justify the way I was fulfilling my job. The overtone was she wanted me to do it in a different way. At the opposite end I’ve seen bosses be a doormat for their employees. Neither method worked very well to bring out the best in people. As an aside the first boss once she understood I really was competent and her lack of understanding lead to unreasonable expectations she was fine. It was a situation akin to an electrician trying to tell an architect how to design a building. One of the things I noticed is people often do not give people with a different vision, values, and knowledge a decent break. I am not just talking about myself. I have seen it with other competent people moving into a new job. There is always a group of people that liked the way Jack did things better. That is until they get use to the way Charity does things, and then her successor has to pay for her success. This aside is important because some teams due to nature of their project must switch leaders, or they may decide to for political reasons. They must learn to put up with differences between leaders with graciousness.

My favorite bosses are those who expect a great performance from me, and (the “and” is extremely important) demonstrate a desire and ability to get me what I need to deliver excellence. They follow this with constructive feedback concerning my performance. Other than that they get out of the way. If a leader feels the need to micromanage somebody screwed up on the hiring or did not properly develop the subordinate for the responsibility. So a great leader of a new team is one who sets an ambitious but achievable standard for individuals and the group as a whole. Who having set the goals gives the people the tools, freedom and feedback they need to accomplish the goal.

Tomorrow I will deal with more of the nuts and bolts of running the first meeting.