Measuring Success in Leadership (Part 6) Team Development

Written by: Ralph Twombly

Published: April 2011

L and M Observation Process

Last month was the fifth of eight installments focused on success in leadership by introducing you to the element of Self Development/Personal Growth. If you missed March’s article or the first five installments and you want to catch up, click on this link http://aprioritylearning.com/articles/measuring_success_in_leadership_part_5.php. So, here we go with installment number six of eight sections in the pie above - Team Development.

As I started to build this month’s article, it felt like I should do some background research on teams as a foundation. Here is what I found:

"The emergence of the team idea can be traced back to the late 1920s and early 1930s with the now classic Hawthorne Studies. These involved a series of research activities designed to examine in-depth what happened to a group of workers under various conditions. After much analysis, the researchers agreed that the most significant factor was the building of a sense of group identity, a feeling of social support and cohesion that came with increased worker interaction. Elton Mayo (1933), one of the original researchers, pointed out certain critical conditions which were identified for developing an effective work team:

The manager (chief observer) had a personal interest in each person's achievements.
He took pride in the record of the group.
He helped the group work together to set its own conditions of work.
He faithfully posted the feedback on performance.
The group took pride in its own achievement and had the satisfaction of outsiders showing interest in what they did.
The group did not feel they were being pressured to change.
Before changes were made, the group was consulted.
The group developed a sense of confidence and candor.
These research findings spurred companies to seriously consider the idea of grouping their employees into effective work teams and to this day they are still important considerations for human resource developers."

Dyer, J. L., 1984, Team research and team training: A state-of-the-art review. Human Factors Review, pp. 285-319.

Team Development – Interesting stuff huh? Now most of you already knew, at least intuitively, the information above but this article is not about history as much as it is about leadership. The research is old and around us every day are examples of how teams work and why a group can be, and generally are, so much more successful than an equal number of individuals. In regard to leadership it is critical to all leaders, either new or established, that they know everything they can about the dynamics of teams and learn and practice the skills of building teams. In addition to the revered reputation as a team builder this skill is becoming a standard for successful businesses. Harnessing the power of individuals into a unified cause is critical to competitive strength, flexibility, and nimbleness for business enterprise. On an individual level, those that work together for the greater good are much more valuable than individuals contributing individually. Leaders who nurture teams and place the team first enhance value to the organization.

In the 80s and again in the 90s teams seemed to be the "thing" and as all "things" go the idea of teams became a fad or flavor of the month. Everyone was doing it and teaching it and the jargon included "there is no I in team". As all “things” go it lost its luster at some point and some other idea took its place. What didn't change was the need to harness the talent of many around a central cause and to put the purpose ahead of individual needs.

Skills and Behaviors Matrix

Forced Rate:	Skill	Behavior	Forced Rate:
	Knowing the biology/technology of teams	Educating the team continuously
	Assessing the team frequently	Rewarding behavior that honors teamwork
	Building on team strengths through challenge	Inspiring team work
	Creating accountabilities and roles for all	Sharing leadership in the team
	Sharing team success and failure openly	Placing team ahead of self or members

Team Development– Skills

Knowing the biology/technology of teams: Understanding how teams develop over time and guiding that development patiently comes in handy when you have to move to a new team, when you advance, get new members or have changing priorities. Wait just a minute, that’s all the time. The good news is that the rules remain the same regardless of the team. Each team forms itself around a common goal, learns ways to maximize their potential and measures success, goes through conflict and fights for control, begins to have success when roles are established and initial success is gained and builds momentum when members learn to use each other in unique ways. Team biology is a forward and backward process and it is critical that you know which way you are going so you can apply the right remedy to the right problem.

Assessing the team frequently: One of my favorite questions when I talk to team leaders is, “When was the last time you took the team’s temperature.” You won’t be surprised when I tell you that I almost never get a “just did it” response. We miss this one and it is one of the easiest ways to check in with the team. A good quick survey that looks at vision, roles, relationships, trust, contribution, communications and other areas of sensitivity to your team are important to look at routinely. Additionally, these easy to find and use surveys can be used over and over to benchmark against previous surveys to see your progress. The team likes it and quickly learns to use the survey as a way to give feedback to leadership regarding what it needs to be successful.

Building on team strengths through challenge: OK, this is the stretch part of team building. It is an interesting dynamic that when we are successful we feel satisfied. Success should be celebrated and leveraged to utilize all the team’s strengths. Individually, people amaze me with what they can do when they apply all abilities. Just think what the collective strength of a team could be. The hard part is insisting on new stretches, abilities and stronger teamwork when all your instincts (and theirs) will be saying we should be comfortable. At some point your team will achieve all the prerequisites for basic success and your bosses will start to notice hat it is you who is in the leadership role. Now is the time to leverage this success and become proactive to anticipate the future challenges. Becoming a visionary team takes time so satisfaction with good team work becomes the enemy of extraordinary team performance.

Creating accountabilities and roles for all: There is an old say, “We are only as strong as our weakest link”. Roles and accountabilities established early and often prevent this problem. Everyone needs a role in the team and should be visited routinely and changed periodically. Some people will be able to do more and some less, and if they are true team players, they will support each other. As a leader what is most important is for you to always develop and cultivate deeper roles with members and build stronger accountabilities with the members.

Sharing team success and failure openly: Everyone is talking about “transparency” these days and as far as teams are concerned it is a discussion long overdue. Business, life, success, health - pick one and you may find that they are all built on success and disappointment. We learn from both and the more open we are about success and failure the better we become. Turn everything into a learning experience. For whatever reason we like to celebrate success and wallow in failure. A tip for all leaders is to experience both in the same way - learn and grow from the experience. This requires leaders to have a clear sense of communication balance. We are successful much more often than our failures so make sure you are discussing these successes and what can be learned just like you would a team failure. You will quickly find that there will be no secrets and communications and the team will open up and be very productive.

Team Leadership – Behaviors

Educating the team continuously: A big part of your job as a team leader is to educate and provide challenging knowledge for your team and its members. Team members need to be expert in human behavior, communications, negotiations, conflict and much more. Each needs both the skill elements as well as the softer human elements. As you have seen there are right and wrong ways to do the job of educating so involve the team in deciding what it needs. Have the members take an active role in delivering learning and creating accountabilities for what is learned. This takes the form of training sometimes and sometimes it is introduction to new ideas and even research by team members. You don’t have to do this by yourself.

Rewarding behavior that honors teamwork: This is an easy one for most leaders and my advice would be to “just go crazy”. Rewarding team behavior will not only honor the member being honored it will also encourage others to be equally good. People love attention and this is the right kind. Find the extraordinary silent contributor, the angel’s advocate, the supporter as well as the workhorse that can do the work of many by themselves. Honor people who have added to your team’s efforts by contributing from outside the circle of your team.

Inspiring team work: Inspiration is a big piece of the team leader’s job. We need to talk about it, live it, practice it, get better, and practice being the model of team work with our own leadership colleagues. Remember that others are watching and want very much to follow your lead. Get excited about a new project, show energy, and listen enthusiastically. It’s catchy...just watch.

Sharing leadership in the team: Once the team has experience some success, it is important to allow others in the team to take a stronger leadership role. This is second nature to the team member and equally important is that it makes the team itself stronger. A single leader-led team can only go so far. Strong leadership that is flexible in the team will rise to any occasion and show nimbleness and resilience. Let others lead the meeting, educate the group regarding a particular issue and present ideas and deliver those ideas to leadership elsewhere in the organization representing the team.

Placing team ahead of self or members: One on one work with members will make this one easier. We are taught to advocate for “self” first so this one doesn’t come so easy for some people. When you speak to people, refer to the greater good, the process of compromise and letting the best ideas win. Also look for common ground with the other members of the team and talk things out instead of becoming impatient and simply proclaiming a mandated solution. This gets easier for most leaders as time goes by and they learn that it is less important who has the initial thought and more about how each can contribute that garners the most attention. This is a dramatic departure from what is common place in business.

So that is number six in the eight-part series. Again, I hope you read the descriptions before you give yourself a score in the skill and behavior categories. Next month we take a look at the Personal Behavior and Mastery.

Until then and as always, your feedback and examples are welcome. Visit us on Facebook and we will be back in May with more.

Ralph Twombly

In the 20 years since starting Priority Learning, Ralph has facilitated countless learning experiences and has conducted training for thousands of managers and leaders. With over 30 years of leadership development and organizational development background and work, Ralph continues to build relationships with client companies all over the U.S.