The fact that leaders lead teams should be understood by leaders, but I will leave the need for a team for another writing. Here I want to focus on the leader’s evaluation of how well the team is doing.
Mike Waddell in an article in Leadership Style said that leaders in all spheres lead teams and it is important to check out how our team is doing.
Waddell suggests that, “Some teams struggle to make decisions and finally understand what needs done. Then they all get on the horses and ride off in a different direction. You can do more with what you’ve got, the secret is to get the team to all ride off in the same direction! Many teams do not deliver the goods because they have never gelled into a team and they remain a group of individuals, and to the frustration of their leader they each ride off in a different direction.”
Group or Team
A team is not a team if it simply a group of people getting together or working on a project together. The results a group may have could very often be produced independently and separately from each other. In fact, the end results of a group working together on a project can be more like a chaotic conglomeration of activity that seems to have no clear result. There must be a mending or jelling together of each of the individuals in the group. The responsibility of the leader is to provide the resources and guidance needed to help the group become a team. This process includes helping each individual to understand their unique contribution, see the value of the others’ contribution and embracing the vision of the organization in conjunction with the others.
How is your team doing? Are they working together as a team or as individuals occasionally connecting to one another in their values, goals and vision? How is your team on a scale of 1-10 (1 being destructive competition and 10 being excitement to own and fulfill the organization’s goals together)? Consider using the following six comments and questions that have been gleaned from the writings of Pat MacMillan in The Performance Factor.
- Alignment
For your team to be a great team the members must be “aligned”. This is not about the team being aligned to the leader necessarily, but the team, including the leader, having a clear and shared purpose and a 100% commitment to realizing that shared purpose in a common and coherent way. Plainly the leader has a great responsibility to facilitate this achievement. The following questions will help you consider exactly how aligned your team is:
Does your team have a declared purpose that is clear, relevant, significant, believed, urgent and motivational?
If you asked your team members what the purpose of the team was, do they all give the same answer?
Does that represent an agreed, common and shared view or are there gaps?
Is all your team involved in developing the strategies and plans to achieve the purpose?
Is each team member’s commitment to achievement practically demonstrated by higher levels of cooperation?
- Crystal Clear Roles
Clarity is required in the minds of the team as to exactly what is the role of each member. The Christian leader needs to help the team develop this clarity, fudges don’t work.
Do your team members have specific roles with well-defined boundaries, responsibilities and accountabilities?
Can each of your team members accurately tell you what the other team members do?
Has anything that your team is responsible for ever “fallen through the cracks” or disappeared into “black holes”?
Does conflict arise between your team members because of differing opinions about responsibilities?
When you look at your team members honestly are their roles compatible with their abilities?
- Accepted Leadership
A High Performing Team requires clear and competent leadership to facilitate and orchestrate the achievement of its goals. However, for specific activities task leadership will be provided by individual team members who have the necessary competence and capability to guide on that issue. Leaders can often fall into the “I’m in charge” trap for a host of reasons and many have been trained in, and are expected to adopt a “one-man” style. However, effective leadership at any specific time is not based on a static position but by dynamic response to the encountered need and individual role. The effective leader facilitates this flexibility.
Are you the only one that ever provides direction for your team?
Do you delegate responsibility for specific tasks to team members?
Do individual team members with expertise offer formal and informal guidance and direction in accordance with that expertise?
Do you call upon the team’s wisdom and expertise by encouraging team members to offer their insights and leadership based on their expertise and experience?
When you ask your team members do they express frustration at lack of direction and guidance?
- Effective Team Processes
Team processes are not so much about individual jobs but are more about how the team interacts and functions as it makes decisions, solves problems and resolves conflicts. It’s about how the team members work together, encouraging and facilitating this is a key role for any leader who wishes to model his style on Jesus.
Do you understand the roles that each individual team member prefers and plays in your team?
Do the team members understand the roles that both they and their colleagues individually play in the team process?
Given the purpose of your team, do you have any gaps in its make up in terms of the roles each member plays (For example do you have people who are able to initiate; people who are able to coordinate; people who make sure everything is complete and so on?)
Does the team work effectively because its members are playing to their strengths, have a desire to serve the team as a whole and know how to use each other’s strengths?
Is the structure of your team rigid or is it flexible enough to maximize the individual and collective achievement of all members?
- Solid Relationships
Solid relationships are essential in a team but they are not about friendships but solid relationships; they are about being able to work together well. They are also about developing a trust in and appreciation of fellow team members so that collectively the team can deal with setbacks, misunderstandings, conflicts as well as those plain and simple bad days. The leader needs wisdom in this area.
Are your team members reliable, doing what they say they will do?
Do you see your team members “doing it themselves” because that is the only way that they can be sure that the job gets done?
Does your team squabble and play the “blame game”?
Are there any personality clashes in your team?
On the bad days does your team pull together or does it tend to fall apart?
When one team member has difficulties do the others share the burden and make sure that the job gets done?
- Excellent Communications
Excellent communications are a prerequisite for all the other characteristics. To function as a High Performing Team, members must understand not only how to share information in a way that others can receive but also to assume a responsibility for ensuring that they understand the communications that they receive.
Do your team members communicate via email excessively even when it would be better to speak to each other?
Is email used well for collecting data and documenting conversations?
Do any of your team members get frustrated because they seem simply unable to communicate with specific team members?
Do any of your team members overwhelm others with words or emails in an attempt to communicate?
Do any of your team members always seem to miss out on what is happening or what was agreed?
Do you and your team members understand each other’s’ preferred means of receiving information?
Have your team ever been trained to communicate effectively?
The process of building a High Performing Team requires that the team, as a whole, take stock of itself against these characteristics. It must then, together, undertake an appropriate plan of action to achieve its full potential. This is necessarily a process of individual steps which inevitably takes time to mature, although it is possible to make rapid strides. For instance, a day’s training on the Responsible Communication style that a leader would use can begin to have an impact the very next day. As the team works, evaluates, learns and applies its learning, it will improve in performance as it becomes a High Performing Team. It will work more effectively, more collaboratively and refocus previously lost energy on achieving its purpose. More than that the coherence of the team will magnify its achievement as it begins to outperform its previous track record. This is a journey upon which a leader will take his team.
Reflection for the Leader
Find a quiet place for half an hour and ask yourself these questions about your team and see how they score. In the light of the answers you get begin to work out an action plan to address your team’s weaknesses. Then sit down with your team and do the whole assessment together as the first step to involving the team in their journey toward becoming a High Performing Team. Some leaders are a bit afraid to evaluate their team with the team. They may believe it is their personal responsibility to do the evaluation and tell the team what they conclude. However, I believe that process together builds the feeling of being a team. You may be surprised how the team members will actually help motivate each other to grow and improve as you evaluate yourselves together. The leader does need to bring the conclusions based on the evaluation processing.
I believe that any group can become a team if the leader will give the time, energy and care to see that it happens.