As leaders we are often pondering on our team performance and relationships. While it is factual that team performance outweighs individual performance, most organisations have tried to foster it in workplaces without necessarily achieving the desired results. However, it is important for leadership to know that building effective teams require more than just an abstract commitment to teamwork.
Creating a team that you can count on and that can work together effectively is an important element of a successful business. Such performing teams are an imperative for all businesses today, but achieving it is hard though. Effective teams mean bringing all the different ideas, perceptions, ways of doing business and judgement to a collision.
The question most leaders are asking is how do we or how do others successfully do this? What are prerequisites, the do’s and don’ts of this strategic imperative?
Clearly the need to know one’s leadership style stands out. If as a Manager you dislike conflict and only value your approach, building an effective team may prove a mammoth task for you. The tendency on your part might have been to hire and reward people of a particular stripe who maintain your nurtured comfortable zone syndrome. Such a leadership approach will not build an effective team simply because the leader has trained colleagues to pass all the ideas through similar cognitive screening and in such environments only familiar ones survive.
In order to create an effective team, there is need on your part to demonstrate that you can manage people with a variety of thinking styles. Such people don’t often understand or respect one another and such disagreements can fuel personal disagreements. There is therefore need to foster and figure out how these different approaches can grate against one another in a productive process commonly known as creative abrasion which is a key element to building an effective team . Appreciating and understanding that different people have different thinking styles, analytical skills and values is paramount. These need to be respected and allow them to set ground rules for working together. As a leader you have a role to constantly self examine yourself and see what you need to do to promote teambuilding. It’s not an easy task as a lot of self-introspection and candidness is required on your part.
Some of the building blocks to effective team development are: creating a conducive environment. Get rid of the notion of Leader as boss, it does not work in producing an effective team. Allow team members to make decisions and remain that smart Leader who offers encouragement and allow the team to have access and authority to whatever they need to expand their horizons. Work on verifying progress and regularly monitor whether they are on the right path. This improves their confidence making them stronger and more responsible.
Gratitude is always a key element to building effective teams. Thank team members as it motivates new responses with an ongoing effort to do things better. Let communication be free so as to build the trust and cooperation needed.
Building team relationships is also another imperative. It is interesting to see how effective teams have been put together in the development sector where people are assigned to work on a specific project. They have a Team leader overally in charge of a thematic area and has several other projects to manage. The project team working at a particular site develop themselves into effective teams. They are left to plan their activities, and periodically the Team leader just pays monitoring visits. Such small teams have developed strong bonds which have evolved into a family. They perfectly understand each other and they know who has what skills as well as their likes and dislikes. Assignments on the project are based on one’s expertise and competencies. They make their decisions there in the forests where they determine the best solutions as they work with communities. This approach has allowed them to cooperate with each other as well as develop problem solving skills. They openly share information and at times disagree only to agree and out of such structures a lot has been achieved for this sector. Information sharing with the wider group is also done at specified times.
In the development sector not only has it been about the team bondage, but a lot of return has been realised as evidenced by the repeated donors funding to certain organisations which have demonstrated their credit worthiness through the use of these teams. Such bondages however can also have down sides, especially in those cases where team members have connived.
In conclusion, if as a leader you endeavour to stretch outside the borders of your preferences and enjoy the fruits of creative abrasion where new ideas, methods and products are generated, then, creating effective teams will be a rewarding experience.
Emmanuel Jinda is the Managing Consultant of PROSERVE Consulting Group, a leading supplier of Professional Human Resources and Management services locally, regionally and internationally. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 263 773004143 or 263 4 772778 or visit our website at www.proservehr.com