Teams

What Is a Team?

Graphics courtesy of NTaskOpens in new window The most successful leaders and their organizations value and understand the nature of teams and create a productive environment in which teams flourish. At many organizations, more than three-quarters of an employee’s day is spent in communication with co-workers. These same organizations have increased their training to focus on group dynamics and leaders today rely on teams and new technology to enable communication across time and geographic distance. Leadership success requires an understanding of group behavior and the ability to tap the constructive power of teams.

To guide the use of teams effectively, leaders must understand what characteristics define a team:

Shared accountability and commitment to a common goal make the use of teams particularly appropriate when coordination of various activities or skill sets of multiple individuals is necessary. Tasks that do not require coordination are better left to individual contributors.

In today’s team-focused work environment, organizations need leaders who are adept at teamwork themselves and can cultivate the level of trustOpens in new window necessary to foster constructive teamwork.

Employees tend to admire leaders that exhibit trust in them, honesty/authenticity, and have great team building skills. Leaders can be more effective in the team context by clearly understanding the distinction between groups and teams.

Teams are More Than Just a Group

Some have suggested that it is a mistake to use the terms group and team interchangeably. A group becomes a team when the following criteria are met:

• Leadership becomes a shared activity.
• Accountability shifts from strictly individuals to both individual and collective.
• The group develops its own purpose or mission.
• Problem-solving becomes a way of life, not a part-time activity.
• Effectiveness is measured by the group’s collective outcomes and products.

It is important for leaders to understand that well-functioning groups or teams can be incredibly effective in achieving goals and quite fulfilling for members. However, they can also be a tremendous waste of time. Leaders should be able to distinguish the former from the latter.

Teams in Terms of Group Development Stage

Compared to our discussion of groupsOpens in new window and group developmentOpens in new window earlier, teams are task groups that have matured to the performing stageOpens in new window. Because of conflicts due to power, authority, and unstable interpersonal relations, many work groups never qualify as a real team. Leaders can make the distinction this way:

This underscores two other important distinctions between teams and groups: Teams assemble to accomplish a common task and require collaboration.

Symptoms of Low-Performing Teams

Obviously, many problems can lead to low-performing teams. The absence of the basic conditions for a cohesive team—trust, complementary goals, and a clear mission—usually will result in low productivity. Various symptoms, outlined below, should help leaders to recognize low-performing teams:

• Cautious or guarded communication. Low performing teams may have members who ridicule or respond negatively to other team members. They may also say nothing or act guarded in what they do say.

• Lack of disagreement. Lack of disagreement among team members may reflect poor team interaction indicating that members are unwilling to share their true feelings and ideas.
• Use of personal criticism. Personal criticism such as, “If you can’t come up with a better idea than that, you better keep quiet,” is a sign of unhealthy team member relations.
• Ineffective meetings. Low-performing teams often have ineffective meetings characterized by boredom, unenthusiastic participation, failure to reach decisions, and dominance by one or two people.
• Unclear goals. Low-performing teams often do not have a clear sense of the team mission or objectives.
• Low commitment. Without a clear sense of purpose, low-performing teams tend to have low commitment.
• Destructive conflict within the team. Low-performing teams are often characterized by a suspicious, combative environment and by conflict among team members.

Characteristic of High-Performing Teams

Remember, a team is “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” Specifically, high-performing teams have six characteristics.

First, the very essence of a team is a common commitment to a shared goal. Without it, teams perform as individuals; with it, they become a powerful collective unit. Teams must, therefore, have a clear mission to which they are committed.

High-performing teams translate their common purpose into specific performance goals. In fact transforming broad directives into specific and measurable performance goals is the surest first step for a team trying to shape a purpose meaningful to its members.

It is important to create teams that are the right size made up of the right mix of individuals. Best-performing teams generally have between seven and fourteen members, the skills of whom should complement each other. For example, a team usually needs people strong in technical expertise, as well as those skilled in problem-solving, decision-making, and interpersonal relationships.

High-performing teams agree on the system by which they will work together to accomplish their mission. They must adopt a common approach. Team members determine who will do particular jobs, how schedules will be set and followed, what skills need to be developed, what members will have to do to remain a part of the team, and how decisions will be made.

The most productive teams also develop a sense that, as team members, they must all hold themselves accountable for doing whatever is needed to help the team achieve its mission. Such mutual accountability cannot be coerced. Instead, it emerges from the commitment and trust that comes from working together toward a common purpose.

The following eight attributes offer another way for leaders to think about high-performance teams:

1. Participative leadership. Creating interdependency by empowering, freeing up, and serving others.
2. Shared responsibility. Establishing an environment in which all team members feel as responsible as the leader for the performance of the work unit.
3. Aligned on purpose. Having a sense of common purpose about why the team exists and the function it serves.
4. High communication. Creating a climate of trust and open, honest communication.
5. Future focused. Seeing change as an opportunity for growth.
6. Focus on task. Keeping meetings focused on results.
7. Creative talents. Applying individual talents and creativity.
8. Rapid response. Identifying and acting on opportunities.