Topics—Leadership
Quickly Build an Effective Work Team
Turning a new group into an effective problem solving team takes work. Without strong leadership, a new group will self-destruct. However, with strong but autocratic leadership the group will become passive and unproductive. What should you do?
New Groups Depend on the Leader
When a new work team is formed, members look to the leader for guidance. If the leader provides too much direction, the group will become passive, frustrated, and eventually disband. On the other hand, with too little direction, the group will flounder like an infant, becoming frustrated with itself and its inability to settle down to work.
The Solution—Take Quick and Firm Control of the Group's Process
The skillful leader avoids this apparent dilemma between too little and too much direction, by taking immediate control of the group's decision process, while insisting that members contributed their skills and knowledge to the group’s task. One way of doing this is spelled out in the paper titled, "Making Better Decisions". Another example is described in "Promotions and Transfers".
Groups Can Be Scary
New groups need the leader to be secure and dependable because everyone is so apprehensive. Over the years I have heard many "tough managers" deny that groups are scary places. But they are. If you think that’s not true, consider these possible concerns. In a new group you don't know:
- Who knows who and what existing relationships and commitments exist.
- Who is going to do what—participate, dominate, attack, undermine.
- What effect your actions in the group will have on your career.
- What covert agendas exist with members and with the leader.
- Whether you will inadvertently make a fool of yourself in front of everybody.
If there are people from many levels of authority present in the group, the problems are compounded. In these groups, particularly when trust and relationships are weak:
- People in power will behave to keep their rank.
- Subordinates will attempt to show their competence, or try to out-do their peers.
- Others will posture, showing they're not afraid of authority, or they will try to demonstrate their independence.
For these and many other reasons, it is very difficult for a group, with many levels of authority, to become a smoothly functioning team. Usually it requires a skilled and experienced facilitator, and at some point, a frank discussion by the group of how it will manage these all-too-dominating authority issues.
But eventually, if all goes well, over time, our personal questions about the new group are answered enough so that we can settle down to work. This process quickens if the leader takes firm control of the group process, so that members feel productive, rather than as frustrated or destructive.
Each of us has probably been in a group where an inexperienced leader allowed the group to wallow for too long in uncertainty. Is one of life's most frustrating experiences, and it can happen even if everyone in the group is highly competent and experienced. Group issues are about the group psychology and dynamics, (see Helping Groups Stay on Track) which are not necessarily connected to the competency of individual members.
First—Solve an Easy Problem
Experienced managers, and professional facilitators, often settle the new group by asking members to list their favorite meeting ground rules. They then decide as a group if the list is one they will work towards and follow, to better manage themselves. This simple exercise, probably familiar to most visitors of this site:
- Is an ice-breaker.
- Gets everybody to speak out.
- Shows that the meeting will be run democratically.
- Shows that the leader sees members as competent.
- Provides a quick win, i.e. the group solves a problem.
- Helps people get to know each other.
You can find many meetings leadership ideas and tips
on this web site, www.effectivemeetings.com.