Building and Managing Strong Teams

The first step when you have to build a strong team and manage it successfully is simply common sense; but common sense is not very common. This article suggests some common-sense ideas on the subject of building and managing a strong team.

The initial hurdle that one has to overcome is to recognizing the importance of the subject.

Sometimes things don’t go wrong either we did not take a holistic view of the issue or were content with the past performance of the team. Management is about pausing to ask yourself the right questions so that your common sense can provide the answers.

After assuming the responsibility of managing team one may choose option of learning gradually with own experience and have share of success and failures that comes with it. The thought at the back of mind could be that you are new at the job, so people will understand.

However, in a tremendously competitive work environment this approach may not be the right fit for professionals with fast career progression mindset.

Your options could also be limited by the existing corporate culture and best possible way forward could be to adapt it as it is and work better within it.

The impact that you and your team can make upon the company's success by working well will be quickly recognized and nothing gains faster approval than success.

When putting a team together, every astute and objective manager looks to combine the best skills, talents and abilities that he or she feels will yield the desired results. Chemistry or mutual understanding between team members is equally important if not more important than other talent.

In all organizational structures, there are many “teams within teams.” For example, functional teams and project teams, which involves matrix reporting.

In a functional “teams within teams” each person has a functional “home” team, but they also belong to a “project” team which has a finite life span, and a project manager to whom they also report.

All of these teams need nurturing if a project is to be successful. In a matrix environment, allegiance to the project is not created by the structure itself, but rather as a result of the relationships that are developed within the project team. Relationships are important for success in all teams. Keeping a diverse group of people together in a matrix team depends on building loyalty and trust.

The team members collaborate, share knowledge, skills and experience to reach a common goal in the required time. Team members create an approach to proceed with the goal and have authority to take decisions.

Teamwork is an essential operational tool that is now more crucial to producing results than ever before. Within most organizations, team excellence is an absolute prerequisite to organizational excellence, since much of the day-to-day work is accomplished at the team level. Organizational excellence can only be defined in the context of individual excellence and team excellence. Lack of cooperation and team work will lead to isolation, impact performance and demotivate employee.

Good leadership is the key for team building. They are responsible for determining team objectives. Team building process involves encouraging people from different background to generate new ideas to solve problems. The challenge for every team is to improve their ability to function at the positive end of the continuum, and to continuously accomplish higher and higher levels of performance. ?

Phases of Team Development:

Bruce Wayne Tuckerman, an American Psychological Researcher carried out his research into the theory of?group dynamics.?In 1965, he published a theory known as "Tuckman's stages of group development".

According to this theory, there are four phases of group development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. The phases can be summarized as follows:

Forming: Initial stage of project where team is formed. The team starts to understand the requirements of project, battery limits and initiates the study, but each individual is still working somewhat independently. Project Leaders need to be directive at this stage in order to steer the team toward the goal.

Storming: Selection of Ideas / technology / various technical options, execution strategies are discussed, which sometimes could result in conflict. This phase is critical for the growth of the team, and results in individuals learning ways to work together. Project Leaders still need to be directive at this stage, and also accessible to ensure that conflict is resolved and the team is starting to move forward toward the goal.

Norming: The team starts to feel a sense of achievement, rules of operation (either formal or informal) are working, and trust begins to form. Project Leaders begin to be participative and need to be available to provide guidance as the team continues to grow together.

Performing: The team is now maturing and often high-performing. Work is accomplished, team members know how to work together, and even though conflict takes place it is managed and navigated. The team requires very little supervision at this point and can largely make its own decisions.

In 1977, Bruce Wayne Tuckerman added a fifth stage, named “adjourning,” to acknowledge project teams, typically break up after the objectives of the project are complete.

Team-Building Techniques:

The most effective team-building involves combining a variety of tools and techniques:

1.?????Kick-off meetings

A new project should be initiated with a kick-off meeting so that the purpose of the project, roles, and responsibilities and how the project fits into the organization’s overall goals can be understood. This technique can be used in all types of teams, but in a matrix project team that has come together with staff from multiple different sources, it is especially important, as the team has no established context for the project. ?

2.?????Delivery process definition

Understanding how the work is to be accomplished makes it easier for a team to work together. Clearly defining and establishing a process that is understood by all the players in the newly formed matrix team is critical for the success of the project.

3.?????Communication

Communication is sending and receiving information successfully between team members to reach effective communication, trust an environment of an honest feedback and establish free flow of information. It is clear that communication has a powerful impact on workplace and without a doubt, communication is a powerful tool for any organization. Leaders are the common element that connect different levels of employees with one another.

4.?????Roles and Responsibilities

The role and responsibility of every employee should be clearly defined by team leaders to avoid any ambiguity and to help maintain healthy work environment. Each team member should feel responsible for the team progress and productivity. Moreover, for the team to reach their goal, each team member should complete their tasks within required time frame.

5.?????Lack of Leadership

As mentioned above, one of the prime factors is to provide leadership to the team. Good leaders are ones who have a passion for work and are willing to spend time coaching, build confidence and helping their team apply new skills in the workplace instead of controlling the work. Leaders should continuously at all time lead, inspire, motivate team members, plan priorities and resources.

6.?????Ownership

Teamwork can improve only when each team member realizes their importance in the team and takes full ownership of the task in hand. Involvement of all team members is critical for success as a team.

7.?????Regular Status updates

There are a variety of ways that status can be gathered and communicated. This is a natural activity in a functional team, as members are typically used to an established status reporting routine and may be more clear on their role in that structure. Examples include weekly status meetings, One-on-one sessions, Project status reports.

8.?????Coaching

Team members should be provided trainings to further build on both individual skills and team building skills. If required along with regular trainings, mentors can be assigned to team members to build a working relationship of mutual trust to guide and on the job train individuals and team members.

Individual and group coaching can be an effective tool in all types of organizational structures. Executive coaches can facilitate team development, as well as individual leadership development, by focusing on areas such as collaboration skills, negotiation skills, addressing personal or group blind spots, and improving communication.

9.?????Encourage Social Activities

‘‘Those who play together stay together.’’

Create opportunities for team members to know each other, participate in various activities such as sports, tours, debates & discussions to improve sense of team work.

10.?????Conflict Resolution

One advantage a team has over an individual is diversity of knowledge and ideas. However, with diversity comes differences, and differences can lead to disagreements for the method used to achieve the goals. Negotiation and compromise help to synthesize the conflicts. A substantial amount of a manager's time is spent dealing with these conflict, ranging from unhappy clients and disgruntled employees to daily disagreements and tensions.

In order to deal with conflict effectively, leaders need to be calm and to understand the causes of conflict and the impact of conflict on individuals and on the team as a whole. As team leader, you must recognize conditions for potential conflict, try to derail conflicts before they escalate and manage situations when and if they arise.

11.?????Reward and Recognition

Highly motivated employees who have passion for work expect appreciation and proper recognition. Appreciation is in response to the valuable contribution in terms of quality of work, putting extra time and new innovative ideas that employees contributes for the success of Company. Fairness in recognizing and rewarding employee’s contribution helps build motivation and improves teamwork among team members.

Level of appreciation depends upon nature and importance of work done and could vary from providing positive feedback through email, certificate of recognition, salary increments, bonus or paid vacation, sharing the gain and profit.?????

12.?Feedback

An important step is finding out whether our perceptions about our self and towards our team members is consistent with what our supervisor, peers, clients or people who work with us have to say regarding our competencies, behavior and improvements. Communication channels should be established to provide feedback to team members and obtain feedback from them as well leaders should be open and supportive for new ideas. Any conflicts that come to light should be handled at the preliminary stage itself of letting them grow and build strong.

Leaders should provide feedback to team members both individually and collectively as a team based on their overall performance and suggest improvements and lessons learned. Constructive feedback will make for a more cohesive team during the next project.