Managing Teams and Group

In my previous company, I got shortlisted for a Global Scholarship Program in which an employee is nominated for an MBA with global assignment opportunity in HQ. An employee qualifies basis their past 2 year’s performance and written test followed by an interview. Fortunately, I got selected for this program and while I was preparing to move to South Korea, I often use to think that after 9 years of work experience and being the top performer there for continuous 2 years, will this course be of any value addition to me. However, today with every passing week, I realized that most important lesson you can ever learn is to never stop learning. It’s not just books, colleagues or professors that you learn from, but most importantly you learn from experiences.

Before even joining the university, we got a mail from school office regarding team list. Every student was assigned to a 5-member group. We were also advised to exchange mails, to have dinner or a casual meeting with our group members before the orientation, to know each other better in advance. When I first saw the list, I thought the dynamics of this team were amazing. There were 3 Korean students and 2 international students (including me) of which 3 male and 2 female members in our group.

Finally, 5 of us met over a lunch one day before the orientation. This was the easiest and smoothest flowing meeting. Everyone’s morale was high and stayed high throughout, not one member left in-between or became disengaged, none of us felt burned out, though the meeting was quite long. During our informal interaction, everyone was participating in discussions and I didn’t feel like any one of our member was left out or did not have their voice heard. After our meeting, I was even more happy & relaxed to know that 3 of us were company sponsored; hence I thought we had a great team with right mix of experience and fresh talent.

Within a week’s time we got our first assignment and that’s when as a group we started having difficulties. Discussions became unbalanced, as some domineering person started to monopolize the meetings, forcing his/her viewpoint on the group, wherein some other member didn’t participate in the discussions (mostly due to lack of interest), thereby creating a lack of balance. The diversity in our group (age/gender/experience), which initially I thought would be good for our group in terms of promoting creativity & innovative thought process, actually became the cause of conflict. And this could be really harmful for any group if not managed properly.

To fix the issue we decided to nominate a leader, with every member, leading one assignment at a time. The task of the leader was to ensure that projects stays on track by measuring daily progress against overall timetables and objectives. And also to support collaboration by coordinating the efforts of team members and encouraging team members to speak their minds during team meetings. This approach was successful for some time, but later we realized that every member started having over dependency on team leader and were unable to continue without leader’s direction. Everyone was looking for advice and direction, especially in times when they could be self-sufficient. There were multiple reasons for this behavior. First, I think the members were not as concerned or fervent about the assignment which they were not leading, and they use to take it for granted. Second, the leader used to get over involved in the project and did not empowered the group with the ability to complete the assignment.

While we were having all such issues as a team, it caused another problem within our group. Our group started getting fragmented in subgroups on various issues. Groups got formed within the team and members started taking sides. In this case, I got caught up in tough situation as often this subgroup member use to discuss their feeling & need with me and often expected me to pick sides. Even our team started going out for lunch in subgroups only. And, most of the time, I ended up as a mediator restoring the proper channel of communication and directing everyone’s efforts towards finishing our assignment on time. At times, I also had to take the blame of favoring a certain person, as eventually I had to choose sides when being put into such situation. However, I did try to bring the cohesiveness back in our team by organizing some informal chat session over coffee (especially after a good team report or presentation) just like we had during our first lunch meeting. I think that effective team work is developed through shared experience and practice, and if we didn’t have these informal meetings some team members would not seen one another face to face if I did not make a point to do so. And I always tried to lighten up the mood in our team meetings by cracking jokes and I think everyone within our team liked those lighter moments and appreciated the effort.

Today when I look back, I realized that while working in a team, we think too highly of how others relate to us, but with a conscious effort, we as individuals can make the ultimate difference in how we affect the group process and outcomes. We need to learn to accept our team members as they are. But the most common mistake we make is to try to dictate our feelings on other team members. Another important thing is to speak up at the right moment, don’t wait until the team has made the decision. But remember that it's all in how we say it.

Also do not reject others ideas, opinions, and suggestions. Give everyone within a team the opportunity to express themselves. Some member can be unassertive or might be unsure of his/her knowledge or abilities. We need to give extra praise when he/she speaks up or encourage that person to express thoughts and ideas.

Most important as we go through the team process, we constantly need to remind ourselves that the way we view our world is not the only way. In fact, when we look through the lens of others, our world will be much richer and clearer.

Being a team player that is accepting, honest, humble, and encouraging, is a conscious decision we all need to make. And basis what I have learned about managing team, if in future I face similar challenge, then this is how I will deal with any such situations:

Team Issues/Problem:

1) Unbalanced discussion

Actions:

-Set time limit for discussion, give each person a turn to speak.

-Encourage participation from everyone.

-Ask the dominating person to assert ideas through different means (for e.g. : in writing).

 2) Over-dependency on team leader

Actions:

-Clearly explain everyone function and task.

-Empower the team members with all the ability required to complete the task.

-Ask every team member to develop solutions without relying on anyone.

 3) Conflict and argument

Actions:

-Emphasize on common goals. Evaluate the goals to be achieved.

-Focus on factual discussions rather than personal opinions.

-Bring humor if required to lighten up the situation.

 4) Lack of Interest

Actions:

-Re-examine the traits, background and skills of each team member.

-Give team members a project with more excitement, something with more at stake.

-Give more responsibility & convince their work has an impact on the organization.

5) Group formation within the team

 Actions:

-Discuss the feelings and needs of each subgroup separately.

-Reduce conflict by changing assigned tasks.

-Leader to get more involved and stop others from gaining unnecessary power.

6) Not achieving the anticipated results

Actions:

-Clearly communicate the expectations/goals.

-Provide adequate feedback to entire team.

-Establish proper communication within team members.

-Give every member appropriate training and information.

-Ask for periodic status report.