Tags: Dynamic Team Performance; Performance Systems; Dimensions of Climate; Managing Up and Down; Affect Vs Effect; Leader – Manager; Leadership
Can we build high performing teams or is success a perfect accident?
Imagine an approach to building a team similar to that of building a house. We need strong foundations and a stable structure to support a weather tight roof. This takes deliberate planning, a skilled workforce, thoughtful coordination and meaningful interventions to create the final outcome. As we build we need to be aware of how the workforce is feeling and performing whilst testing the structure for hidden stress points and weaknesses.
What skills and knowledge does the leader require when either forming new, or working with mature teams? Should the leader commission the building of a team via an ‘architect’ trusting that their vision will be delivered as per their instruction or alternatively, does the leader work from a loose plan believing that the workforce can self organize? Perhaps they ‘project manage’ the build interacting with the trades, negotiating with the suppliers and analyzing, monitoring and giving direction against the plan…
- Who leads the team? Self organisation, orchestration or control?
- Does the leader/organisation spend any time developing the team, how it functions and the climate in which it operates? Should they?
- How do you feel about the teams you operate within?
- Can you describe the traits and characteristics of your team and what are the behaviours when you come together?
- Is team building and growth effortful, deliberate and/or purposeful – who leads this?
- What is the teams shared purpose and what is your role within it?
