BUILDING AND LEADING HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAMS
Since teams are now so prevalence in all organizations, business leaders need to know how to build and how to manage them to achieve high performance .building an effective team raise both organization and individual leadership issues. Deciding to form a team is a process very similar to deciding to call a meeting. In deciding to use teams across your company, or to form teams individually, you will need to consider certain factors which may include whether a team approach is the best to achieve the organizational goals or a specific objectives or targeted result. Another factor to consider is whether the company provide the necessary training in diversity, team dynamics, problem solving, and process management to ensure team members know how to manage team issues and processes. More so, the employee’s ability to follow team charters, ground rules, and also knows how to manage team conflicts need to be considered. Other factors are whether the current company technology support team communication and collaboration and the ability of the employees to use it, and the compensation and performance measure of the company.
ESTABLISHING THE NECESSARY TEAM WORK PROCESSES
Once a team has been formed, establishing a necessary team work process is the next task for a leader. The following are the necessary team work processes:
Organize or hold an official launch
Lead the team through to the commitment side of the team basic framework which include;
Purpose
Goals
Approach
Creating team charter
Action plan
And, work plan.
MANAGING THE PEOPLE SIDE OF TEAMS
Teams bring together the best talents available to solve problems; however, sometimes these talented people clash. One way to improve the team’s emotional intelligence or ability to work together smoothly is for the team to take time to know something about each other’s current situation, work experiences, personality and cultural differences. This knowledge may not result in team bounding or friendship, which are more the by-product of teams than the goals, but since these softer issues influence how the person behaves as a team member, the knowledge can help the team avoid conflicts and help you as a leader anticipate any problems or performance roadblocks.
Although team members will get to know each other through day-to-day interaction while working together, the team member can shorten the learning curve by discussing the following information at the first team meeting.
1. Position and responsibilities
2. Team experiences
3. Expectation
4. Personality
5. Cultural differences
HANDLING TEAM ISSUE AND COFLICT
Despite all of the best planning and time spent getting to know each other, teams will likely experience conflict. Some of it will be useful and some not, but the odds are that it will occur. As Katzenbach writes, an effective team is “about hard work, conflict, integration, and collective results”. working on a team is not easy, but the benefits can be very rewarding for the team members, and the results can be much better for the company. Obtaining the best results can depend on the team’s ability to manage conflict. Just as individuals, teams disagree in meetings, however, team need to know how to manage conflict in their overall team activities.
TYPES OF TEAM CONFLICT
Internal team conflict will usually be one of the four:
Analytical (team’s constructive disagreement over a project issue or problem)
Task (goal, work process, deliverables)
Interpersonal (personality, diversity, communication style)
Roles (leadership, responsibilities, power struggles)
APPROACHES TO HANDLING TAEM CONFLICT
Most teams will use one of the following three approaches to manage conflict
One on one: individuals involved work it out between themselves.
Facilitation: individuals involved work with a facilitator (mediator)
Team: individuals involved discuss it with the entire team
VIRTUAL TEAMS
Virtual teams are teams whose members are geographically disperse and rely primarily on technology (telephone, computer, video, or some combinations) for communication and to accomplish their work as team. The geographical separation can range from global dispersion to simply being in different location within a single company facility.
ADVANTAGES OF VIRTUAL TEAM
Lowering travel and facility costs
Reducing project schedules
Allowing the leveraging of expertise and vertical integration
Improving efficiency
And, positioning to compete globally.
More openness
Flexibility
Diversity
Access to information.
DISADVANTAGES OF VIRTUAL TEAM
On the other hand, virtual teams also provide challenges, particularly in communication:
Much of the context of communication, so important in high-context societies, is lost.
Cultural differences can become amplified, and personality conflicts more pronounced.
Connection and trust are difficult to build in a virtual environment which may put the team on a “collision course”
ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES OF VIRTUAL TEAMS
A virtual team need the following to be successful:
Shared beliefs
A storehouse of credibility and trust
And, a shared work space
Since teams are now so prevalence in all organizations, business leaders need to know how to build and how to manage them to achieve high performance .building an effective team raise both organization and individual leadership issues. Deciding to form a team is a process very similar to deciding to call a meeting. In deciding to use teams across your company, or to form teams individually, you will need to consider certain factors which may include whether a team approach is the best to achieve the organizational goals or a specific objectives or targeted result. Another factor to consider is whether the company provide the necessary training in diversity, team dynamics, problem solving, and process management to ensure team members know how to manage team issues and processes. More so, the employee’s ability to follow team charters, ground rules, and also knows how to manage team conflicts need to be considered. Other factors are whether the current company technology support team communication and collaboration and the ability of the employees to use it, and the compensation and performance measure of the company.
ESTABLISHING THE NECESSARY TEAM WORK PROCESSES
Once a team has been formed, establishing a necessary team work process is the next task for a leader. The following are the necessary team work processes:
Organize or hold an official launch
Lead the team through to the commitment side of the team basic framework which include;
Purpose
Goals
Approach
Creating team charter
Action plan
And, work plan.
MANAGING THE PEOPLE SIDE OF TEAMS
Teams bring together the best talents available to solve problems; however, sometimes these talented people clash. One way to improve the team’s emotional intelligence or ability to work together smoothly is for the team to take time to know something about each other’s current situation, work experiences, personality and cultural differences. This knowledge may not result in team bounding or friendship, which are more the by-product of teams than the goals, but since these softer issues influence how the person behaves as a team member, the knowledge can help the team avoid conflicts and help you as a leader anticipate any problems or performance roadblocks.
Although team members will get to know each other through day-to-day interaction while working together, the team member can shorten the learning curve by discussing the following information at the first team meeting.
1. Position and responsibilities
2. Team experiences
3. Expectation
4. Personality
5. Cultural differences
HANDLING TEAM ISSUE AND COFLICT
Despite all of the best planning and time spent getting to know each other, teams will likely experience conflict. Some of it will be useful and some not, but the odds are that it will occur. As Katzenbach writes, an effective team is “about hard work, conflict, integration, and collective results”. working on a team is not easy, but the benefits can be very rewarding for the team members, and the results can be much better for the company. Obtaining the best results can depend on the team’s ability to manage conflict. Just as individuals, teams disagree in meetings, however, team need to know how to manage conflict in their overall team activities.
TYPES OF TEAM CONFLICT
Internal team conflict will usually be one of the four:
Analytical (team’s constructive disagreement over a project issue or problem)
Task (goal, work process, deliverables)
Interpersonal (personality, diversity, communication style)
Roles (leadership, responsibilities, power struggles)
APPROACHES TO HANDLING TAEM CONFLICT
Most teams will use one of the following three approaches to manage conflict
One on one: individuals involved work it out between themselves.
Facilitation: individuals involved work with a facilitator (mediator)
Team: individuals involved discuss it with the entire team
VIRTUAL TEAMS
Virtual teams are teams whose members are geographically disperse and rely primarily on technology (telephone, computer, video, or some combinations) for communication and to accomplish their work as team. The geographical separation can range from global dispersion to simply being in different location within a single company facility.
ADVANTAGES OF VIRTUAL TEAM
Lowering travel and facility costs
Reducing project schedules
Allowing the leveraging of expertise and vertical integration
Improving efficiency
And, positioning to compete globally.
More openness
Flexibility
Diversity
Access to information.
DISADVANTAGES OF VIRTUAL TEAM
On the other hand, virtual teams also provide challenges, particularly in communication:
Much of the context of communication, so important in high-context societies, is lost.
Cultural differences can become amplified, and personality conflicts more pronounced.
Connection and trust are difficult to build in a virtual environment which may put the team on a “collision course”
ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES OF VIRTUAL TEAMS
A virtual team need the following to be successful:
Shared beliefs
A storehouse of credibility and trust
And, a shared work space
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