Leader Actions That Foster Teamwork

Actions Leaders Can Take Using Their Own Resources:

Defining the Team's Mission and Tasks

A starting point in developing teamwork is to specify the team's mission. Commitment to a clear mission is a key practice of a highly effective team. The mission statement for the group helps answer the questions, "Why are we doing this?" and "What are we trying to accomplish?" To answer these questions, the mission statement should set out a specific goal, purpose, and philosophical tone. Any goal contained within the mission statement should be congruent with organizational objectives. If a team wants to cut back on its number of suppliers, the organization should have the same intent as well. Here are two examples of team mission statements:

• To plan and implement new manufacturing approaches to enhance our high-performance image and bolster our competitive edge
• To enhance our website development capability, so we can provide decision makers throughout the organization with assistance in developing websites that exceed the state of the art

The leader can specify the mission when the team is formed or at any other time. Developing a mission for a long-standing team breathes new life into its activities. Being committed to a mission improves teamwork, as does the process of formulating a mission. The dialogue necessary for developing a clearly articulated mission establishes a climate in which team members can express feelings, ideas, and opinions. Shared leadership is required in developing a mission, as in most other ways of enhancing teamwork.

To help implement the mission, it is useful for the leader to define the team tasks, or to work with the group in defining these tasks. Team members can then identify the subtasks for which each member has responsibility. Each team member needs to know how they are responsible for attaining the mission and goals.For example, a dental office might want to understand why so many patients have left the practice. One team member might be assigned the task of contacting former patients, and another team member might be assigned the task of asking current patients if they are experiencing any problems with the dental practice.

Establishing a Climate of Trust

If team members do not trust each other or the leader, it is unlikely that they will work cooperatively together. Trust is at the heart of collaboration. Unless team members trust each other, they will not be dependent on each other and therefore will not work well as a team.A starting point in establishing a climate of trust is for the leader to be credible and engage in the many other trustworthy behaviors, as described inChapter 2. Encouraging open communication about problems and sharing information are two specific ways the leader can help promote a climate of trust. Being open about problems facing the group and beingcandid in expressing opinions is often referred to as the leader being transparent.

Developing a Norm of Teamwork Based on Cooperation Theory

A major strategy of teamwork development is to promote the attitude among group members that working together effectively is expected. Most profit as well as not-for-profit organizations emphasize that teamwork is important. A representative example is HPE Financial Services, a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Co. Irv Rothman, president and chief executive of this 1,600-employee company, says he maximizes performance by organizing into small, manageable teams. Employees are expected to manage themselves to make decisions on behalf of the customer. Teams are asked to behave like they are business owners.(Both of these points carry the message that teamwork is the expected behavior.)

Another approach to developing a norm of teamwork is to discourage excessive politicking in which employees attempt to appear more capable than teammates, and might even discredit the contribution of others to the team. Gary Rankin and Colin Gautrey recommend that the political infighting can be decreased through encouraging teamwork. A specific technique is for the team leader to incorporate into dialogue the terms "working together," and "winning team."

A norm of teamwork is based oncooperation theory

cooperation theory

A belief in cooperation and collaboration rather than competitiveness as a strategy for building teamwork.

Individuals who are accustomed to competing with one another for recognition, salary increases, and resources must now collaborate. Despite the challenge of making a culture shift, the leader can make progress toward establishing a teamwork norm by doing the following:

• Encourage team members to treat one another as if they were customers, thus fostering cooperative behavior and politeness.
• Explicitly state the desirability of teamwork on a regular basis both orally and in writing.
• Communicate the norm of teamwork by frequently using words and phrases that support teamwork. Emphasizing the words team members or teammate and de-emphasizing the words subordinates and employees helps communicate the norm of teamwork.
• Work with the group to establish a code of conduct that everyone agrees to follow. Aspects of the code might include "never abandon a teammate," "never humiliate anyone," and "keep all agreements." Also helpful is to facilitate productive conversation by prohibiting unfair interruptions, and encouraging participation by all team members during physical or virtual meetings.

Normative statements about teamwork by influential team members are also useful in reinforcing the norm of teamwork. A team member might assume a leadership role by saying to coworkers: "I'm glad this project is a joint effort. I know that's what earns us merit points here."

Research reported by Adam Grant reinforces the importance of cooperation within teams for attaining high team performance. A team of researchers investigated what made U.S. intelligence units effective. Hundreds of analysts from sixty-four different intelligence groups were surveyed, interviewed, and observed, and the researchers ranked those units from best to worst. The single strongest predictor of group effectiveness was the amount of help the analysts gave each other. It was found that in the highest performing teams, analysts invested extensive time and energy in coaching, teaching, and consulting with colleagues. The cooperative behavior assisted analysts in such ways as filling in gaps in their knowledge and recognizing patterns in seemingly disconnected pieces of information. In the units related the lowest by the researchers, the analysts exchanged small amounts of mutual help and struggled to make sense of considerable data.

A robust approach to establishing a norm of teamwork is to encourage prosocial motivation among team members. Team members are coached to understand that the motivation to help each other should be as strong as the motivation to attain individual and group goals. A combination of field and laboratory studies found that when prosocial motivation in the team was high, team processes such as citizenship behavior increased, and so did team effectiveness. Furthermore, team cooperation also increased.

Developing Group Emotional Intelligence

The leader's role in developing teamwork can also be described as helping the group develop emotional intelligence. The leader contributes to the group's emotional intelligence by creating norms that establish mutual trust among members. It is also important for members to have a sense of group identity as defined in their mission statement. Group efficacy, or feeling competent to complete the group task, also contributes to emotional intelligence. Ensuring that the group has the right skills can enhance such efficacy. These three conditionsmutual trust, group identity, and group efficacyare the foundation of cooperation and collaboration.

The leader can also promote group emotional intelligence by bringing emotions to the surface in both group and one-on-one meetings. The leader then discusses how these emotions might be affecting the group's work.For example, team members might discuss how they feel about their perceived importanceto the organization. One maintenance group said that they felt entirely unappreciated until a key piece of equipment broke down, and this underappreciation was adversely affecting their morale. The team leader helped the group develop an internal public relations campaign about their contribution to productivity.

Serving as a Model of Teamwork, Including Power Sharing and Collective Leadership

A powerful way for a leader to foster teamwork is to be a positive model of team play. And one way to exemplify teamwork is to reveal important information about ideas and attitudes relevant to the group's work. As a result of this behavior, team members may follow suit. A leader's self-disclosure fosters teamwork because it leads to shared perceptions and concerns.Self-disclosure is an element of leader transparency. Interacting extensively with team members serves as a model of teamwork because it illustrates the mechanism by which team development takes placefrequent informal communication. While interacting with team members, the team leader can emphasize being a team member. For example, it is better to say "We have to get this done by Friday," than "You have to ..."

Another way of being a model of teamwork is to share power with group members because a good team player avoids hogging power and making all of the decisions. As each team member takes the opportunity to exert power, the team member feels more like a major contributor to team effort. We are referring here yet again to shared or collective leadership. Peter Pronovost, an anesthesiologist and critical-care specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, believes that hospitals would be safer for patients with more power sharing among physicians and other medical personnel. (The mistakes in hospitals he refers to include ordering the wrong drug or operating on, or even amputating, the wrong limb.) Pronovost believes that nurses should have the power to challenge doctors, and members of the medical team need to work like flight crews in terms of power sharing to help minimize medical mistakes.

Power sharing can also take the form of team members feeling free to offer constructive feedback to the team leader. A leader asking for team members to provide feedback on a bad idea the leader suggests illustrates this approach.

Using a Consensus Leadership Style

Teamwork is enhanced when a leader practices consensus decision making. Contributing to important decisions helps group members feel that they are valuable to the team. Consensus decision making also leads to an exchange of ideas within the group, with groupmembers supporting and refining each other's suggestions. As a result, the feeling of working jointly on problems is enhanced. Most managers in their mid-50s or younger tend to practice consensus leadership.

Striving for consensus does not mean that all conflict is submerged to make people agree. Disagreements over issues are healthy, and team members are more likely to be committed to the consensus decision if their voice has been heard. When voices are heard, some power is shared. An example of a conflict over an issue would be the marketing team of an automotive company debating whether dealer discounts improve sales in the long run.

Establishing Urgency, Demanding Performance Standards, and Providing Direction

Team members need to believe that the team has urgent, constructive purposes. They also want a list of explicit expectations. The more urgent and relevant the rationale is, the more likely it is that the team will achieve its potential. A customer service team was told that further growth for the corporation would be impossible without major improvements in providing service to customers. Energized by this information, the team met the challenge.

To help establish urgency, it is helpful for the leader to challenge the group regularly. Teamwork is enhancedwhen the leader provides the team valid facts and information that motivate them to work together to modify the status quo. New information prompts the team to redefine and enrich its understanding of the challenge it is facing. As a result, the team is likely to focus on a common purpose, set clearer goals, and work together more smoothly.

Studies in several industry settings, including the development of the Boeing 777 midsize airliner, suggest that urgent, demanding tasks also contribute to the teamwork effectiveness of teams composed of top talent. The researchers in question raise the caution that leader should prune anybody from the group who is not a good team player, regardless of the person's capability.

Demanding tasks also facilitate good performance because reasonably high demands act as healthy stressors that boost performance. For example, imagine that a sales manager has rolled out new sales management software, but just a few sales representatives have inputted their activity as required by the software. The sales manager might try direct feedback such as, "It's Wednesday and so far, only three reps have provided data. When is everybody going to participate?"

Using a Consensus Leadership Style

Teamwork is enhanced when a leader practices consensus decision making. Contributing to important decisions helps group members feel that they are valuable to the team. Consensus decision making also leads to an exchange of ideas within the group, with groupmembers supporting and refining each other's suggestions. As a result, the feeling of working jointly on problems is enhanced. Most managers in their mid-50s or younger tend to practice consensus leadership.

Striving for consensus does not mean that all conflict is submerged to make people agree. Disagreements over issues are healthy, and team members are more likely to be committed to the consensus decision if their voice has been heard. When voices are heard, some power is shared. An example of a conflict over an issue would be the marketing team of an automotive company debating whether dealer discounts improve sales in the long run.

Establishing Urgency, Demanding Performance Standards, and Providing Direction

Team members need to believe that the team has urgent, constructive purposes. They also want a list of explicit expectations. The more urgent and relevant the rationale is, the more likely it is that the team will achieve its potential. A customer service team was told that further growth for the corporation would be impossible without major improvements in providing service to customers. Energized by this information, the team met the challenge.

To help establish urgency, it is helpful for the leader to challenge the group regularly. Teamwork is enhancedwhen the leader provides the team valid facts and information that motivate them to work together to modify the status quo. New information prompts the team to redefine and enrich its understanding of the challenge it is facing. As a result, the team is likely to focus on a common purpose, set clearer goals, and work together more smoothly.

Studies in several industry settings, including the development of the Boeing 777 midsize airliner, suggest that urgent, demanding tasks also contribute to the teamwork effectiveness of teams composed of top talent. The researchers in question raise the caution that leader should prune anybody from the group who is not a good team player, regardless of the person's capability.

Demanding tasks also facilitate good performance because reasonably high demands act as healthy stressors that boost performance. For example, imagine that a sales manager has rolled out new sales management software, but just a few sales representatives have inputted their activity as required by the software. The sales manager might try direct feedback such as, "It's Wednesday and so far, only three reps have provided data. When is everybody going to participate?"

Encouraging Competition with Another Group

One of the best-known methods of encouraging teamwork is rallying the support of the group against a real or imagined threat from the outside. Beating the competition makes more sense when the competition is outside your organization. When the enemy is within, the team spirit within may become detrimental to the overall organization, and we-they problems may arise. While encouraging competition with another group, the leader should encourage rivalry, not intense competition that might lead to unethical business practices, such as making false charges against them. An example of ethical competition against another group would be a product development group at Dodge Ram competing to produce a pickup truck that outperformed the Ford 150 series of pickups.

Minimizing Micromanagement

A strategic perspective on encouraging teamwork is for the leader to minimizemicromanagement

micromanagement

The close monitoring of most aspects of group member activities by the manager or leader.

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, the close monitoring of most aspects of group member activities (as mentioned inChapter 4in relation to leadership behaviors). To be a good team leader, the manager must give group members ample opportunity to manage their own activities. Avoiding micromanagement is a core ingredient of employee empowerment because empowered workers are given considerable latitude to manage their own activities. Not stepping in to make suggestions or corrections helps team members develop, and the feeling of growing professionally will often translate into workers developing a stronger team spirit.

An effective way of avoiding micromanagement is for the leader to learn to ignore minor actions that the leader does not like, yet are not real problems. Suppose a manager has a preference for certain fonts used in PowerPoint presentations. To avoid being a micromanager, the leader should not insist that team members use only the favored fonts in PowerPoint slides. A micromanager is also referred to as a control freak, because they want to maintain so much control. When a micromanager is particularly talented, and also well liked, micromanagement is less of a detriment to teamwork.

The contingency leader recognizes the fine line between avoiding micromanagement and not providing the guidance and accountability that team members may need to function well as a unit. Under- management, also referred to as macromanagement, includes weak performance management, a tendency to avoid conflicts with employees, and not holdingsubordinates accountable for results. One HR VP exclaimed in frustration, "The trouble with our managers is that too often they just don't manage."

An implication is that a manager tinged with a little micromanagement is likely to actively manage.

Required

Please read Leader Actions That Foster Teamwork

The next time you are involved in group activity, either as the leader or as a group member, attempt to enhance cooperation and teamwork within the group. Make specific use of at least four of the recommended tactics for improving teamwork.

Could you please write at least four tactics from the recommended tactics provided in more detail about how you can improve teamwork? That will be helpful to get good points and remark.