Leading Effective Teams
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Important Definitions
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Behavior occurs when one person tries to influence the behavior
of another person or group, regardless of the reason.
A group is two or more individuals interacting, in which the
existence of the entire group is needed for all members of the
group to be satisfied.
Individual needs and satisfaction may vary from member to
member.
One person may join a particular group because of the need for
power, another person may join a group due to a social need or
a third person may join a group for esteem.
Common or harmonious goals or purposes are the criteria for
effective groups.
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A team is a formal work group.
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Collection: Two or more individuals with
common goals.
 Organization: Two or more individuals who
have stated and formal goals.
 Group: Organization in which the existence
and interdependence of all is necessary for
the satisfaction of individual needs.
 Team: A formal work group.
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Teams as a Competitive
Strategy
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Projects assigned to a team are more likely to be
accomplished than those assigned to an individual.
 Teams can make practical and reasonable decisions
provided there are concrete, measurable goals to
judge their performance.
 Teams do well when given timely, meaningful
feedback.
 Rewards and punishment are more effective in
swaying individual performance when given by a
work group instead of a single superior.
 Many employees prefer working as a team. This is
particularly true for those who resent being bossed.
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Teams As A Competitive
Strategy Continued
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Work teams can handle areas typically
reserved for members of management such
as: inventory, scheduling, and quality
assurance.
 Often management costs are lower when
teams are used in a business or industrial
operation. As a result, employee-tosupervisor ratios can be reduced to as much
as 50 to 1.
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Obstacles to Effective Team
Performance
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Labor and management
lack shared values.
Structure and function
of problem-solving
teams was not
established according
to behavior science
concepts and
techniques.
Lack of leadership skill
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Team leadership is
complex, because your
relationships with
members of the team
are dynamic and
continually changing.
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Individuals and Teams
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The Situational Leadership model is just as important whether
you are working with a team or with an individual.
You still have complicating factors when you are working with
teams, but you still have to apply the three basic competencies
in influencing: diagnosing, adapting, and communicating.
You may have to deal with individual team members differently
when you are in a one-on-one situation than when you are with
the entire team.
Individuals and teams may be at different levels of readiness. In
graduate classes most members are there because they want to
be. Therefore most graduate classes are at an R3 or R4
readiness level.
Individuals may be higher or lower than team members as a
whole in readiness.
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Leadership in a Team
Environment
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The use of the
Situational
Leadership model
revolves around the
following five welldesigned and
interrelated
questions.
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What objective do we
want to accomplish?
 What is the team’s
readiness in the
situation?
 What intervention
should the leader
make?
 What was the result of
this leadership
intervention?
 What follow-up, if any is
required?
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Leadership in a Team
Environment Continued
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What objective do
we want to
accomplish?
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One example of a
task-specific
objective for a team
is: “To make specific
recommendations
on how to reduce
web-press paper
waste by 2 percent.”
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Leadership in a Team
Environment Continued
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What is the team’s readiness in the situation?
Readiness Level 1: The whole team is unable and
unwilling or insecure in reference to the specific
objective.
Readiness Level 2: The team is coming around, but
often divided with intrateam dissonance and
competition for recognition and influence.
Readiness level 3: The team is coming together.
Adjustments are made between individuals and
factions, and informal leaders and experts emerge.
Readiness level 4: The team acts “as one.” The team
is now able, willing, and confident in relation to the
objective.
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Leadership in a Team
Environment Continued
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What intervention should the leader make?
After the team’s readiness has been diagnosed, the
leader is now ready to use the appropriate style.
Style 1: Defining goals and objectives is important in
this role.
Style 2: Clarifying: This role makes the leader the
“indispensable hub” of the team.
Style 3: Involving: The leader is an unequal member
of the team. The leader has a lessening role in dayto-day operations.
Style 4: Empowering: The leader is involved in more
of a facilitating or connecting role with the rest of the
organization.
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Team Problem-Solving Modes
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Each team has their own personality that may be
different from other teams.
Just like leaders have different styles, teams have
different modes of team behavior.
A team that is facing a situation that requires large
amounts of task behavior-lots of what, when, where,
and how information-and that doesn’t have a lot of
time for relationship behavior-dialogue and
discussion-is in the crisis mode.
The problem-solving mode, when used correctly,
requires high amounts of both task and relationship
behavior.
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Helping and Hindering Roles
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Within teams individuals play roles.
It is not that a specific role by itself is helping or
hindering to team performance, but that a highperforming team member plays a role that in a given
situation contributes to maximizing the productivity of
the team.
If we are to be effective in teams we all need to adapt
our roles to the needs of the team.
We need to release the idea that certain behaviors
are always good and certain behaviors are always
bad.
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S1 HT/LR Competency
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Establishing
- Getting Started
- Clarifying Purpose
- Defining Goals
- Maintaining
Direction
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Aggressive
- Criticizing
- Attacking personality
- Dominating
- Name Calling
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S1 Competency Continued
1. Establishing:
Initiating action for a
plan. For example, “I
suggest we go once
around the table. Each
of us will have an
opportunity for input.”
2. Clarifying Purpose:
State why the team
has been called
together.
3. Defining Goals: Be
specific about what is
needed to fulfill the
team’s purpose; the
steps necessary for
attainment of the
purpose.
4. Maintaining
Direction: Keeping the
team on track.
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S1 Competency Continued
5. Hindering Role
Category: Aggressive
May refuse to cooperate by
rejecting all ideas of the
group, or by acting as an
authority.
6. Aggressive Indicators
Criticizing:
Putting down others or
always finding a fault with
the suggestions.
7. Attacking Personality:
Focusing on someone’s
personal attributes instead
of the problem on hand.
8. Dominating:
Taking “air time” and
blocking other team
members’ opportunity to
make suggestions.
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S1 Competency Continued
9. Name Calling
This would consist of
stereotyping or using
labels that generalize
about a person or team in
a demeaning manner.
10. Games Played By
Aggressive People Uproar:
This begins with a critical
statement that triggers an
attack-defense series of
transactions.
11. “See What You Made
Me Do” or “If it Weren’t
For You”
The purpose is to send
ownership and
accountability for an error
to another person.
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S2 HT/HR Competency
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Persuading
- Questioning
- Guiding and
Encouraging
- Developing
Alternatives
- Advocating
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Manipulative
- Topic Jumping
- Statements as
Questions
- Selective
Interpretations
- Gatekeeping
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S2 Competency Continued
1. Helping Role Category:
Persuading: Responds
openly and freely to
others.
3. Guiding and
Encouraging Responses:
For example, “That is an
excellent idea. Please tell
us more about it.”
2. Persuading Indicators
Questions: Asking
questions to get clarity and
a shared understanding of
a point.
4. Developing Alternatives:
For example, “Perhaps we
should look at the financial
plan from a ‘best caseworst case’ set of
scenarios.”
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S2 Competency Continued
5. Advocating: For
example, “Because we
seem to be stuck for a next
step, I’d like to suggest
that we talk about about
the Johnson Tool
acquisition next.”
7. Manipulative Indicators
Topic Jumpers: For
example, “I agree that a
business plan is important,
but I think it is time that we
rethink our company’s
mission statement.”
6. Hindering Role
Category: Manipulative
Makes repeated attempts
to use solutions that
ineffective in achieving
personal goals.
8. Statements As
Questions: For example,
“Don’t you think it’s time
you got this meeting going
again?”
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S2 Competency Continued
9. Selective Interpretations: For
example, “That may be true, but
we have never been successful
in introducing a product without
television advertising.
11. Games Played by
Manipulative People Blemish:
Becoming the team’s
nitpicker…finding fault with
insignificant details.
10. Gatekeeping: For example,
“Thank you for your
suggestion.” (writes it down)
“That is interesting.” (does not
write it down) “Worthwhile idea.”
(writes it down)
12. Corner: A change in
movement putting people
through a series of seemly
plausible questions into a
situation in that, no matter what
they do, they never come out
right.
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S2 Competency Continued
13. Now I’ve Got You:
Listening carefully to
what is said. Then
asking questions to get
information and
pouncing on whoever
makes a mistake or
steps into a trap you’ve
set.
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S3 HR/LT Competency
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Committing
- Facilitating Involvement
- Synthesizing
Summarizing
- Gaining Commitment
- Problem Solving
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Dependent
- Agreeing With
Everything
- Avoiding Decisions or
Closure Through
Sarcasm
- Seeking Sympathy
- Expressing Futility,
Resignation,
Helplessness
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S3 Competency Continued
1. Helping Role
Category:Committing:
Helps to make sure all team
members are part of the
decision-making process.
Asks to see if the team is
nearing a decision.
3. Synthesizing/Summarizing:
For example, “If we take Joe’s
idea for a redesigned package
and Mary’s suggestion for instore promotion, we may be able
to launch the product
introduction 2 months ahead of
schedule.”
2. Committing Indicators
Facilitating Involvement: For
example, “Come on, fella,
you’re doing a fine job. Nobody
wants to cut into what you have
to say.”
4. Gaining Commitment: For
example, “How many of you are
willing to sign on to our
commitment to ship 50, 000
units by November first?
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S3 Competency Continued
5. Problem Solving: For
example, “We have not been
making very good progress. If
we are going to wind this up
today, we have to reach
agreement before lunch on this
personnel evaluation system.”
7. Dependent Indicators
Agreeing with Everything
For example, “No, I guess
you’re right. I’m out of ideas.”
6. Hindering Role Category:
Dependent
Unwilling to use leadership
resources available within self or
others.
8. Avoiding Decisions or Closure
Through Sarcasm: For example,
“Did you hear the story about
the…”
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S4 LR/LT Competency
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Attending
- Listening
- Showing Interest
- Taking Notes or
Recording
- Monitoring or
Observing
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Avoidance
- Withdrawing
Psychologically
- Withdrawing
Physically
- Reflecting Boredom
- Escaping the Group
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S4 Competency Continued
1. Helping Role Category
Attending: Listens well
and speaks well. Takes
time to listen and
avoids interrupting.
3. Showing Interest: For
example, leaning forward,
visibly concentrating on
discussions.
2. Attending Indicators
Listening: For example,
“I’ve been listening very
carefully, and it seems Tom
has some very good
points.”
4. Taking Notes or
Recording for the Team:
For example, “I’ve made
some notes and I’d like to
say something.”
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S4 Competency Continued
5. Monitoring or Observing:
For example, showing
alertness during
discussions.
7. Avoidance Indicators
Withdrawing
Psychologically: For
example, trying not to be
involved in the team’s
activities-looking at
pictures and so on.
6. Hindering Role
8. Withdrawing Physically:
Category: Avoidance
For example, getting up
from the team and walking
For example, withdraws
from the team, rolls eyes in over to look out the
disgust, and plans to leave windows.
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early.
S4 Competency
9. Reflecting Boredom: For
example, slouching in the
chair and appearing
uninterested.
11. Games Played by
Avoidance People Harried:
Appearing to be
overworked or too busy to
meet deadlines and
commitments.
10. Escaping the Team:
Physically leaving the
environment, planning to
be late, intentionally not
attending.
12. Kick Me: Making an
error, that is, coming to
work late or unprepared
and hoping that someone
on the team will provide
the kick-criticism, and
questions.
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Summary Leading Effective
Teams
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Some of these behavioral indicators reflect
helping and hindering roles in each of the four
competencies. These roles by themselves
are not helping or hindering. There are no
generic helping or hindering roles. A role may
be helping or hindering depending on the
situation. Your awareness of these roles will
make a real influence toward expanding your
effectiveness in teams.
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Summary Leading Effective
Teams Continued
 As
W.H. Weiss stated:
 Teamwork
is like a salad: Individually, each
ingredient may be tasty and fresh, but they
will certainly not add up to a gourmet
experience. Put together in the right way,
the ingredients enhance one another to
produce startling results. Each ingredient
retains its character and strengths, but
contributes to a more exciting and effective
overall result.
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