Building Effective Teams: Leadership and Management

Great teams have both leadership and management so that they achieve their goals and the people have a positive experience. It may be tough, there can be huge obstacles to overcome, and hard work but overall, it’s a positive experience. Poorly run teams have neither, which results in chaos, lack of control, indecision, and failure to produce. If a team only has management, it will be mechanical and cold. People may be efficient and effective because they are being managed while inspiration, satisfaction, and fulfillment are lacking. Also, the human beings on the team may not be treated well. They may get used up and discarded. If a team only has leadership and not management, there will be inspiration, direction, people feeling positive, but it will take a lot of effort and will power to achieve goals. A team with both leadership and management will run well and more opportunities will open up for that team because it can achieve more than most. 

We worked with a profitable family business that had been operating for decades. Each family member had a different role in the company however they weren’t aligned on where to take the company. One focussed on managing and maintaining the company, one made the big decisions, and one was being groomed to eventually take over the business. One wanted to add new technology to improve the company but he lacked the skill to get the staff on board. His attention was focussed on his own personal interest in technology and how cool it was. Over time, he learned how to speak and listen to the staff in a way that allowed the staff to feel heard and for him to get them on board with new technology because it would make their jobs easier and solve a frustration that they had. We helped the family clarify their roles and to be aware of which hat they were wearing when they spoke to each other. Were they speaking as the father or as the CEO, the mother or the manager, or an owner, or as a worker inside the company. Once they learned to separate the multiple roles that they played, their communication improved and there were fewer upsets. We helped them understand each other's agendas and interests so that we could help them align them to the direction for the company. This way the company and the individuals get what they want by working towards the same direction. They were looking at the situation from the point of view that only one of them could get what they wanted at the expense of the others so it was a battle to win. By understanding each other and being creative, they were able to shift to a point of view that they can all get what they want by changing their expectations of what the solution would be. This allowed for flexibility and creativity to find a solution that worked for all of them.

Another client had issues with some individuals forgetting to do tasks, lack of initiative, lack of motivation, and under performing to the point of wanting to fire those individuals. Firing those individuals in a small team would have resulted in having no team and starting to build one from scratch. We investigated what was really happening and the first issue was that the owner had unrealistic expectations of the team. He expected people to have perfect memories, to always be self-motivated, and to always be proactive with the things that he considered common sense. We dispelled him of the unrealistic expectations because most human beings will not meet his expectations unless he’s willing to search for those people who will command higher salaries than he’s willing to pay. We coached the client around resetting his expectations to how people tend to be as well as how to manage his team effectively which includes following up to verify that tasks have been completed properly, repeating instructions when a worker forgets, and directing workers to process manuals when they forget. Since many people aren’t proactive to the level that he wants, we had him create checklists and procedures for workers to follow which have them catch things that need to be taken care of. It makes it look like they are proactive when they are following a checklist that reminds them of what to do. This is the client being proactive about how his team tends to behave so that overall performance is elevated. We had the client retrain team members where they needed and coached him on how to discuss their needs, the company’s needs, and to find common ground so that the team and the company are aligned. This way everyone and the company gets what they need by going in the same direction together instead of a win-lose situation. We helped the client identify with his workers where their vested interests lay, where they needed support, and how to communicate the importance of maintaining certain standards of work. 

A third client was the sales department of a car dealership where revenue had been declining for years. Our job was to turn that around and have the company grow. The sales people were competitive and sometimes got into shouting matches on the sales floor in front of customers and even came close to fist fights on a few occasions. We helped them start growing their revenue again and used people’s self-interest to work together so that they all benefitted. We helped the manager put in place structures and routines that helped the team perform. They started doing sales training once a week, setting team and individual sales targets each month, and utilizing the ignored resources that they already had by mining their customer database to offer them deals. They set ambitious goals as a team and as individuals, the manager met with each sales person for 5 minutes each day to review goals and activities. The manager helped the sales people close customers when needed and they went from pressuring people to buy to serving the needs of customers. While the revenue increased and the sales people made more money, there was a transformation of attitude and culture. The sales people went from competing against each other to supporting and encouraging each other to reach their sales goals, shouting matches became almost non-existent, there was fun instead of stress.

The main components for building effective teams are:

• Having clear roles for everyone

• Standardised procedures and routines to follow

• Understanding the needs and wants of the team members

• Finding alignment between the needs and wants of the team members and the organization to create win-win scenarios

• Keeping the team focussed on the actions to achieve the goals that benefit them and the organization together

• Providing support and training to team members where needed

• Managing the team with agreed upon targets and actions

• Leadership and management

When teams focus too much on the feelings of the human beings doing the work, progress is slow. When teams focus too much on actions and results, it becomes too mechanical and the human beings feel used like machines. Take care of people, the team, and the organization together. Professional sports teams with a track record are great examples for what works to have people work together, produce results, and take care of the individuals. They hire, group people, strategize, train, practice, lead, manage, use statistics, and adapt effectively.