Leader Actions that Foster Teamwork

This week, I write about Leader Actions that foster teamwork. It is in two part with the second part to be continued next week.

My 32 years of working experience tell me that sometimes a leader’s inspiring personality alone can foster teamwork. Yet inspirational leaders, as well as less charismatic ones, can encourage team work through certain actions and attitudes.

Actions leaders

A starting point in developing teamwork is to specify the team’s mission. Commitment to a clear mission has recently been identified as a key practice of a highly effective team. The mission statement for the group helps answer the question. “ Why are we doing this ? “ To answer this question, the mission statement should contain a specific goal, purpose and philosophical tone. Any goal contained with the mission statement should be congruent with organizational objectives. If a team wants to cut back on its number of suppliers, that should be part of the organization’s intent. To quote tw3o example of a team’s mission statements:-

· To plan and implement new manufacturing approaches to enhance our high performance image and bolster our competitive edge

· To enhance our web site development capability so we can provide decision makers throughout the organization with assistance in developing web sites that exceed the state of the art.

The leader can specify the mission when the team is first 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. Participative leadership is required in developing a mission.

Developing a Norm of Teamwork

A major strategy of teamwork development is to promote the attitude among group members that working together effectively is an expected standard of conduct. Developing a norm of teamwork will be difficult for a leader when a strong culture of individualism exists within the organization. Nokia Corporation, the manufacturer of mobile phones based in Finland, illustrates the teamwork type of organizational culture. It is natural for Nokia employees to work harmoniously to accomplish work and iron out differences of opinion.

A belief in cooperation and collaboration rather than competitiveness as a strategy for building teamwork has been referred to as co-operation theory. Individuals who are accustomed to competing with one another for recognition, salary increases and resources to competing collaborate. Despite the challenges of making a culture shift, the leader can make progress toward establishing a teamwork norm.

Some leaders encourage team members to treat one another as if they were customers, thus encouraging cooperative behavior and politeness. The leader can also foster the norm of teamwork by explicitly stating its desirability.



The leader can also communicate the norm of teamwork by making frequent use of words and phrases that support teamwork. Emphasizing team members or teammates, and de-emphasizing the words subordinates and employees, helps communicate the norm of teamwork. Group incentives are typically used to supplement, rather than replace, individual incentives.

Normative statements about teamwork by influential team members are also useful in reinforcing the norm of teamwork. A team might say to co-workers, for example, “ I am glad this project ius a joint effort. I know that is what earns a merit points around here. “

Emphasizing pride in being outstanding

A standard way to build team spirit, if not teamwork, is to help the group realize why it should be proud of its accomplishments. The leader should help the group identify that task or characteristic and promote it as a key strength. A shipping department, for example, might have the best on time shipping record in the region, Or a claims processing unit might have the least overpayment in an insurance company.



Holding a Pow Wow

An informal approach to laying the groundwork for cooperation among people who will be working together as a team is to hold a pow wow. Pow wows have long been used in American organization and the concept is now finding favours with some organizations in Asia Pacific region. Disney Studios began using the term when Walt Disney was asked it he conducted brainstorming sessions. He answered that he preferred to hold a pow wow in which people get together beat the drum, light a fire, smoke a pipe and socialize. As practiced by Disney, the pow wow is intentionally informal, friendly and unstructured. It is intended to lay the groundwork for a cooperative working relationship among team members assigned to a new project. Each pow wow has three parts:-

· A skills inventory gives each group member a chance to describe his or her task relevant skills, experience and aptitudes

· An interest inventory gives each group member an opportunity to describe their off-the-job interests. The interests revealed can serve as connectors among group members

· During the data dump, each group member expresses his or her thoughts and feelings about the project. Other members listen without interrupting the person dumping data. An effective data dump reduces complaining because each member of the group has an opportunity to air any concerns about the project

Pow wows give each group member an opportunity to be heard, thus establishing open communication. The group of people assigned to the project takes an important step toward becoming a team. Such process would be part of the team development process in some fast growing organizations in Asia Pacific regions.



Serving as a model of team

A powerful way for a leader to foster teamwork is to be a positive model for team play. This includes both working as a team member with your team and also importantly, working as a team with other team leaders. Managers expect their team members to work as a team but do not apply the same standards to themselves in the “ management team “. One way to exemplify teamwork in your team 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.

Interacting extensively with team members serves as a model of teamwork because it illustrates the mechanism by which team development takes place – frequent informal communication. While interesting with team members, the team leader can emphasize that he or she is a team member. For example he or she might say: “ Remember the deadline. We must all have the proposal in the mail by Thursday. “ A less team member oriented statement would be, “ Remember the deadline, I need the proposals in the mail by Thursday. “

Using a consensus leadership style

Teamwork is enhanced when a leader practices consensus decision making, Contributing input to important decisions helps group members feel that they are valuable team members. Consensus decision making also leads to an exchange of ideas within the group, including supporting and refining each other’s suggestions. As a result, the feeling of working jointly on problems is enhanced. Generation X managers are likely to practice consensus leadership. Part of the reason is that so many of these people have taken leadership courses. Recently I have taken a closer look at the generation X Managers in the manufacturing industries in our country. I found that they are a very promising generation, They bring so much to the work force especially as managers. Xers tend to be flexible, good at collaboration and consensus building and mature beyond their years. They are also capable of multitasking. Gen X managers are very team oriented, and they absolutely want everyone on the team to get result.

Another way of framing the consensus leadership style is that it reflects a belief in shared governance and partnerships instead of patriarchal caretaking. The team, rather than hierarchical departments, becomes the focus of organizational activity. As with the other tactics and techniques for enhancing teamwork, people have to participate in a cultural shift to fully accept shared governance.





This article shall be continued next week with focus on establishing urgency, demanding performance standards and providing directions….



Establishing urgency, Demanding Performance standards and Providing Direction

Team members need to believe that the team has urgent, constructive purposes. Team members also want to have a list of explicit expectation. The more urgent and relevant the rationale, 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 enhanced when the leader feeds the team valid facts and information that motivate team members 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 prupose, set clearer goals and work together more smoothly. Feeding the group relevant facts and information is also valuable because it helps combat groupthink.

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.

When encouraging competition with another group, the leader should encourage rivalry, not intense competition that might that might lead to unethical business practices.

Encouraging the use of jargon

An analysis by Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal ( 1992 ) suggests that the symbolic and ritualistic framework of a group contributes heavily to teamwork. An important part of this framework is a specialized language that fosters cohesion and commitment. In essence, this specialized language is in-group jargon. The jargon creates a bond among team members and sets the group apart from outsiders. It also reinforces unique values and beliefs, this contributing to corporate culture. Jargon also allows team members to communicate easily, with few misunderstanding.


Soliciting feedback on team effectiveness

Another approach to building teamwork is for the team to receive feedback on how ell it is performing. Performance standards are set at the outset, following other suggestions here for building teamwork. Then the group following established a team critique procedure, including self evaluation by the team and evaluation by those who use the team’s output, such as other units and customers. Once a month, about one hour is set aside for the team to evaluate its progress and compare it to the performance standards.

When the feedback is positive, the team may experience a spurt of energy to keep working together well. Negative feedback, so long as it is not hostile, might bring the team together to develop action plans for improvement.

Minimizing micromanagement

A strategic perspective on encouraging teamwork is for the leader to minimize micromanagement, the close monitoring of most aspects of group member activities. 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. Research has shown that leaders of self managing teams encourage self reinforcement, self goal setting, self criticism, self observation/evaluation, self-expectation, and rehearsal.

The extreme argument against micromanagement was made by a member of a successful empowered team at Hewlett Packard distribution center: “ people in leadership shouldn’t think about what they can do to make people productive, happier, et cetera – they should think about what they can stop. “ Despite the enthusiasm of this team member, a caveat is in order. For empowerment to work, team member must have the appropriate skills, job knowledge and education in addition to motivation. Would you want an empowered group of production associates to design an airplane in which you would be a passenger ? Team or group members must also be ready to accept empowerment in the sense of being willing to assume more responsibility and be accountable for their results.