Approaches To Handle Conflict

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The concept and activities involved in team building make emphases on the creation of groups to finally build a concrete team. This represents the act of putting together by selecting through recruiting and interviewing individuals. Once team has been selected and formally introduced, team building activities engage those individuals to cohesiveness, productivity and efficiency.

A good team building strategy will be to pay special attention to the skills and personalities within the team. If you have the possibility of forming your own team is essential to bring together similar personality types and consequently relationships will be more strength.

As an activity to improve responsiveness and trust the leader may arrange an outdoor meeting which can involve only the team such as visiting a specific place or invite the team to be part of a community activity. Out of their personal comfort zones, team members will have no other option than paying close attention to their colleagues and could derive in a long lasting relationship out of work. In case those options are not possible, the leader can also work in games and sharing activities inside the work space. While that happens, the leader may share some personal expectations to boost a climate of confidence.

Teamwork

The concept of teamwork refers specifically to the functionality of the team; this means the result of a team effectively working together. Active teamwork happens once the team is properly establish and working, producing the expected outcome as a result of effective communication, trust, respect, competencies developed through training, leadership and processes defined.

Performance Management

It is convenient to monitor and evaluate the team’s performance every three months. Most organizations trust on annual reviews to see the impact produced along a calendar year but evaluating in short periods and giving feedback at that time will act as an incentive for team members.

Leaders must work on comparative information from previous periods to see changes and improvements, or in case of a corrective action needed, this data properly documented will serve as a guide for future monitoring actions.

Team members who are aware of their leader’s initiative and constant work to improve the performance are more willing to remain and keep contributing as the engagement of the leader acts as a transmittable behavior.

Selecting team members

It is of very much importance for a leader to select team members based on some premises for future effective teamwork. Preferably, leaders may identify and select individuals who show the following characteristics:

commitment at the time of sharing objectives

active listening and productive responsiveness

malleability to take on different roles

honesty regarding ideas, concerns and values

focus on daily tasks

An individual who show in great degree a tendency to avoid sharing his or her expertise and states that prefers to work alone rather than negotiate his or her role within a team will finally disrupt teamwork.

One winning strategy in good leadership is to recognize individual styles within the team, and then play to the strengths of the individual. Another strategy is to match your leadership tactics with your team’s stage of development. According to the following interaction model by Russell (1986), a leader may identify common styles of individuals often present within teams based on preferences and skills, interpersonal skills and decision-making styles.

Style: Driver

Profile: Take charge person; strongly influential; focused on results

Strengths: Determined; Thorough; Decisive; Efficient; Direct

Weaknesses: Dominating; Unsympathetic; Demanding; Critical; Impatient

Style: Enthusiast

Profile: Social specialist; Expressive; People person

Strengths: Personable; Stimulating; Enthusiastic; Innovative

Weaknesses: Opinionated; Undependable; Reactionary

Style: Analyser

Profile: Well-organized; Likes specific projects; Puts structure to ideas

Strengths: Industrious; Persistent; Serious; Orderly; Methodical

Weaknesses: Indecisive; Uncommunicative; Critical

Style: Affiliator

Profile: Adaptive; Relationship oriented; Likes stability; Wants to be part of bigger picture

Strengths: Cooperativ; Supportive; Dependable; Helpful

Weaknesses: Conforming; Uncommitted; Hides true feelings

As explained before, the best approach a leader may have is the one in which selection is focused on gathering individuals with same characteristics to perform well in time. Teams already formed and assigned to a new leader will need to develop certain aspects to work with consistency including its identity, a vision as a team, communication skills and collaboration as a top element to develop.

Team identity

One of the key elements to for effective teamwork is the identity of the team due to the fact that how a team behaves and what it achieves is a result of the collective behavior. That behavioral style includes abilities, values, motivations, loyalties and commitment together with the pressures and constraints placed on the back’s team by the project or the environment.

A key way to help individual members to build this identity is to encourage them to accept they are a unit which is accountable for delivering the solution. The leader’s role will contribute as far as he or she works around this idea and speaks in terms of a common commitment of the common task. Another point that is critical for the leader is to speak to the team in terms of the achievements, past, present or future ones, and so developing this concept of affiliation that drives excellence and recognition for the team. With time, individuals will increase their pride and sense of belonging and loyalty will be perceived as something natural for them.

It is imperative to maintain stability and so the leader must work on cohesiveness in terms of communication and team rules despite any new addition to the team. Introducing new members may result in a bad perception as the members may think they are not good enough to accomplish in time, so the leader must clarify the needs of the organization and state that the new addition is a gaining situation as they will finally acquire more expertise and recognition.

There are some practices to help promote team building and team identity that the leader must encourage with assiduity:

Ideally, the team and the leader must share an open office instead of separate offices for each.

Hold activities such as team lunches, social events, workshops or days away.

Ensure regular reporting from each member of what they have been doing between meetings.

Use collaborative platforms so every team member has access to all project information.

Shared vision

In the same way an individual performs better when a vision for the future has been stated, the team acts accordingly when having a commitment to the desired future state as all efforts will be focused on reaching that point.

Teams must have clear targets to maintain stimulation and the vision acts as the link to ensure they are compatible and their efforts consistent. The vision should motivate and inspire team members, commit them to the task and convince them that it will be achieved more successfully if they work together rather than as individuals.

The leader must help to develop that vision showing them that the root of the vision is in its own values and beliefs and will always derive in a significant contribution. In some cases, when the team is solid and has been working for a long time, the vision emerges directly from the members in their own terms. Consequently, the leader must support the vision and encourage accomplishing.

Some typical visions arise from the project itself and may include one of the followings:

A commitment to complete the project with excellence

Efficient use of resources and maximization of results

Improvement of business effectiveness in terms of quality

There are some practices to help achieve a shared vision that the leader must encourage with assiduity:

Bring the team to a meeting devoted to the development of a shared vision, including a mission statement and formal objectives.

Identify individual tasks and responsibilities and define a plan with deadlines, actions and objectives for each team member.

Keep the action plan under review for its continuing relevance, adequacy, and accuracy.

Assess and reaffirm the shared vision periodically.

Communication

Every must help develop shared understanding of information related to the project or ideas as good communication between members is essential for a team to collaborate successfully.

A good level of communication is also beneficial for team identity and group cohesiveness as it supports on expectations from each other to the project and among team members; and reinforces trust in such a way that members will also have the will to challenge in the search for better solutions.

At this point of communication, the leader’s feedback is always welcome and allows flexibility at the time of suggestions and changes to be implemented.

Practical steps for the leader to promote open communication include:

Highlight the importance of open communication.

Set objectives for the team to have a start point.

Point out the importance of clear ideas, explained in details to engage everyone.

Assist the least eloquent members to articulate their ideas.

Give space for each member to make a contribution.

Try to ensure everyone listens

Openly discuss with all team members about the best ways to communicate with others.

Demonstrate the value of each member’s opinions.

Encourage a direct approach

Collaboration and participation

No matter the stage of the team or the team’s structure, trust, honesty, mutual respect and full participation are vital. When team members share values and vision they develop a team spirit and collaboration works fluently.

In newly formed teams there is a more frequent tendency to defer to age or seniority and less willingness to challenge views and ask for explanations and so the leader must challenge that deference and give room for negotiation and reduce that impact as team members are most open to information from those they feel are their equals.

Practical steps for the leader to promote collaboration include:

Allow open discussion of issues in an informal setting.

Encourage the team to recognize that the project is not just one person's endeavor.

Focus on solutions, not problems.

Ensure all team members have the opportunity to contribute.

Reflection and self-assessment

Regular reviews can lead to greater awareness of strengths and skills, as well as weaknesses and problem areas, so they are a useful way of ensuring a team's continuing effectiveness.

Every leader must know about the existing value in stepping back in order to examine and reflect on existing ways of doing things. A good place to start is with what teamwork means to each of the team members. So setting a discussion can help defining teamwork and set common expectations.

The team should consider whether it has a interconnected, supportive and positive climate that provides adequate support for skill development, training and personal development.

As for the task itself, the leader should review periodically:

The original objectives and whether they have changed.

How best to achieve current and future objectives.

The appropriateness of the team's methods of working to achieve current and future objectives.

Whether the team's outputs meet or exceed the standards expected.

If milestones and deadlines are being met.

This means that the leader must regularly review the teamwork process and understand if that process reflects the team’s performance. It´s particularly important for the team to get an answer to the question of they have done well as a team and work on the outcome.

Chapter 6

Resolving conflicts

A major advantage a team has over an individual is its diversity of resources, knowledge, and ideas. However, diversity also produces conflict. As more and more organizations restructure to work teams the need for training in conflict resolution will continue to grow.

Conflict arises from differences, and when individuals come together in teams, their differences in terms of power, values, and attitudes contribute to the creation of conflict. To avoid the negative consequences that can result from disagreements, most methods of resolving conflict stress the importance of dealing with disputes quickly and openly. Conflict is not necessarily destructive, however. When managed properly, conflict can result in benefits for a team.

Differing views and opinions among team members are inevitable. Bringing together contrasting points of view is one of the strengths of a team approach and an opportunity for creative problem solving.

When conflict remains the number-one problem even after getting training on how to resolve conflict and how to minimize the negative impact, the reason lays on the leader.

Factors of conflict

Conflict can arise from numerous sources within a team and generally falls into three categories:

Communication factors

Barriers to communication are among the most important factors and can be a major source of misunderstanding.

Communication barriers include:

poor listening skills

insufficient sharing of information

differences in interpretation and perception

nonverbal cues being ignored or missed

This may be related to the increased use of cross-functional teams in which individuals with technical backgrounds must rely on the work of others to get their own work done.

This specifically illustrates how important it is to provide training in communication and interpersonal skills to cross-functional team members, while emphasizing an appreciation of the value of differences.

Structural factors

Structural disagreements include the size of the organization, levels of participation, reward systems, and levels of interdependence among employees.

It makes sense that goals and priority issues have risen on the list as organizations have evolved into multi-project environments. In these new complexes organizations, employees often find themselves serving on a variety of project teams, being led by a variety of project managers while reporting directly to functional managers.

In those cases, the presence of a leader per area or office, may help to improve communication and solve conflicts.

Personal factors

Personal factors include things such as an individual's self-esteem, their personal goals, values and needs.

In order for conflict to be dealt with successfully, leaders must understand its unpredictability and its impact on individuals and the team as a whole. One-to-one sessions are a great tool to help individuals in the process of adaptation to a team but the leader must always point out that individuals need to leave aside their conflictive individualities and act as professionals within a team.

Organizations must be aware that conflict grows from differences, but if teams are properly trained in human relations and team-building skills, production will increase. Below, some recommendations:

More frequent team communications. 

More frequent meetings and status review sessions to minimize inconsistent perceptions of project goals and priorities.

Increase human relations training and facilitate more active team-building efforts. 

Identifying and resolving issues is an important part of the team process and it is important to tackle the causes, not just the symptoms. Poor communication is often a major cause of conflict and the team should encourage communication, negotiation, information-sharing and co-operation. If communication is adequate and opinions can be freely expressed, apparently uncontrolled conflict often disappears.

No matter what kind of team it is, no method of managing conflict will work without mutual respect and a willingness to disagree and resolve disagreements. Conflict, in this sense, can be considered positive, as it facilitates the surfacing of important issues and provides opportunities for people to develop their communication and interpersonal skills.

Conflict in work teams is not necessarily destructive, however. Conflict can lead to new ideas and approaches to organizational processes, and increased interest in dealing with problems.

Conflict becomes negative when it is left to escalate to the point where people begin to feel defeated and a combative climate of distrust and suspicion develops. Negative conflict can destroy a team quickly, and often arises from poor planning.

The leader should also encourage members to:

discuss competing views, personal preferences, opinions, values, priorities and team roles openly

separate out assumptions from facts and explain the reasoning behind their views and decisions

avoid confrontational responses and be non-judgmental of others' opinions and assumptions

avoid recriminations if initial ideas or guesses, given in good faith,

Potential areas of conflict

Administrative Procedures

If the team lacks good groundwork for what it's doing, its members will not be able to coordinate their work. Conflicts in processes and procedures must be solved by the leader to guarantee effectiveness of teamwork.

People Resources

If the team does not have enough resources to do the job, it is inevitable for the team to carry a not expected load of work. Sometimes that lead is carried just by a few and there is when resentment appears so it is crucial that team leaders ensure adequate resources.

Cost overruns

Often inevitable, cost overruns become a problem when proper measures are not taken. The leader should know early on when cost becomes a problem so additional funding can be sought.

Schedules

The schedule is highly consequential to the team's project and should be highly visible. All members should be willing to work together to help each other meet their deadlines. The leader must have a contingency plan in those cases where deadlines are at risk.

Responsibilities

Each team member must know what areas are assigned and who is accountable for them. Leader should not delegate responsibilities related to resources, cost or schedules to allow the team to work comfortably.

Approaches to handle conflict

When negative conflict does occur there are five accepted methods for handling it. Each can be used effectively in different circumstances.

Direct Approach

The direct approach is recognized as the best options of all as concentrates on the leader confronting the issue.

Though conflict is uncomfortable to deal with, the leader must look at issues objectively and face them.

No criticism should be used, instead a constructive feedback to the recipients pointing that what have taken all of them to speak openly is an area of opportunity they all must work on to improve productivity and reinstate positivism in the team.

This approach counts on the techniques of problem-solving and normally leaves everyone with a sense of resolution, because issues are brought to the surface and dealt with face to face.

Negotiating

This is an excellent technique when both parties have ideas on a solution yet cannot find common ground.

Often a third party, as a team leader, is needed to help find the compromise. In this case, the leader will make use of his techniques as a facilitator bringing dialogue to the conflict and assuring a solution.

Compromise involves give and take on both sides, and usually ends up with both parties walking away equally dissatisfied. When that happens, the leader must consider the approach and schedule a meeting to approach the problem with the first method, the direct approach.

Enforcement of Team Rules

This technique is only used when it is obvious that a member does not want to be a team player and refuses to work with the rest.

This method can bring about hard feelings toward the leader and the team so the leader may want to avoid it.

If enforcement has to be used on an individual, it may be best for that person to find another team so the leader must work on changes and lastly, if no change is possible, let the member go.

Retreat

This technique can help to prevent minor incidents that are the result of someone having a bad day from becoming real problems that should never have occurred. Only use this method when the problem isn't real to begin with.

The idea is to remove the individual away from the problem and redirect his or her attention to something different.

This method can be used to let the individual calm down and think a bit about the situation that has caused him or her to feel uncomfortable. Sometimes the fact of just write down about the problem or think about a potential approach, may produce the problem to disappear.

De-emphasis

This is a form of negotiating where the emphasis is on the areas of agreement.

The first step is to talk about the point of disagreement and understand if it is just a part of the process or task or the entire way the task is conducted has led to disagreement.

When parties realize that there are areas where they are in agreement, they can often begin to move in a new direction and negotiate a solution.

A different view of conflict

Conflict is usually seen through a negative lens; however the leader must understand that conflict can contribute to effective problem solving and decision making by motivating people to examine a problem.

Some teams require conflict to operate effectively as the ultimate expression of ideas that are not being considered and members consider the right ones to take the team to a higher level.

The leader must encourage the expression of those hidden ideas and also encourage members to foster integration in order to create high-quality solutions.

The key for the leader is to understand how to handle it constructively and bring benefits to the team as the suppression of those differences can reduce the effectiveness of a team in the long-term.

The actual process of airing differences can help to increase the cohesiveness and effectiveness of the team through the increased interest and energy that often accompanies it. This in turn fosters creativity and intensity among team members.

In addition, bringing differences to the surface can result in innovative solutions. When people share their views and strive toward reaching a consensus, better decisions are reached. Team members also improve their communication skills and become better at understanding and listening to the information they receive when differences are freely aired.

Below there is a list of some practical steps the leader can use to promote issue resolution:

Acknowledge that conflict is acceptable, even valuable, when fosters new ideas to be added to the project.

Use constructive questioning to identify the causes of conflict.

Try to insist on a blame-free culture and insist on the concept of team as a unity.

When problems arise, bring the team together to assess every different competing option and produce the best overall solution.

Allow all team members to contribute fully and call a gathering of the entire team to identify the sources of conflict and to allow frustrations to be aired.

Consider 'off the record' meetings, and/or workshops.

When conflicts are resolved, celebrate the success of the resolution.

Tips on improving listening skills

The tension of well-managed conflict allows teams to confront disagreement through healthy discussion and improve the decisions made. This leads to greater team efficiency and effectiveness. Effectively managing conflict allows teams to stay focused on their goals rather than spending time in never ending conflicts that end up breaking the team.

The leader needs to work on a constructive conflict management through each conflict and help the members reach a broader understanding of the problem, making use of a healthy expression of different ideas, and creating excitement from the positive interaction and involvement which will help the team through periods of transition and on to greater levels of performance.

Leaders must realize there are some basic things applied to a conflict that lead to resolution and which need to be taught to team members:

Understanding is not agreeing

Seek clarification before responding

Apply listening skills when receiving a message

Evaluate yourself for how well you listened at the end of any conversation

As teams become more responsible for managing themselves, through consistent help of the leader, they can also work on developing a non-fear environment where all types of ideas are welcome. This strategy will ultimately lead to learning, creativity, and growth.

Chapter 7

Making a significant difference

A leader’s critical mission is to instill meaning and purpose in his or her organization but mostly leadership is critical to teamwork.

The team leader is the person responsible for ensuring that members work effectively together to achieve their goal or objective and must facilitate the co-operation necessary for the team to perform well.

The answer to how does being a better leader lead to more productivity, higher profits, lower turnover, greater job satisfaction, more loyalty, etc., is which elevates a leader from simply learning and understanding better leadership principles to pursuing a course of action which transforms us and our leadership abilities into something that really makes a difference.

Referring back to our own experiences is the place where the answer is found. The key to exceptional leadership, therefore, lies within our ability to relate effectively with people and their emotions. In order to bring better performance to a team a leader must help team members feel more satisfied, productive, proud, focused, and committed. 

Exactly that! What really works for a team is to be self-motivated and feel they are doing what they really want to do, being inspired and proud of all of the efforts. Exceptional leadership, therefore, is leadership that inspires people to give their best effort. Although, for a leader, being productive and having good time management skills are important and necessary, they are not sufficient. Having good judgment becomes increasingly important the higher in an organization we rise, however it too is insufficient for truly effective leadership. Exceptional leadership is about relating to people in such a way as to inspire them to give their best effort - for themselves, their organization, their community, their family, and/or their world.

Leaders must lead by example to be successful. All the notable traits, both good and bad, had to do with people skills. The goal of effective people skills is good Relationship Management. Relationship Management encompasses the ability to develop others, inspire others, influence others, resolve conflict, and build teamwork and collaboration.

Let´s review five outcomes that leaders deliver, each merged around a role that a leader plays:

Strategist. An effective leader develops a point of view about the future and works in a strong plan to get where he or she has projected.

Being a strategist also means:

Having exceptional verbal skills.

Communicating effectively in real time.

Focusing on what is truly and indisputably important.

Helping everyone recognize the obvious.

Executor. Effective leaders build the discipline of getting things done.

There are three critical forces that drive exceptional execution:

Alignment

Mindset

Capability

Companies achieve better results, when people understand the strategy and its implications at an individual level (alignment), are excited and passionate about the strategy (mindset), and have the skills and confidence (capability) to execute.

In strategy execution, emotional commitment is critical. Employees will only adopt a new initiative if they believe that it is the right strategy. Through first-hand experience, employees realize the value of the strategy for themselves.

Talent manager. Effective leaders engage others in planning and executing their agenda.

There are five leadership skills that increase engagement:

Building Trust

The first thing leaders need to know about building trust is that it does not happen just because you are trustworthy. Leaders build trust by trusting others. This requires a basic belief in people, a belief that people are essentially trustworthy.

Mentoring

The relationship between the employee and his or her immediate manager is a critical factor in how engaged the employee will be. A team needs feedback on how they are performing regularly, not just once a year at review time, and be able to discuss their needs for growth and development with a leader that demonstrates who cares about them.

Inclusion

Effective leaders know that everyone on their team has strengths the team needs and they know how to get the best out of each person regardless of their ethnic background, gender, age or sexual orientation. They understand that people with different personal values can work together effectively when they commit to the same values about trustworthiness and standards of work performance.

Alignment

Engaged employees feel aligned with their organization’s Purpose, Values and Vision. Their work is meaningful to them because their leader helps them see the connection between what they do and the success of the organization. The effective leader also understands that gaining their team’s commitment to the organization’s values increases the team’s performance standards as well as their engagement.

Team Development

Effective leaders make sure that all team members understand the strengths they and other team members bring to the team and work at developing a process that capitalizes on all of these strengths. The leader’s focus is on developing the leadership potential of each team member and ultimately implementing a shared leadership approach to continuously improving performance that is owned by the team.

Human capital developer. Effective leaders prepare the next generation of employees.

Leaders facilitate and support people to become the best that they can be thereby performing at their utmost. This means serving them. Providing them with what they require to achieve their purpose and goals. Leaders serve. They serve their people.

Great leaders know that employees today are increasingly attracted to companies with a demonstrated commitment and capacity to do good in the world. The meaning they find in work is less about money or career trajectories (although these continue to be important) and more about mirroring employees’ personal values and responding to their desire for a sense of personal calling at work.

Personal proficiency. Effective leaders have personal skills and abilities that enable them to lead and others to follow.

This personal proficiency is the basis upon which the rest can be developed. If there is a lack, or not enough attention to any of these aspects, the other four rules will suffer. 

Personal proficiency has five sets of resources: physical, social, emotional, intellectual and spirituality.

Physical

The role of a leader puts great demands on the physical condition and stamina of the leader so he or she needs to be healthy at all times and this means being in good shape and set time aside for exercises, preferably outdoors. Following on activities like this will give the leader a new and refreshing perspective on the challenges at hand and decreases the state of tiredness the role requests.

 

Social

If the leader is only focussed on the business, he or she misses a lot about what is happening in the world. Having a social role is beneficial for the leader and for the organization as well.

 

Emotional

For the leader’s own physical and mental health, it is crucial to be aware of the emotions and to accept those emotions. The leader can examine what the cause is and address that cause.

Intellectual

The leader has to keep up to date with the latest trends and developments. This can be done through reading, attending seminars, and listening to podcasts. A great way to learn is to meet regularly with people with different backgrounds. They will offer new insights and perspectives.

 

Spiritual

The leader has to provide meaning to him or her, personal life as well. Values and beliefs have to be sustained continuously.

If becoming a more effective leader is half DNA and half learning, mastering these five roles will help any leader be more effective.

The leader that makes the difference

Leadership is a sterile exercise when leaders go through the motions of leadership without attending to emotion, the heart and soul of those they lead.

Leaders may dutifully complete a strategic analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that includes detailed plans to identify and serve customers in the future. But, when these plans focus on either abstract aspirations (vision, mission, and values) or dry analytics they remain uninspiring and virtually useless.

Motion focuses on behaviors and actions; emotion focuses on passion and meaning. Motion gets things done while the leader is present; emotion sustains behavior in the leader’s absence. Leaders in motion differ from leaders who connect with emotion. The latter understand their role as what is called a meaning maker.

Helping employees find meaning at work is a key for leader to be able to bridge strategy and execution in a way that will promote sustainable growth.

For example, leaders bring emotion and meaning to their strategic deliberations when they tell a story that captures imagination and passion, utilize employees’ strengths and values, connect today’s work to the world’s most pressing needs, and create a culture that will sustain people’s energy long-term.

Leaders who are meaning makers are sensitive to this crucial human need, and they support and guide this meaning-making process.

Questions a great leader cannot avoid

Great leaders explore meaning through the following seven questions, which are in fact the drivers for themselves, their work teams, and their organizations. In doing so they create engage employees, meet the needs of customers and contribute to the best interests of organizations and communities. A great leader asking those questions will be able to determine how they can apply the answers to have an impact on those they lead.

Who am I?

A successful leader needs to identify his or hers personal strengths, the identity as a leader. Build on strengths that strengthen others. Leaders who identify and then use their strengths (values, skills, personal traits) in new and creative ways experience an increased sense of well-being.

Where am I going?

Great leaders have a definite purpose and determine the actions that most matters. Four actions that capture a lot of what motivates people are:

Achievement: goal accomplishment and successful competition

Insight: reflection, learning, and imagination

Connection: relationships and interpersonal interaction

Empowerment: using our best skills in the service of empowering others to address humanity’s needs

Whom do I share with?

Fruitful leaders build high-relating teams as well as high-performing teams. People who have a best friend at work are seven times as likely to be highly satisfied with their job and twice as likely to be satisfied with their pay. Investing in good relationships at work pays off in a heightened sense of personal meaning, as well as in being good for business. A leader must excel at practicing, modeling, teaching, and supporting the four crucial skills for building positive relationships:

Making and receiving guidance

Managing closeness

Managing the emotions around problem-solving

Making relationship repairs

How do I build a constructive work environment?

Creating a positive work environment defines the culture around the leader and must work to embed them for all team members to fill as a unity. There are many elements of a positive culture, including;

Humility

Openness

Unselfishness

Positive routines

Accountability

What challenges interest me?

Leaders must get engaged with challenges that they enjoy and understand which outcomes matters to those within the team.

How do I change, learn, and grow?

A good leader must develop resilience and openness to learning. Also the leader needs to take certain risks to learn and succeed, and that means that he or she will sometimes fail.

What provides me satisfaction?

Often, the difference between an intolerable job and a tolerable one is a tiny moment of feeling appreciated, noticing something beautiful, getting a kick out of a shared joke, or having a moment of playfulness. These are the icing on the cake of meaningful that, though small, can have a big impact. When work is unusually demanding and stressful, or when there is a need for high creativity and engagement, small displays of civility and delight help keep people going. Leaders must lead being able to enjoy and give space for satisfaction.

Chapter 8

Leading like Pros do

A team leader or team lead is person who gives guidance, instruction, direction, leadership to a group of individuals for obtaining result in aligned group. A good team leader happened to caring and motivator for its entire team.

The leader should be a role model for the team, good at communicating openly and honestly and winning the respect and trust of all involved. Creating opportunities for team members to participate and contribute to the task constructs a sense of common ownership of both the problem and its solution.

Overall the leader needs to:

Create a supportive climate of openness, trust and mutual respect that promotes loyalty and cooperation and provides a blame free culture.

Assist the team to forge a clearly articulated vision with clear objectives and goals.

Identify team goals and objectives that are compatible with individual members' own goals.

Devise a work plan in which each member is allocated clearly defined tasks that are meaningful and challenging for that individual.

Gain commitment from team members to complete the task and, on occasion, inspire them to go the extra mile.

Ensure that all members feel their contribution is visible to, and valued by, the team as a whole.

Ensure there is regular, clear and accurate feedback to the team on its performance over time.

Be willing to share credit for the team's successes with the entire team.

Things an effective leader always does

Team members want to be guided by someone they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. Knowledge and skills contribute directly to the process of leadership, while the other attributes give the leader certain characteristics that make him or her unique.

Remain empowering as well as flexible

Good leaders are a healthy blend of principle and flexibility. There is power in being principled, a clear symmetry of structure, consistency and unwavering values. There is also power in being flexible, open, adaptable and resilient.

The paradox is that you need both to create true, sustainable power.

If a leader is only principled, then he or she lacks the flexibility to flow with changing conditions and becomes rigid, unbending and unable to adapt.

If a leader is only flexible, then he or she lacks the consistency to hold true to core values and mission and can't stand firm when it is needed. Good leadership is a dynamic blend of both structure and adaptability.

You should be self-sufficient to raise yourself

You should communicate regularly with the team as to build relationships and having feedback. Great team leaders seek out and respond to the opinions and advice of their team members.

When leaders help the people they lead to achieve self-sufficiency, it’s a win-win situation. They grow in confidence and initiative, and they gain more satisfaction from their work. The leader gains a more effective, successful team, and gets free up more of your time for other activities, because the team doesn’t need the leader as much for their day-to-day responsibilities. Creating self-sufficiency is a great empowerment tool for them and a great time management tool for the leader.

Provide recognition and reward to your team

Every individual and team member looks for public appreciation for his achievements. So you being as a team leader should keep on rewarding a member that needs the appreciation most. This would help your team to perform in right and appropriate manner.

Financial reward is a great thing but it’s not the equivalent of recognition. Recognition is a key tool in employee retention programs for a reason: people need more than constructive feedback and positive affirmation. They need recognition of extra effort.

An effective approach to team members’ recognition comprehends these key points:

In the moment

As much as possible, the leader should be timely. In the moment of catching people doing exemplary work, the leader must acknowledge their efforts.  Leader must be specific, descriptive and measured.

In context

Random affirmations are much less meaningful than those tied to a business goal. A team member who lands a big outcome by putting in the extra effort needs to know the leader has noticed, and understood the effort to ensure business success.

Appropriate in scale

Recognition should match effort and results, or it loses meaning. Big and long-term results for the team and the organization must be recognized in big. Praise is enough just on daily achievements or minor goals.

Authentic

A leader cannot deliver an automatic recognition. That is extremely harmful for his or her credibility. A leader has to mean it when gives recognition. The human touch is extremely important to effective recognition.

Knotted to the employee’s view of value

Monetary rewards can twist this notion of value, linking it to cash when it should be linked to appreciation of extra effort and smarts. Money is appropriate much of the time, but it’s not the only motivator. Treat employees as valued team members, not as numbers.

You should be sympathetic as well as robust at the same time

A leader must motivate the team through both kindness and through constructive feedback and, at the same time, will need to challenge the team to improve their performance, but you also need to strive for good relationships. The team should be able to trust the leader and admire him or her as a person, not simply fear the discipline.

You should be a morale booster for team

A leader must be caring and supportive if the need is to uplift spirit of your team. Not only this, the leader should also be a person of high aspirations as the team expects to share the vision and passions.

There are three essential leadership qualities that boost morale among followers and they are a must:

Being approachable

A good leader always has time for his followers. A good leader always has an ear for the problems and issues of his followers. Being approachable is a gigantic morale booster. It is always hard to follow someone who does not have time for you.

Allowing the team to benefit from the leader’s vision

If leadership brings wealth to the team, is because the leader is sharing that wealth with those that helped get the leader there. If leadership gives influence, is because the leader is allowing those that helped gain that influence share in that influence.

Empowering the team

A good leader will empower his followers to follow. He will provide proper training, encouragement, support, and opportunity. Without these, a follower will not feel they can follow and morale will suffer. As a leader, empower someone to follow you and they will follow you because you helped them succeed. Their loyalty will be to you.

Should have an aptitude for people

A great leader is highly interested in individuals and is always ready to develop relationships with people at all level and every situation.

Should have great listening skills

A leader should have great listening skills as you should able to understand what your team is expecting.

The way to become a better listener is to practice active listening. This is where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, try to understand the complete message being sent.

Listening is one of the most important skills anyone can have. How well you listen has a major impact on your job effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships with others.

A leader listens to obtain information.

A leader listens to understand.

A leader listens for enjoyment.

A leader listens to learn.

Check out if you are leading in the right way

To better understand how these competencies create effective teams, let's examine some characteristics of highly effective teams.

An effective team understands the big picture

In an effective team, each team member understands the context of the team's work to the greatest degree possible. That includes understanding the relevance of his or her job and how it impacts the effectiveness of others and the overall team effort. Too often, people are asked to work on part of a task without being told how their role contributes to the desired end result, much less how their efforts are impacting the ability of others to do their work. Understanding the big picture promotes collaboration, increases commitment and improves quality.

An effective team has common goals

Effective teams have agreed-upon goals that are simple, measurable and clearly relevant to the team's task. Each goal includes key measurable metrics, which can be used to determine the team effectiveness and improvement. Understanding and working toward these common goals as a unit is crucial to the team's effectiveness.

An effective team works collaboratively, as a unit

In an effective team you'll notice a proclivity for collaboration and a keen awareness of interdependency. Collaboration and a solid sense of interdependency in a team will defuse blaming behavior and stimulate opportunities for learning and improvement. Without this sense of interdependency in responsibility and reward, blaming behaviors can occur which will quickly corrode team effectiveness.

Leaders who focus on promoting good understanding, ensuring adequate knowledge and facilitating effective interaction, will watch the transformation of their job from one that required constant supervision, fire-fighting, and oversight, to one that allows the leader to focus on serving the needs of the team and each individual team member.

Drawing profiles

As a leader, the act of drawing the profile of your team may give new insights into teamwork and help you to identify areas for improvement. Drawing profiles periodically can be used to measure changes in team working practices over time. Ideally, the profile will improve over time towards best practice.

The profile will help the leader assess the effectiveness of team working practices considering six key aspects of effective teamwork. Reaching level 4 is the ideal state of best practice and team has been consolidated to its maximum.

Level 0

Team identity

Team members concern themselves only with their own responsibilities

Shared vision

Team members, both individually and collectively, lack a common vision and clear objectives

Communication

Information is passed to team members strictly on a ‘need to know’ basis

Collaboration and participation

Insularity, lack of trust or power struggles reduce participation and collaboration

Issue negotiation and resolution

Conflicting opinions remain unaddressed and consequently slow progress

Reflection and self-assessment

The team places no value on considering and negotiating how they work together

Level 1

Team identity

Team members take limited interest in issues that lie outside their own immediate area of responsibility

Shared vision

Members of the team are clear about their own objectives but the team has no shared vision

Communication

Individuals are protective of their own information and share it reluctantly in response to specific requests

Collaboration and participation

Team members prefer to work alone and give more priority to their own concerns than to those of the team

Issue negotiation and resolution

Contentious issues are skated over or avoided completely; conflict is dealt with only superficially

Reflection and self-assessment

The team acknowledges its members have several roles and responsibilities but they are not reviewed

Level 2

Team identity

The focus of the team is on the tasks that individual members need to solve

Shared vision

The whole team is working to a set of common objectives

Communication

Team members communicate information when others need it

Collaboration and participation

The team seeks ideas, proposals and solutions from all its members

Issue negotiation and resolution

Team members are prepared to explain their underlying assumptions and negotiate options

Reflection and self-assessment

Different roles and responsibilities are discussed from time to time

Level 3

Team identity

The team recognizes that its members have individual and team goals and tasks are framed accordingly

Shared vision

The team has developed for itself both a shared vision and clear objectives

Communication

Team members communicate information and knowledge freely around the team

Collaboration and participation

All members are given opportunities to contribute and build on suggestions from others

Issue negotiation and resolution

Sources of disagreement are addressed openly and resolved head-on through constructive negotiation

Reflection and self-assessment

The effect on the team of each member’s different roles and responsibilities is clearly recognized and discussed

Level 4

Team identity

The team takes ownership of the problem and accepts joint responsibility for its achievement

Shared vision

The team has a shared vision and set of objectives, developed collaboratively and regularly reviewed

Communication

Team members actively and openly share their knowledge and ideas around the whole team

Collaboration and participation

Familiarity, honesty, mutual trust and full participation harness the collective expertise of the team

Issue negotiation and resolution

Divergent views are welcomed as a source of energy and a spur to the team’s creative problem-solving

Reflection and self-assessment

The team regularly reviews members’ roles and their impact on the team and acts on the outcome

Chapter 9

A model for leading teams

The dominant perception and the widely held understanding is that someone always must lead and others must be led, as if these others are not capable of doing the leading by them. This type of perception is the one held by those who have experienced the vertical style in an organization, this means the most practiced one of all times.

The new principle of leading relies on a difference perspective, one that has a horizontal vision. Under this principle a leader can be described as someone that leads because of its authentic character, individuality and personal authority based on its autonomous competence, ability, capacity and skills. Not because of its supreme authority, position and rank. Thus, the functions and roles as superior and subordinate entities are removed as the true leader is that one that works together with others in the sense of making individual decisions and contribute to common decisions.

Leader, consequently, will be that person who has a function within an organization that will serve as a joint. That nature of the role is connected to the function of leading, not with the person in charge, opening the possibility for team members to make decisions by themselves based on the nature of their individualities and personalities, and having an equal share in the determination-process as peers.

When a team is guided by a real leader, everyone in the team has the right to determine by themselves and make their own decisions regarding their work and work-situations, using their work-power to contribute to common purposes and efforts in the organization as individuals.

This system through its participative character establishes and maintains people´s right to influence and contribute to decisions that affect their own working situation in the workplace and enables people to be leaders in their own leading-processes and enables everyone to contribute with their competencies to the common leading-processes in an organization.

A successful leader may be called successful, once he or she has understood that leading requires that team members are treated on basis of their person as unique and equal individual human beings.

Leading in practice can be described as: getting things done through oneself in collaboration with others. This model is therefore based on the principles:

The right to lead one self.

The duty to lead (support/assist) each other in trustworthy mutuality.

Based on those premises a leader has a unique disposition to govern by sharing power with others and enabling each other to become powerful individuals.

How can people communicate (an essential ingredient for collaboration) when their respective perceptions of reality and their attendant needs for communication, are plain contrary and opposite as a result of their unequal positions as superiors and subordinates? This is a dysfunctional aspect of the vertical structures.

True leaders, advocates of a horizontal system, distribute the power they hold as a key-stone in establishing each individual person as an equal with a truly mutual status among his or her peers. In that sense, teams perform successfully and grow as they have developed a mindset stating that:

All the members of the team are leaders.

Everyone does the job independently and together depending on what is needed at any time.

Everyone holds a function completely independently and responsible as individual human beings within our respective area of work.

Everyone takes equal and mutual part in the decision-process.

Every individual is different as a human being and has unique competencies that can contribute to work processes.

Contributions from everyone are required and are necessary in achieving sufficient standards of service and performance.

Everyone has a joint responsibility to share and exchange experiences with each other and to make certain that others learning-activities are integrated and become a part of collective values in the progress as individuals and as an organization.

The result of this establishes a horizontally driven team both in relation to the distribution of power and the work-processes, with the individual person as the core in adding value in the production of goods and the delivery of services to customers.

In other words, a collective conception of reality occurs when individuals accept that other´s perceptions of their reality can be as real and true as their own. This is a fundamental factor in creating a joint effort at shaping a common consciousness in the organization as a base for integrated and coordinated individual actions and collaboration between the individuals.

Primarily and ultimately, leading a team is a strategy based upon the conception of the human being as someone who is able to take control and lead him or herself in collaboration with other equals. This type of structure derives in:

A distribution of power according to functions and the corresponding tasks.

A sharing state of power according to the respective responsibility area of the individual person and based on the competence of the individual person in charge.

A system of internal governance inside the individual person (with equals and peers).

In conclusion, the core is the individual person within every team, the cornerstone of organizational design and performance. The main standard for getting the work done will be the equality of relationships between people, governed by human values.