In his book ‘Leading Teams’ Richard Hackman sets out the basic conclusions that leaders of businesses and other organisations must fulfil in order to create and maintain effective teams.
Teams must be ‘real’. It might sound obvious that people have to know who is on the team and who is not and what their specific roles are. It’s the leader’s job to make that clear, not anyone else’s!
Teams need a clear and compelling direction. Team members need to know and agree on, what they are supposed to be doing together and why they need to work together. Unless the leader articulates a clear direction there is a real risk that different members of the team will pursue different agendas.
Teams need enabling structures and processes. Teams that have poorly thought through tasks and responsibilities, the wrong mix of skills, or unclear and unenforced norms of behaviour and conduct, invariably perform poorly.
Teams need a supportive organisation. The organised context that the team works in must facilitate team work too. This includes the organisation’s values, behaviours, reward systems and other people management processes such as performance management.
Teams need expert coaching. Most business’ coaching focusses on individual or personal performance which does not necessarily improve teamwork. Teams need coaching as a group in team processes and working together. This is especially important at the beginning when the team is initially formed but is equally beneficial for mature teams to improve their effectiveness and performance.
Our Team Working and Team Development solutions are designed to help leaders develop more effective and productive working relationships and improve performance in their teams.