team leaders

Team Leaders…

Stages of Team Development

• Each step builds on the previous one• Each step prepares for the performing stage• Skipping any step affects performing negatively• With every new significant challenge, the process repeats.

Relationship / Support LowHigh

Task Performance& Effectiveness

High

Forming

Storming

Norming

Performing

Source: Tuckman

Forming

• Orientation period • Becoming familiar with one another • Identifying the group’s tasks • Determining acceptable interpersonal

behaviors • Relying on leaders for structure

Storming

•Intra-group conflict •Challenging others and expressing individual viewpoints

•Lacking unity •Reacting emotionally to tasks •Testing out roles within the team

Norming

• Mutually accepting one another • Developing group cohesion • Establishing group norms and ground rules • Establishing roles within the team

Performing

• Solutions emerge • Becoming a problem-solving instrument • Contributing to the team’s purpose • Becoming interdependent and non-dependant

on the leader

From Forming to Storming• Build a shared purpose/mission and continuously clarify

team outcomes• Create a sense of urgency and rationale for the

purpose/mission• Select members based on resource and skill need• Invest time getting to know each member’s skills,

experiences, and personal goals• Bring individuals together to work on common tasks• Define recognition and rewards, both individual and

team-based• Work on personal commitment by linking personal goals

to team roles

From Storming to Norming• Build a common understanding by periodically communicating the

team’s purpose/mission• Acknowledge times when the group is struggling and take time to

discuss ways to move toward “Norming”• Set out to achieve focused performance goals / tasks• Encourage members to express their differing opinions, ideas, and

feelings with open-ended questions• Make connections between divergent perspectives; acknowledge

and accept where there are differences• Build a set of operating agreements (ground rules for team

behavior)• Raise issues, confront deviations from commitments, and

encourage disagreement and conflict

From Norming to Performing• Develop shared leadership based on expertise and development

needs• Translate common purpose and team expectations into

performance goals that are specified and measurable• Build consensus on overarching goals and approaches• Formally give and receive feedback within the team• Maintain focus on external relationships: commitments,

requirements, feedback, and competitive realities• Take risks by setting stretch performance goals while simultaneously

encouraging the disclosure of fears• Celebrate successes, share rewards, recognize team and individual

achievements• Continue to evaluate team against performance goals

“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”

Katzenbach and Smith, The Wisdom of Teams

6 team basics - requirements for team performanceSize - Small Number – (generally fewer than 12)Skills - Complementary skillsPurpose - Common purposeGoals - Common set of specific performance goalsApproach - Commonly agreed upon working approachAccountability - Mutual accountability

High Performing Teams

Attributes of High Performing Teams• Clear goals that are accepted by all

team members• Set high standards of performance

and achieve them• Allow members to disagree• Embrace & navigate conflict well• Sense of unity and distinct

personality. Members feel free to represent each other

• Experience a feeling of synergy• Provide an opportunity to learn

and grow• Is flexible and can readily adapt to

change• Trust each other enough to ask for

help & feedback• Members listen and provide useful

feedback

• Communicate effectively. Members express themselves fully and frankly

• There are no hidden agendas• Allow individuals to be themselves

and make individual contributions• Support and help each other as

needed• Creatively solves problems• Creates a spirit of ownership & sense

of belonging• Clear roles and responsibilities • Interdependent; manages

boundaries and works well with other teams

• Mutual commitment and accountability

• Makes collective decisions efficiently and effectively

* Adapted from various sources

Inattention toResults

Avoidance ofAccountability

Lack of Commitment

Fear of Conflict

Absence of Trust

The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team

Source: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni

Team Members With an Absence of Trust…• Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from one

another• Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive

feedback• Hesitate to offer help outside their own areas of

responsibility• Jump to conclusions about the intentions and aptitudes

of others without attempting to clarify them• Fail to recognize and tap into one another’s skills ad

experiences• Waste time and energy managing their behaviors for

effect• Hold grudges• Dread meetings and find reasons to avoid spending time

together Source: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni

Members of Trusting Teams…• Admit weaknesses and mistakes• Ask for help• Accept questions and input about their areas of responsibility• Give one another the benefit of the doubt before arriving at a

negative conclusion• Take risks in offering feedback and assistance • Appreciate and tap into one another’s skills and experiences• Focus time and energy on important issues, not politics• Offer and accept apologies without hesitation• Look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a

groupSource: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni

Teams that Fear Conflict…• Have boring meetings• Create environments where back-channel politics and

personal attacks thrive• Ignore controversial topics that are critical to team

success• Fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team

members• Waste time and energy with posturing and interpersonal

risk management


Teams that Engage in Conflict…• Have lively, interesting meetings• Extract and exploit the ideas of all team

members• Solve real problems quickly• Minimize politics• Put critical topics on the table for discussion


A Team that Fails to Commit…• Creates ambiguity among the team about

direction and priorities• Watches window of opportunity close due to

excessive analysis and unnecessary delay• Breeds lack of confidence and fear of failure • Revisits discussions and decisions again and

again• Encourages second-guessing among team

membersSource: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni

A Team that Commits…• Creates clarity around direction and priorities• Aligns the team around common objectives• Develops an ability to learn from mistakes• Takes advantage of opportunities before

competitors do• Moves forward without hesitation• Changes direction without hesitation or guilt


A Team that Avoids Accountability…• Creates resentment among team members who

have different standards of performance• Encourages mediocrity• Misses deadlines and key deliverables • Places an undue burden on the team leader as

the sole source of discipline


A Team that Embraces Accountability…

• Ensures that poor performers feel pressure to improve

• Identifies potential problems quickly by questioning one another’s approaches without hesitation

• Establishes respect among team members who are held to the same high standards

• Avoids excessive bureaucracy around performance management and corrective action


A Team that is Not Focused on Results…

• Stagnates and fails to develop and grow• Rarely defeats competitors• Loses achievement-oriented employees• Encourages team members to focus on their own

careers and individual goals• Is easily distracted


A Team that Focuses on Results…• Retains achievement-oriented employees• Minimizes individualistic behavior• Enjoys success and suffers failure acutely• Benefits from individuals who subjugate their

own goals/interests for the good of the team• Avoids distractions


Trust Interventions• Personal Histories – where I grew up, family

background and challenges

• Behavioral Profiling – such as Birkman, Hogan, MBTI, DiSC, FiroB, etc.

• Time Spent Together


Conflict Interventions• Conflict Profiling or Norming – i.e. TKI

• Conflict Mining – objectively and supportively facilitating hidden or suppressed conflict resolution

• Real-Time Permission – interruption to reinforce healthy debate


Commitment Interventions• Commitment Clarification – clear articulation of

agreements and decisions

• Cascading Communication – agreements and decisions cascade throughout the organization

• Scoreboard – organize meeting and discussions around the 2-3 wildly important goals of the organization


Accountability Interventions• Team Effectiveness Activity - Each team member gives specific

feedback to all team members on: 1) what is the single most important behavioral characteristic or quality demonstrated by this person that contributes to the strength of the team? & 2) what is the single most important behavioral characteristic or quality demonstrated by this person that can sometimes derail the team?

• Lightning Round Meeting Introduction – To introduce each meeting - each team member takes 30 seconds to update the team about their top 3 priorities for the week/month. If anyone on the team thinks that those 3 priorities are misplaced – now is the time to say so and initiate discussion.


Results-Focus Interventions• Scoreboard - organize meeting and discussions around the

2-3 wildly important goals of the organization

• Team-Based Rewards – changing compensation and rewards so that team incentives weigh more heavily than individual incentives

• Team #1 – team members subordinate the needs and interests of the team they manage to the team in which they belong


Correlating 3 Human Behavior Concepts

Individuals Mental models, Personality, patterns of behavior, deep seated beliefs & assumptions

Small Group Norms - informal standards of behavior a group expects and anticipates of its members. It is not the “average behavior” of a group member, rather the groups’ expectation of any member.

Large Group Culture – • Underlying assumptions about the nature of reality• Shared pattern of beliefs and values• Set of tacit, shared understandings and meanings• Collective consciousness• “How we do things around here”• Values in operation

Source & Nature of Norms• Some norms facilitate team effectiveness and some hinder it• Norms evolve over a relatively long period of time• Norms exist for good reasons – in service to the needs of a group• Norms operate with different degrees of intensity dependent on the

needs of the individuals• Norms are persistent and often resistant to change as long as they

have the support of a group• Norms serve to keep a group cohesive – can build security and

affiliation

Source: Clapp (1980) Block, Petrella, Weisbord

Discerning Norms…• Behaviors that can be seen• What “is”, not what “ought to be”• “Listen, that’s the way we do it here in…”• “In this team everybody….”

Surfacing & Changing Team Norms

Infrequent Positive Practice

Potential Positive Norm

Infrequent Negative Practice

Potential Negative Norm

Frequent Positive Practice

Positive Norm

Frequent Negative Practice

Negative Norm

RareContribution to Team Effectiveness

Low(Hurting)

High(Contributing)

Common

Behavioral Frequency

team leaders

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