Team Management

“There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader”

Attributed to Ledru-Rollin (1807–74), French radical politician

• Effective followers provide accurate feedback to their leader and their colleagues. This means providing both good and bad news in a timely, diplomatic and honest way.

• Effective followers support the leader’s efforts – all leaders need support and encouragement. This also means acting as advocates among their peer group and attempting to quash rumours.

It is a managerial responsibility to create an environment that encourages followership. This table summarizes the ideal conditions and behaviours of the followers and manager:

Effective ‘followership’ is a prerequisite of effective team management.

1.6 Manage a cross-functional team (#ulink_9fe8e6dd-811a-57c7-b929-c92ad4618b2a)

Many teams are cross-functional: they are made up of people from different departments or functions or even organizations. In this situation, each person has a part-time role on this team and another job elsewhere. It is crucial that you take this into account.

If your team members have another regular role elsewhere, then they also have a regular line manager, regular teammates, regular objectives and regular loyalties. This is referred to as a ‘matrix organization’. The different lines of management and responsibilities make it much easier for people to become overloaded, distracted or confused, and conflicts of interest are much more likely.

In order to minimize the likelihood of problems with a cross-functional team, you need to work hard on six areas of your management skills. You will notice that the initial letters of these skill areas spell TOPCAT.

• T = Team building. You have to work really hard at this because your team members are already members of other teams. They already have a team identity and team loyalties elsewhere and these continue throughout the lifetime of your team. You need to balance getting them involved in your team without appearing to be trying to break them away from their other teams.

• O = Objective setting. You not only have to set clear, unambiguous SMART objectives (see Jargon buster), but you have to do this in conjunction with the objectives and deadlines that your team members have in their other teams. This requires constant review and adjustment as well as extra liaison with team members and their other bosses.

• P = Performance feedback. No one wants to be unappreciated, especially when a team member might be unpopular with their line manager for being ‘absent-on-duty’ with your team. Therefore, performance feedback is critical. If people are doing well, tell them (also tell their line manager). If they are not doing so well ask them what else they need from you in order to perform.

• C = Communication. If you don’t see your team members on a day-to-day basis, or they don’t see each other each day, you have to keep everyone informed of activities, successes, problems, solutions, changes and everyday news. But you have to avoid overloading people who might be getting similar updates from their other teams!

• A = Arbitration. You can’t expect your team members to negotiate for your benefit with their other boss; you are going to have to do a lot of arbitration for your team members’ time and resources. You will have to do this at the outset, when you set objectives, and frequently throughout the life of the team.

• T = Tackling conflict. Life in a matrix organization is full of potential conflict. You are naturally going to feel that your team is the most important, while every other manager is naturally going to feel the same way about their team!

Be a TOPCAT to manage a cross-functional team successfully.

Form your team (#ulink_e0824397-ae50-5452-be12-eab09b80da67)

If you are lucky you will be able to hand-pick people for your team. Otherwise, you will have to work with whoever is allocated. Either way, it is your responsibility to create ‘esprit de corps’. This French term means a ‘spirit of belonging in a group’. It applies when the team members know what to do and what not to do; they take pride in being part of the team; and they have the confidence to rely on their teammates.

2.1 Pick the right people (#ulink_1a340fb5-7544-5931-8504-24c621e0a0b9)

If you are given the opportunity to pick people for your team, then you need to take care in choosing people who will not only have the technical competence to do the job but who will also work harmoniously with their colleagues and you.

• Recruit for harmony. You will actually need to consider how similar you want your team members to be to each other (or you!). Whilst there are benefits in getting people of the same mindset as each other, there are also tensions associated with having too many similarities between team members. For example, a team of 26 people who are all articulate, self-confident, ambitious, imaginative and highly motivated to be in the limelight can rapidly descend into a squabbling bunch of pushy people competing with one another to get promoted!

case study I was contracted to recruit a training specialist for a UK company. The initial request asked for candidates to be female graduates aged between 28 and 35 on the grounds that the team members were all female, all graduates aged under 33 and the team manager herself was 36. However, I put forward a shortlist that included a 42-year-old male ex-soldier who fulfilled all other criteria for the post. At interview he demonstrated a maturity and outlook different to the others in the team, and the company realized that he would provide a new perspective. He was recruited and quickly became a successful team member.

• Think about strengths and weaknesses. Within a perfect team there is a balancing act between individuals who get on together and individuals who bring specific strengths to the team. For example, on a football team you need to have a goalkeeper, some defenders, midfielders and strikers. You also need a balance of players who are good in the wet and some in the dry; some who play well when you are winning and some who shine when you are in trouble; some passionate players and some who are calm and methodical.

• Think about the environment. In a car sales environment, for example, you might want people who are self motivated, use their initiative, take calculated risks and solve their own problems. If you are building a team to run a nuclear power station then you probably want a mix of methodical, exacting, analytical and risk-averse people.

• Take inspiration from other teams. Many famous teams are made up of complementary characters. Think about the Magnificent Seven (gunfighters in the film), Wallace and Gromit (man and dog in animation series), Laurel and Hardy (comedy duo), the Dirty Dozen (assassins in the film), Hillary and Tenzing (real-life conquerors of Mount Everest), and even the ‘A’ Team (fugitive heroes in TV series).

Recruit great people to accomplish great things.

2.2 Get the team performing quickly (#ulink_3cda79dd-b363-526d-b982-0d81919f7e11)

There are a number of preliminary stages before a team can start performing properly. The stages can be summarized as forming, storming, norming and performing. These stages sometimes happen naturally, but it is far better to manage them from the outset.

1 Forming stage. Team members identify each other by name, role and history. In order to get this stage successfully completed as quickly as possible, hold a proper ‘forming’ meeting – get everyone to introduce themselves and share this information.

2 Storming stage. The stage where, confident they are meant to be here, people start to ‘jockey for position’ – to establish their credibility in the team. Some will try to push themselves forward

case study A manager asked me to run a teambuilding course for his part-time IT project team. The team had spent 11 months and many thousands of pounds but had achieved nothing at all. Over two days of teambuilding, the team members properly introduced themselves to each other for the first time; they did a couple of exercises that allowed them to ‘storm’; and they produced their own team charter. They went on to achieve more in the following six weeks than they had in the previous 11 months.

because they want power or influence; others will deliberately keep a low profile because they are shy, diffident or lacking in confidence. You need to set up activities that allow people to find their level of comfort – for example any of the teambuilding exercises you can find on websites such as www.businessballs.com.

3 Norming stage. This is when you start to establish the rules of behaviour between team members, and their relationships with you and people outside. The Norming phase can take quite a long time if left to happen naturally because the rules will be established by a combination of ‘trial and error’ and ‘custom and practice’. Take control by holding a team meeting to set up some formal ground rules. See Secret 2.5 for more details.

4 Performing stage. The team finally starts working effectively towards its goals. For example, a soccer team is performing when it is playing well – tackling, keeping possession, winning ground, supporting each other – even before it starts scoring goals.

Once you reach this stage you want to stay there! Follow the secrets in Chapters 3, 4, 5 & 6.

Don’t let your team go through the first three stages without intervention; make them happen quickly and successfully.

2.3 Create a team identity (#ulink_4c96878b-12f0-5d1b-a435-beee47b367a1)

Effective teams nearly always have a team name, whether its Manchester United (football team), Greenpeace (environmental action group), the Rajasthan Royals (cricket team) or even the Beatles (pop band)! Nearly all teams have a logo and a unique style or uniform. A team identity gives individuals a powerful sense of belonging.

Even if the team you run is scattered across several departments of your organization, you can give them a sense of shared identity, such as with a team name, team logo, team motto, team vision and even a team ‘strip’ or uniform. Hold a team meeting and propose the idea: people will probably like it and be happy to choose or vote for things.

• Team name. Keep it short and simple, for example The ‘Hey!’ Team rather than the Global Internal Corporate Communications Team. Go for something descriptive of the team’s role or style, e.g. The Paper Tigers for an archive team. Try to find something different or even unique. Whereas lots of organizations have a Quality Team, why not call it The DRiFTers, standing for Do it Right First Time? Alliterative or punning names are usually successful, e.g. the Rajasthan Royals or Coach and Courses for your training team. Also make sure the name is easy to pronounce and spell in the language your team uses – a good example of a ‘team’ that adopted an easier name identity is the British Royal Family, who changed their surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor in 1917.

• Team logo. A logo can be used to add distinction to your workplace, your paperwork and yourselves. You need to keep the logo simple so that it remains recognizable when reduced in size on memos or polo shirts. Ideally have one designed in primary colours so it can be easily replicated if you want to have it embroidered, painted or printed, or just have a black and white logo, so it can easily be photocopied. Often the simplest shapes make the strongest icons – consider, for example, the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

• Team ‘strip’. You can create a team identity with clothing and accessories, such as hats, polo shirts, badges, buttons, umbrellas, document bags, and so on. Items such as these are all relatively cheap, unisex and often more popular and fun than a top-to-toe uniform.

• Team motto. Take time to get the team together and challenge yourselves to come up with a good team motto. By ‘good’ you mean something that everyone will be proud to admit to! Keep it short and informative of the team ethos. Look at famous slogans for inspiration, such as Avis’s “We try Harder”, General Electric’s “Imagination at Work”; Barclays Bank’s “Fluid in Finance”, or the British SAS’s “Who Dares Wins”.

People like to be part of a team with a proper identity, so get them involved in creating that identity.

2.4 Create a team vision (#ulink_d168d2b6-142e-564f-b12c-85729a7089bb)

A team is a group of people all trying to achieve one common objective, but the objective may change year on year. You need a bigger, aspirational ‘vision’ that encompasses but goes beyond the annual target.

• A vision is the glue that binds the team together as each individual strives to achieve his or her personal goals.

• A vision is what keeps you all focused on the ‘big picture’ when difficulties may otherwise seem insurmountable.

• A vision is the fuel that motivates your people to achieve something that is truly challenging.