3.5 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Organizing Teams

(EXTRACTION FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Team Management Skills at http://www.mindtools.com)

Organizing Teams for Maximum Effectiveness

Good teamwork is fundamentally important.  Team members are chosen simply because they happen to be available for a particular project.  it's harder to make sure the team has people who are good at the more general aspects of work such as brainstorming, problem solving, decision-making, planning, implementing, and fact-checking.

Getting Your Teams Off to a Great Start

Working in teams can be fantastic.  If people in the team are pulling in different directions, the experience can be awful.  Without sufficient direction, teams can focus on the wrong objectives.

Team Charters are documents that define the purpose of the team.  They are "roadmaps" created at the beginning of the journey to make sure that all involved:

o   are clear about where they're heading

o   to give direction when times get tough

o   focused on the right things from the start

Building Trust Inside Your Team

Creating a Strong, Cohesive Group

A team without trust isn't really a team.  They may not share information, they might battle over rights and responsibilities, and they may not cooperate with one another.  When trust is in place, individuals in the team become stronger.  When people trust one another, the group can achieve truly meaningful goals.

Trust is defined as a "reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something."  Trust means relying on someone else to do the right thing.  Believing in the person's integrity and strength.

Trust is essential to an effective team.  It provides a sense of safety.  Without trust there's less innovation, collaboration, creative thinking, and productivity.  Trust is also essential for knowledge sharing.  A study found that trust was a key element in a team's knowledge acquisition.

STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING TRUST

1.     Lead by Example

2.     Communicate Openly

3.     Know Each Other Personally

4.     Don't Place Blame

5.     Discourage Cliques

6.    Discuss Trust Issues

When you're a new team leader, it can be difficult to get your team to trust.  build trust steadily.   When you have trust, you have the basis of building a high performing team.