• Business and Finance
• Family
• Computers and Internet
• Auto and Trucks
• Education
• Health
• Hobbies
• Home Improvement
• Legal
• Marketing

• Home
• Arthur's Articles Home
• Browse Categories
• Browse Authors
• Submit an Article
• Search for Articles

Home » Business And Finance Articles » Leadership Keys To Harnessing The Power Of Teams

Leadership Keys to Harnessing the Power of Teams

"In a study by the Center for Creative Leadership of top American and European executives whose careers derailed, the inability to build and lead a team was one of the most common reasons for failure. Team skills, which had been of little consequence in a similar study in the early 1980s, had emerged as a key mark of leadership ten years later. By the 1990s, teamwork became the most frequently valued managerial competence in studies of organizations around the world." â€" Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence

A scout leader was trying to lift a fallen tree from the path. His pack gathered around to watch him struggle. "Are you using all your strength?" one of the scouts asked.

"Yes!" was the exhausted and exasperated response.

"No. You are not using all your strength," the scout replied. "You haven't asked us to help you."

Good managers have always fostered teamwork. But highly effective leaders are now showing the performance power of building a team-based organization. When effectively organized and led, teams:

• Multiply an organization's flexibility and response times
• Flatten vertical hierarchies and smash functional chimneys
• Provide a vehicle for wide scale participation in organization change and improvement efforts
• Turn involvement and empowerment rhetoric into reality
• Expand jobs and elevate the sense of purpose and meaning they provide
• Foster a spirit of community, cooperation, and belonging
• Build the commitment of those people who will ultimately make â€" or break â€" any organization change or improvement effort
• Harness the improvement energy and ideas of everyone throughout the organization
• Become the key unit of organizational learning through sharing collective experiences and multiplying intellectual power
• Replace command and control discipline with far more powerful and lasting self and peer discipline
• Improve communications and deepen understanding of change and improvement decisions being made
• Produce better problem solving and more thorough decision making

Where teams have been effectively organized and led, the list of team outcomes have led to dramatic improvements in productivity, customer service, quality, process management, innovation, cost effectiveness, job satisfaction, morale, and financial performance.

Leading Teams: We Have Got to Take it Personally

"If you would create something you must be something." â€" Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 18th century German poet

Most managers grew up in a command and control era. In those days, a "strong leader" was a decisive problem solver who was a tough disciplinarian. He (most were men) "took control" and "made things happen." Teamwork was when everyone rallied and pulled together to meet the leader's goals and follow his direction.

It's tough to change those deeply ingrained values and approaches. In our workshops and consulting, some days it feels like we see a never-ending stream of "old school" managers (some of the worst can be newer and younger managers) who are struggling to transform themselves into effective team developers and leaders.

It can be done. It is being done. Our team's effectiveness depends largely upon our effectiveness as a leader. Our team leadership effectiveness hinges on:

• My level of self-confidence. Sharing power and developing others to do what I used to do is almost impossible if I am insecure. If I draw much of my self worth from how well others "listen up and follow my orders," I am going to have a tough time empowering and developing a strong team.

• A new view of my job. A strong team leader knows that his or her job is not to be the main problem solver. That just ensures more upward delegation and an ever-weakening team. Rather, strong team leaders make sure teams â€" well equipped and supported to solve them â€"are solving the right problems.

• Servant-leadership. Our job is to direct and guide our teams. But we're also there to serve them. They are our "customers" (although "partners" is generally more appropriate). So what's my performance gap? How do I know? What's my personal improvement plan for closing my biggest gaps?

• Strong team leadership skills. A Fortune poll found that "a team player and team leader" was the most important skill CEOs felt an MBA should have. This is also the single biggest factor in our confidence levels with teams. There's a strong relationship between our skills at facilitating a team discussion, handling conflict, encouraging and capitalizing on diversity, keeping a meeting on track, building a team's effectiveness, etc., and our enthusiasm for teams.

• A strong, effective management team. As a manager, we need to ensure that our team is a good example of team effectiveness. That provides a model and authentic team leadership for everyone else.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

How Your Business Can Pick A Software Developer

Eventually, your business is going to need to have some software development. Your business is unique - you can't rely on a huge, faceless corporation to handle your unique needs with a shrinkwrapped, mass produced, production-line solution. You need custom software, and to get it, you'll need to pick an outside software developer. A hired gun.

It's hard - after all, most businesspeople aren't technical people. You want a Clint Eastwood - tall, confident, and ready to solve your problems with cold steel - but you usually get a technoloser - short, geeky, sniveling wimp with no backbone and no ability to get anything done.

Unfortunately, I've heard stories about selecting developers from all sorts of people. Bad stories. I can't even begin to count how many people have wound up with large bills and more problems then when they started. Fortunately, I've developed four dynamite questions you need to ask when you're choosing a developer.

1: Does your developer solve problems, or just write code?

A professional software developer isn't in the business of writing code; rather, he's in the business of solving problems, and code just happens to be one of the way that he (or she) does it. On the other hand, many developers will want you to spell out exactly what kind of program you want him to write. He doesn't solve problems; he just writes code the way he's told, and hopes it will fix the problem at hand. With a real software developer, you wind up with a solution that leaves everyone happy.

The market is full of contract programmers masquerading as software developers. Be careful.

2: Are they trying to give a solution before they know the problem?

Some developers will offer to send you a proposal after a ten or twenty minute phone conversation. It is impossible to accurately assess your situation that quickly; they are trying to provide you with a 'one-size-fits-all' package. Real software developers will not provide you with answers, proposals, or fees until they know enough about your business to have an informed opinion. Unless your developer is willing to spend enough time to really know what your problem is, you won't end up with the solution that you really need, because your developer is making random shots in the dark.

3: Are they in love with a particular technology?

Software developers can fall in love with their favorite technology; it's not uncommon to see developers who only develops with Microsoft or Sun technology, for example. A professional software developer, though, focuses on benefiting his client, using whatever technology is necessary. You want to hire someone that will use the technology that's best suited to your business, whatever it may be. You shouldn't have to pick a developer based on what technology he's familar with; he should be able to take care of almost any technological problem, either by doing the work himself or outsourcing to someone in his network of contacts.

4: Are they charging by project?

Amateur software developers tend to charge for their time, not by the value of the work they perform; so do contract programmers. Real software developers, though, charge based on value provided to you - by project - NOT based on time. This is because amateurs are afraid that they won't be able to complete the project in a reasonable amount of time, so they want reassurance that they'll be paid for their time in any situation. Experienced software developers, though, are confident in their ability to deliver code under their estimate, they are confident in their ability to provide value, and they that they can provide value that's worth MORE than their time is. You shouldn't be making an investment decision every time you consider calling your software developer.

That's it. Ask these questions studiously, and you'll get a programming dynamo. He'll be able to handle the tough questions and give you the tough answers, and you'll get bulletproof software.