Leadership: Team Performance and Combining Knowledge

The late Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple, and Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, for example, share the above characteristics along with their staffers. Do your people?

If not, the reason may lie in the inertia of the status quo. Managers become entrenched in their role, compliant, afraid to challenge it - to challenge themselves-- with innovative actions and solutions that could be productive for business. With an encouraging, supportive work environment, advises Godin, any manager can choose to develop the linchpin characteristics. Managers who create a supportive work environment that engages team members can avoid employee burnout and increase productivity. In fact, long-time human relations consultant Cori Maedel reports that one of the top five reasons employees choose to stay in their jobs rather than look elsewhere is supportive
management and a good boss.

"Don't make the mistake of assuming that employees stay solely
for money," warns Maedel. "No matter what industry you're in, it's vital to know what your
employees think and feel about your company and about their positions."

It's important, she advises, that team members not feel invisible, as though no one would notice their absence on any particular day. A good manager will keep them involved, making each one feel as though he or she is at the heart of activity and not on the periphery. Say Christina Maslack and Michael Leiter, co-authors of a handbook on burnout:

"In today's workplace, people and organizations are responding to the challenges of global competition, tightening budgets, and downsizing by working harder instead of smarter, resulting in the exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness characteristic of burnout. The real solution to enabling people to effectively respond to the increase in demands will come from organizations and individuals significantly rethinking the way
people work and how to effectively manage people and work."

Employees disengage from their jobs for a variety of reasons; for example, work overload, loss of a sense of control over the situation, insufficient rewards, lack of a community feeling at work, conflict of values, unfair and unjust treatment.

Is there a solution? Please read on...

Some teams exist to provide advice and involvement to managers; others are work teams, developing and handling projects; still others are action-oriented, such as sports teams. In a sense, one size won't fit all, and both manager and team members should be selected carefully
for those particular characteristics that will maximize a particular team's mission. In addition, research reveals that the two essential characteristics of a team-loyalty to team members and identification within the group-- are lasting patterns that, according to researcher Connie Gersick, "can appear as early as the first few seconds of a group's life." Building on Gersick's research, the U.S. National Defense University suggests that team managers immediately create the conditions that will foster team identity and loyalty; for example, trust, open communication, and camaraderie:

"Team efforts are the synthesis of two processes: One part interpersonal (among team
members and groups external to the team) and the other part, task directed. Consequently, leaders' [and managers'] creation of conditions that facilitate positive interpersonal processes will also facilitate the task-directed decision-making process. In simpler terms, teams can provide an environment "that celebrates and harnesses difference yet also helps [team members] see what connects them," say Juanita Brown and David Isaacs, coauthors of The World Café. "The real meaning of empowerment," they add, "is power generated from the ground up by seeing new connections and building peer-to-peer relationships across the boundaries that so often divide us." In addition, it's not enough to select some people, call them a team, and tell them to work together. Hackman advises that "action must be taken to establish a team's boundaries, to define the task as one for which members are collectively responsible and accountable, and to give members the authority to manage both their internal processes and the team's relations with%u2026clients and co-workers." How does team management encourage collective action and responsibility?The National Defense University suggests three strategies:

- Establish fundamental standards for individual commitment, motivation, and self-esteem.
- Establish team norms that make members accountable for their performance.
- Require teams to keep monitoring their performance against team goals and to make adjustments in team processes if necessary.

Without team loyalty and solid identification with the organization's objectives, the team is a fractional collection of individual self-interests.How can team mangers address this challenge? Advises the National Defense University, the way to develop loyalty and allegiance is by translating organizational ideologies into action every day. "If you want to insure team success in your organization," advises the University, "you have to think hard about the ways you can reinforce or transform your organizational culture so that it communicates an ideology of partnership and collective gain to employees." In pursuing solutions to problems, managers must communicate to team members in real terms the strategic frame of reference used by top leadership. To accomplish this, both leadership and team management must apply three strategies:

1. "Visibly and verbally reward productivity and innovation.
2. Downplay status differences between management and non-management
employees.
3. Consistently demonstrate how organizational membership is instrumental to
employees achieving their own goals."

Do you have a supportive corporate culture? Are your managers supportive? Can you answer "yes" to at least 16 of these questions provided by Susan Seitel, one of the founders of the Alliance for Work-Life Progress?

1. "Is there a concerted effort to help employees manage their personal responsibilities as well as their work?

2. Do employees have a sense of "corporate family?"

3. Are managers open to redesigning jobs to make them more suitable for flexible work arrangements?

4. Are efforts made to eliminate low-value or duplicate work?

5. Are attempts made to make jobs interesting and fulfilling?

6. Are salaries competitive for the industry?

7. Are benefits designed to meet life-cycle needs?

8. Do employees have a sense of challenge at work?

9. Are managers and workers alike encouraged to challenge current practices without fear of reprisal?

10. Is collaborative brainstorming a common practice?

11. Do employees feel trusted?

12. Are employees treated with respect?

13. Do employees enjoy control and a good degree of autonomy over their work and daily routines?

14. Do employees believe that senior management cares about their well-being?

15. Is the organization socially responsible?

16. Do employees have a sense of equality and diversity?

17. Do employees have a sense of shared purpose and are they empowered to achieve goals?

18. Do friendships flourish among coworkers?"

If you answered "yes" to 16 or more of these questions, you're a supportive leader who knows what to look for in building a team of supportive managers. However, if you answered "yes" to 15 questions or less, there is still much room for personal growth.