Leadership in Groups and Teams

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Leadership in Groups and Teams

• Chapter 7

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• When building a team, I always search first for
  people who love to win. If I cant find any of
  those, I look for people who hate to lose.
• H. Ross Perot

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Communicative Perspective

• A common purpose or goal
• Interdependence
• Mutual Influence
• Face-to-face communication
• Specific size

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Group Evolution

• Orientation phase
• Conflict phase
• Emergence phase
• Reinforcement phase

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Group Development

• Breakpoints
• Implications in group formation
• Timing
• Cant rush the development of the group
• Effective groups have high degree of cohesion and
  commitment

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Emergent Leadership

• Elimination
• Phase 1
• Unsuitable
• Phase 2
• Recruiting a lieutenant
• No strong leader
• Crisis determination
• No clear leader

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How Not to Become a Leader

• Be absent from group meetings
• Contribute little to the meetings
• Volunteer to be the secretary
• Indicate you are willing to do what you are asked
  to do
• Try to assume the role of joker
• Demonstrate your knowledge of everything
• Demonstrate your contempt for leadership

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Useful Leadership Strategies

• Participate early and often
• Focus on communication quality and quantity
• Demonstrate your competence
• Help build a cohesive unit

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Idiosyncratic Credits

• Definition
• Conforming to group expectations
• General group norms
• Role expectations for a leader

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Leadership in Meetings

• Determine need for meeting
• Have a clear agenda
• Maintain focus on the agenda throughout the
  meeting
• Listen to others
• Focus on the content of the message
• Listen for ideas, not just facts
• Dont get distracted
• Be open minded
• Use thought speed to your advantage
• Involve all participants
• Keep a record
• Evaluate your performance

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Group Decision Making

• Functions and Formats
• Analysis of the problem
• Goal setting
• Identification of alternatives

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Group Decision Making

• Evaluation of solutions
• Problem identification
• Problem analysis
• Develop criteria
• Generate possible solutions
• Evaluate and select a solution
• Implement the solution

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Group Think

• When a group puts unanimous agreement above all
  other considerations.
• Counteractive influence

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Janus Symptoms of Group Think

• Signs of Overconfidence
• Illusion of invulnerability
• Belief in the inherent morality of the group
• Signs of Closemindedness
• Collective rationalization
• Stereotypes
• Sings of Group Pressure
• Pressure of dissenters
• Self-censorship
• Illusion of unanimity
• Self-appointed mindguards

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Working Group vs Team

• Individual work products
• Individual accountability
• Group purpose same as organizational mission
• Measures performance indirectly
• Runs meetings and active problem solving meetings
• Discusses, decides and delegates
• Strong, clearly focused leader

• Collective work products
• Individual and group accountability
• Measures its effectiveness directly by assessing
  collective work products
• Encourages open-ended discussion
• Discusses, decides and does real work together
• Shared leadership roles

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Larson and LaFastos Team Building Skills

• Establish clear and inspiring team goals
• Maintain a results oriented team structure
• Assemble competent team members
• Strive for unified commitment
• Provide a collaborative climate
• Encourage standards of excellence
• Furnish standards of excellence
• Furnish external support and recognition
• Apply principled leadership

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Fundamental Dynamics to Team Success

• Team Member
• Experience
• Problem solving ability
• Openness
• Supportiveness
• Action Oriented
• Personal Style

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Fundamental Dynamics to Team Success

• Team Relationships
• CONNECT
• Commit to the relationship
• Optimize safety
• Narrow to one issue
• Neutralize defensiveness
• Explain and echo
• Change one behavior
• Track it

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Fundamental Dynamics to Team Success

• Team Problem Solving
• Clarity and focus of the goal
• Creation of team relaxed climate
• Open and honest communication

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Fundamental Dynamics to Team Success

• Team Leadership
• Focus on the goal
• Ensure a collaborative climate
• Build confidence
• Demonstrate sufficient technical know-how
• Set priorities
• Manage performance
• Organizational Environment

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Self-Directed Work Teams

• Multi-skilled and cross-trained
• Quality and process control on-going
• Empowered
• Shared leadership
• Regular meetings
• Primary focus-customer satisfactions and meeting
  overall business goals
• On-going training

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Difficulty for Managers to Switch to Self-Managed
Teams

• Perceived loss of power
• Role of team facilitator may seem ambiguous
• Job security concerns
• Facilitators may be victims of a management
  double standard