Introduction
Advancement for strategic implementation is crucial for staying in business, which is carried out through projects executed effectively by teams. Building a team means essentially assuring strategic advancement.
Team building is both an art and a science, and the leader who consistently builds a high-performing team is worth their weight in gold. Team building requires the ability to master the “art of people” and knowing how to maneuver people at the right place and at the right time. It means knowing how each person thinks and how to best utilize their competencies rightly at all times.
To know your team means that you have invested the time to understand how your team members are wired to think and what is required to motivate them to excel beyond what is expected from them.
This chapter discusses how to check the readiness of a team member in order to find the right person for the right job, how to manage team performance, what are the leadership styles, and how to manage burnouts and conflicts, improve relationships, and enhance teamwork.
Objectives
How is productivity dependent on the quality of a team? How to develop an effective team that is always the biggest challenge for an organization?
What is the most effective approach to find the right person for the right job to provide a strong foundation for building a strong team and meeting the challenge?
How to prepare for team performance for project management approach that demands success in incremental advancement at every level to reach the desired deliverable?
What leadership style needs to be ascertained that will bring the desired results in a demanding situation and how to manage peers in a team for smooth performance?
How do we manage working under pressure that increases the stress level in order to meet the target, which may lead to burnout that needs to be fixed before it starts hurting the team performance and the end results?
How to manage conflicts and improve relationships, which is a continued challenge? How can leaders ensure their prime responsibility of maintaining enthusiasm and keeping the charge for success?
The following are discussed to meet the objectives:
Team togetherness and cohesiveness is built by understanding the need for a task in the context of the project and the value it can add to organizational business advancement. A clear view of the bigger picture facilitates buy-in to form a team and enhance individual satisfaction. The defined phases of team building—forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning—should be managed effectively.
Productivity is dependent on team performance and needs to be managed.
After the completion of a project, the adjourning process needs to be effected as soon as circumstances permit. Team performance becomes negative when there is a purposeful delay in adjourning, which needs to be controlled effectively. Disbanding of a team is a logical way to close a project and must be effected before unsolicited prolongation of the project is experienced, which is an unfavorable performance, as noted in Figure 2.1.
Team-building processes are as follows:
An environment needs to be created for performing teams; they don’t just happen. Special care is taken to facilitate a conducive environment for each team member to achieve and manage performance (see Figure 2.2).
Work Group: Guzzo and Dickson (1996) defined a work group as a group “made up of individuals who see themselves and [are] seen by others as a social entity, who are interdependent because of the tasks they perform as members of a group, who are embedded in one or more larger social systems, and who perform tasks that affect others.”
Real Team: A “real team” is a group of individuals who are equally committed to a common purpose for which they hold each other accountable, yet a high- performing team is one that satisfies all of the requirements of real teams, but takes their commitment further, deepening their relationships for which individuals sacrifice deeply for the overall success of each individual on the team as well as the team itself.
A Performing Team: This is the stage where individuals must “take risks involving conflict, trust, interdependence, and hard work.” The following are essential:
The above-listed parameters may be achieved only when every team member taken on board has good fit of readiness, job connectivity, engagement, and meaningfulness, where the following are managed effectively:
Having cleared the two hurdles listed above, the task of assessing “team readiness” may begin. This evaluation is achieved using a series of questions, designed to measure readiness based on resource levels, availability, skills, dependencies, contingencies, training, and related variables. The whole point of this exercise is to attempt to quantify readiness in practical terms, make recommendations, and determine associated risks.
The primary questions are:
After having completed the above-noted assessment, you will be in a better position to answer the basic readiness question. When you determine that readiness is sufficient, you are good to go. What if you are short of readiness? Then, project cancelation or postponement may not be a right option. You need to turn to replanning using the following mitigating techniques:
The key to evaluating “team readiness” is the old adage “knowledge is king” (and also power). No steps can be taken to fill readiness gaps when you don’t know that a gap exists. Readiness evaluations take place at the start of a project, and continue as the project unfolds, incorporating changes and real-time circumstances into the evaluation process.
Assessment of Readiness for Taking an Assignment
Readiness
The dimensions are as follows:
It is important to note that ability and willingness mutually interact and a significant change in one may affect the whole. The dimensions of ability and willingness are as follows:
The extent of one’s willingness in a specific situation affects the use of the current ability. The readiness level that one brings to a task has different combinations of ability and willingness. The continuum of readiness has four levels: R1, R2, R3, and R4. Each represents a combination of ability and willingness, as shown in Table 2.1.
Talent management is essentially carried out to establish the gap analysis of each team member to prepare for matching each individual with the right job and help everyone move to R4.
The following lists the necessary training, coaching, and mentoring for a defined job:
The first two points focus on hard skills necessary to perform, but carry no impact on the existing culture and diversity in an organization. The third point focuses on soft skills for the ability to adapt to culture and deal with diversity for positive results.
One of the most important tasks for any project manager is to ensure that a project is properly staffed and that the project team has all the resources necessary to deliver success. In order to properly assess project team readiness, you must first clear two basic assumptions:
Personal Strength
Project implementation endeavor requires two prime personal strengths: team achievement and team engagement. Every professional has some distinctive strength in one of the two areas, which may be honed further with training, coaching, and mentoring.
Placement of the right person in the right role helps in attaining the height of performance. Work-related preferences are as follows:
Team Achievement: The three work-related preferences for achievement include visionary strategy, drive/achievement, and regulation/enforcement.
The Visionary Strategist
The visionary strategists are those members who are driven by an understanding of their role in both the team goals and the bigger picture of the organization’s strategy or mission. They often demonstrate high levels of creativity and innovation as they seek to understand things at a conceptual level. These team members like to think about where things are heading to or where the team needs to position itself in the future.
The Driver/Achiever
The drivers/achievers are highly competent at delivering outcomes due to their high level of focus on team-specific results rather than on vision or strategy or interpersonal relationships. The point of focus [driver/achiever] potentially cause clashes with other team members who hold other preferences. Team members with this preference often display a high level of pride in their achievements and thrive on self-improvement; they stretch targets and friendly competition.
The Regulator/Enforcer
The regulators/enforcers are team members who prefer highly structured and clearly defined roles, processes, and procedures that are uniform across the team and organization. They are disciplined in nature [detail focused] and perform best when they are treated equitably for pursuing [and when there are] clearly defined goals, targets, and accountability systems.
Team Engagement: A team touches the peak of good performance when one of three work-related preferences for a team member is matched with their area of engagement: helper/supporter, encourager/motivator, and connector/communicator.
Helpers/Supporters like to form deep interpersonal relationships with other team members and understand how to support and encourage others to achieve both their work and their personal goals. They understand what is really important to their colleagues and are happiest when they get an opportunity to connect on a personal level.
Encourager/Motivator
Encouragers/Motivators demonstrate their support for fellow members by encouraging and inducing enthusiasm. They use nicknames, humor, and jokes as a way of connecting with other team members. They are more focused on boundaries of [with] their work and personal lives than other roles. [and] Their interaction and communication with [to] team members is highly positive in a task-focused way.
Connector/Communicator
Connectors/Commu nicators are group focused and work best when there are collective goals, with logical and achievable objectives. that They can clearly communicate to the team clearly and purposefully. They enjoy work that requires regular team interaction to achieve the desired goal. They support their colleagues’ personal and work interests and enjoy group engagements and team activities both inside and outside of work.
Endeavor to Bring All Together to Create a Performing Team
High-performing teams understand where each of their member’s preference is under the achievement and engagement domains. By taking the time to profile themselves and discuss how they make the best use of an individual’s strengths and manage potential role clashes, they are able to leverage the diversity within their team.
Leadership is a process, not necessarily a position. Leadership deals with human aspects and their dynamics, under a continually changing environment. The challenge of leadership is to build the team, create change, influence, and facilitate growth. The focus on these requirements changes with level, and proactive action is inherent in moving up from one level of leadership to the next.
Undoubtedly, The workplace is changing at a very rapid pace, we like it or not. The problem emerges when many organizations remain trapped in the past, either slow to adapt or clueless as to how to adapt. The gap between how we work and how we live is causing team members to feel frustrated, trapped, unsatisfied, and downright miserable. To avoid this and keep workers engaged, the organizations must change with the environment and acknowledge and focus on closing this gap on a continuous basis to stay current and ride the change.
To succeed in business make team members to see things as you see them—Petterson
Leadership is taking responsibility to ensure that the right thing is done at your level—Slogan of TOTAL Ltd.
Practically everyone leads “double lives”: personal life, where one controls the technologies and devices one wants to use, builds and shapes communities, shares and collaborates, easily accesses information, takes loans on a house and makes purchases, and has the freedom and flexibility to live the way they want. Then there is the professional life, where we commute to work, use company-sanctioned technology, sit in cubicles, get more than 200 emails a day, are not able to effectively communicate and collaborate, operate under a command-and-control hierarchy, and need to get approval for buying even a hundred-dollar office product.
It’s no wonder that the majority of team members around the world may like their jobs for one key reason; that is, work practices, attitudes, values, strategies, technologies. [And] The ways of working are evolving and changing at a rapid pace where [however,] organizations remain stagnant when it comes to adapting to work environment, changing requirements for social interaction, and collaboration.
One may live in 2018 [7] and work in 1970—this gap causes team member disillusionment and disengagement.
Performing teams understand each of their member’s preferences under both achievement and engagement domains. Taking the time to profile themselves and discuss how they may make the best use of individual strengths and manage potential role clashes, they are able to leverage the diversity within their team. Then, the following are maintained:
2.2 Team Performance and Results-Driven Management
Performing teams are cohesive and share a high sense of togetherness. The development of performing teams that are committed to the mission leads to respect for dependencies, cohesiveness, trust for winning together, and enthusiasm for success (see Figure 2.3). Leaders are required to upkeep the state of performance with motivation, and also to assign each member the task best suited to their capabilities.
Motivate
The team is required to maintain high spirits to move forward, and the leader ignites enthusiasm to keep the fire alive with motivation, as follows:
M—manifest confidence when delegating
O—open communication
T—tolerance for failure
I—involvement
V—value the efforts
A—align project objectives to individual objectives
T—trust team members
E—empower appropriately
Know the Emotional Strength of Each Member
The emotional level of capability matters for dynamics of behavior and helps create harmony with the needs and values of each member, as follows:
Team Productivity
External Factors
Several external factors with varying intensity impact team productivity and need to be taken care of proactively and appropriately.
The factors are noted in Figure 2.4.
Team productivity is equally impacted by internal factors and needs to be managed; the internal factors are as follows:
Results-Driven Management
General behavior is important, and the team requires help with the progression of a project with results-driven management, where every interim result adds to the completion of deliverables. Team capability is enhanced with particular management of the following:
Communication is the pivotal competence for managing the project efficacy. It is aimed at producing the following responses:
A—attentionL—look
C—concernI—interest
T—appropriate timingS—summarize
I—involvementT—territory (manage space)
V—vocal toneE—empathy
E—eye contactN—nod to show understanding
Successful project teams have an A to Z mentality and a good business sense, along with the ability to work with a multitude of people (and their personalities), and to multitask. A project team member’s personality is a unique one, and is often a perfect blend of toughness and persistence. If a project fails, the team fails and takes that very personally.
An old adage holds true for leadership: Listen more than you speak
When the job doesn’t get done, it’s the project team’s fault for dropping the ball, not the tech’s fault for not doing the job properly. When the deadline isn’t met, it’s the project team’s fault for not knowing the plan or the timeline inside out. When it’s over-budget, it’s the project team’s fault for not addressing any over-costs that were set in the statement of work. When it comes to project management, accountability is huge.
For that reason, the most important aspect of any successful project team is having a hands-on approach. No matter how you approach each project, and no matter what skills or steps you employ, nothing is more valuable to a successful project than the sweat and the teamwork you put in when you are personally involved throughout the project. Toughness and persistence work best to improve the project management process, and the key elements of rules are as follows:
The Cost of Lowere d Performance—These pressures create a risk of higher burden, increased stress, lower team morale (engagement), and lower performance (achievement). The costs are often underestimated in terms of conflict, absenteeism, disengagement, workplace stress, lost time injuries, and lower quality production hours.
The Benefits of High Performance—When considering achievement, high-performing teams deliver services and achieve operational outcomes that exceed targets and stretch goals and have a culture of innovation and customer service that creates unparalleled organic growth, productivity, and profitability through efficiency. When considering engagement, high-performing teams engage or bond together in order to create stability to complete and deliver services with significantly lower levels of absenteeism, lost time injuries, conflict, customer complaints, and product failures.
Team Performance: The KPIs of Success
High team performance is therefore about maximizing both achievement and engagement within teams, which begins by implementing an effective strategy to address each of the KPIs of success:
KPI 1—A Common Vision, Strategy, and Clear Actions: How do you know your team is aligned around vision and action? Are the vision, strategy, goals, and accountable actions regularly discussed and endorsed by the team?
KPI 2—Accountability and Performance Reporting Systems: Does your team regularly measure and report their important performance metrics within the team and to key stakeholders?
KPI 3—Leverage Diversity and Lead by Example: Is the diversity of personalities, roles, gender, culture, and skills an advantage or a curse? Does your team lead by example to set high standards or simply mirror the behavior of others?
KPI 4—Supporting Team Members’ Work/Life Goals: Does your team understand and support each other’s work/life goals? Are there regular time-limited opportunities to get to know the wider needs and interests of the staff?
Teams are expected to produce results, but performance is hindered when team members do not work well together. A collaborative team environment is essential for the team’s success. To create a collaborative environment, team members must practice the following:
Have a Common Purpose and Goal
A team is defined as individuals with unique skills and expertise working interdependently toward a common purpose and goal. Without a goal, there is no team. Ideas for creating a common goal include:
Trust Each Other
Team members must trust each other when they are to work together successfully. Ideas for creating trust among team members include:
Clarify Roles
Knowing everyone’s role and being familiar with the responsibility of those roles creates efficiency and flexibility. Ideas for clarifying roles on the team include:
Communicate Openly and Effectively
Miscommunication can create hard feelings and undermine the success of the team. Ideas for improving communication include:
Appreciate Diversity
Team members come from all walks of life, with different backgrounds and perspectives. Ideas for taking advantage of team diversity include:
Balance the Team’s Focus
Finally, team members need to recognize that they should measure and monitor the products and services the team provides as well as the team’s internal group dynamics and relationships. (Sometimes team members get so involved in the process of becoming a team they forget the reason they were made a team in the first place, or vice versa.) Ideas for creating that balance include:
The focus is centered on areas that need a balance, as shown in Figure 2.5.
Requirement: Participating in teamwork is part of an annual performance evaluation process with team members. Three strategies to employ to foster more and better teamwork are as follows:
These three rewards are 100 percent equal across the board regardless of the athlete’s regular season contracted salary.
Businesses likewise need to create team rewards that foster the desired teamwork behavior.
The three strategies will give a solid framework for teamwork. Synergistic competence developed in teams helps advancement to desired results. The incapability of a team member in a particular situation may be supported by other members to overcome the lacking, as shown in Figure 2.6.
Leader-driven or self-directed team building is required to enhance creativity and productivity for the arising conflicts to be resolved proactively.
The biggest challenge for building a right team depends on a performing culture, a well-rounded project management structure. But working for your team, rather than having them work for you, isn’t so simple in heavily structured, management-focused settings.
Kick your bad habits and put your team first. Here are ways to ensure every member is able to step up to the plate without a second thought.
The following are important to prevent and proactively resolve the conflicts in team interaction.
The Right Team
When you let the power of your business in the hands of one or two people, you’ll be certain to fail in their absence. Build a team-focused business to keep you afloat under all circumstances.
What do you think? Do you place enough value on a team mentality?
What are the 13 most common words that keep companies from realizing their full performance potential? (Hint: They are 13 words that are very difficult to argue with.)
Those words are: “Hey, our goal is simply to put the best person in the job.” Can’t argue with that, can you? Who can be against putting the best person in the job? Except . . .
Research has shown that the best-performing teams are diverse teams. The power of diverse perspectives is such that diverse teams outperform non-diverse teams, and they outperform even more capable teams.
But humans are humans. When left to our own devices, many of us prefer to spend time with like-minded individuals. Frankly, it’s just easier.
Whenever building business teams, generally the approach is to round out the group by including a visionary, a doer, a skeptic, a client advocate, and an “historian” as part of the team, to name a few. And also, work out to include diverse backgrounds, whether acquired (time spent abroad, time spent at competitors) or innate (gender, ethnicity).
When one changes their mindset from “Hey, our goal is simply to put the best person in the job” to “Hey, our goal is simply to put the best team in place,” they will have accomplished a great deal on improving project performance. And it will have accomplished a great deal on increasing opportunity and diversity.
Human Resources Competency Model
The Human Resource Competency study conducted in 2012 by The Society of Human Resource Management led to the formulation of the HR Competency Model, which is gaining traction worldwide. It identifies four key areas, which help accelerate professional growth and eventually translate into high productivity and profitability. The key elements of the model are as follows:
2.3 Desired Strengths of a Team Member for Project Management
Strengths for the application of the project management approach are typically recognized as follows: A “typical” member won’t necessarily have all of the strengths—improvisation and organization in particular do not often go together.
Project management team members need to keep their skills sharp more than ever in increasing complexity. They need to manage complex projects and work with global teams who have a variety of skills. The challenge lies in how to devote time and energy to make sure that the skills stay current with rapidly evolving knowledge areas, especially of project management.
Typical strengths required for project/program/portfolio/EPMO leaders and members minimally include:
2.4 Leadership Style and Peer’s Leadership
The team mentality demands connection and building confidence among team members, and a leader may create grounds for understanding. One may ask the following direct reports in the first (or next) meeting:
Listen (really listen) to the response and then, as far as you are able, adapt your coaching, motivation, compensation, and so forth to match that individual’s needs. Further, take note of the following:
The best leadership style is that which motivates people to perform to their highest potential. Team members are self-interested; they will be turned on by what really excites them or most closely meets their needs. The simplest leadership style is that of problem solver, someone who knows what to do and earns respect by being knowledgeable, resourceful, patient, and decisive.
Leaders who are confident without being arrogant can generally get by with most team members. But to improve your leadership style beyond this basic level, figure out how to adapt your approach to different situations and varying human needs.
When you take over an existing team, the big question is what sort of leadership style will work best with your individual team members. Try asking them, but indirectly. Ask them individually what sorts of work they enjoy and don’t enjoy, what they would like to do more of or get exposure to, what they see as their strengths and development needs. In the midst of these questions, ask them to describe their best and worst boss. What did their best boss do that they particularly admired? This insight into their needs will enable you to adapt your style accordingly. Ask them to compare your predecessor against their ideal boss. In what ways did this person measure up (or not) to their ideal?
The next important question is how much your team members want to have a say in what work gets done and how. Some simply want a clear direction. They want to think about how to do their work and leave the “what” to you. Team members who want more will be most engaged when you ask them for their input on problems. When you want to move team members away from just waiting for you to give them your answers, manage their expectations by telling them you want to develop them by asking what they think more often.
Another dimension to consider is whether people reporting to you respond better to competent, factual direction or to an enthusiastically expressed, inspiring vision. You may need to find this out through trial and error. Most people have only a vague idea of what motivates them. How they behave could vary greatly from how they describe themselves.
Finally, there is your own comfort zone. When you are on the factual, logical, low-key side, you won’t be credible if you try to behave like a cheerleader. When you think about improving your leadership style, be sure to stay within the limits of your own personality. You will only lose respect when your leadership style appears artificial.
Understand Leadership Styles
You are required to have good understanding of leadership styles and when and where to apply them for enhancement of performance. The styles are discussed in the following sections.
The directing leadership style is best suited for followers who are low on competence (lacking the skills to do the job) and low on commitment (lacking the confidence and/or motivation to do the job). A directing leader will typically define the roles and tasks of followers and supervise them closely. Decisions are generally made by the leader, so communication is mostly one way.
Coaching Leaders
The coaching leadership style is appropriate for followers who show some competence (may have some of the required skills but still need help) but are low on commitment (the task may be new to them). A coaching leader will still define roles and tasks but will typically ask for suggestions and input from the followers. While decisions are still made by the leader, communication is mostly two way and occasional input is requested from the followers.
Supporting Leaders
The supporting leadership style works well when the leader is comfortable to pass day-to-day decisions to the followers. While the leader facilitates and takes part in decisions, control lies with the followers. In this case, followers exhibit a high degree of competence (strong relevant experience) and variable commitment (may lack the motivation to do the task well or quickly).
Delegating Leaders
The delegating leadership style allows the followers to have control over decisions and problem solving, while the leader is still involved but to a lesser degree. The follower decides when and how the leader will be involved. This leadership style is suitable for followers who fit the high-competence and high-commitment model. In other words, they are both experienced and motivated to do the job well. In some cases, they may even be more experienced than the leader.
It is clear that choosing the most effective leadership style depends very much on the person being led, the follower. However, keep in mind that development levels are also situational. A follower may be generally skilled, confident, and motivated, but he or she would still need directing leadership when faced with a task requiring skills they don’t yet have. By adopting the appropriate leadership style, the leader and his or her followers will build strong relationships, and the follower’s development level will rise to the high-competence and high-commitment model, to everyone’s benefit.
A Harvard Business Review article, “Why Would Anyone Like to Follow You,” by Goffee and Jones (2000) reveals that besides leadership traits, one is required to have the following qualities:
Mix and match these qualities to find the right style for the right moment.
Peer Leadership
The following text has been adapted from Kevin E. O’Connor, CSP, who is a facilitator, medical educator, and author (Source: http://kevinoc.com/peer-leadership/). He focuses on teaching influence to scientific and technical professionals who are charged with leading teams of their former peers.
When you are charged with leading a team of your peers or former peers, the right combination of resources makes all the difference. The following techniques—which incorporate personality, encouragement, engagement, and feedback—should be at the core of every peer leader’s approach.
Many team leaders don’t find their work to be efficient, easy, or appear natural. These leaders often do not have formal training in leadership; they are promoted because they are very good at their technical jobs. Their former colleagues and friends now report to these “peer leaders.”
There is a skill to leading your former peers without encountering resistance, resentment, and regret. When your tool box contains a simple collection of thinking, communicating, and acting that is coherent, ordered, and intentional, your leadership appears natural. When you’re charged with leading a team of your peers or former peers, the right combination of resources makes all the difference. The following techniques should be at the core of every peer leader’s tool box:
The most effective leader uses only one tool: his or her personality. One great peer leader uses thirst for understanding and information. When a team member approaches with an issue, the understanding part is taken as a student and gives that person the role of teacher to advise on details and possible solutions.
“Any questions asked are merely a student asking and never use the words ‘I’ or ‘you’. . . only use the words ‘we’ and ‘us,’ make them walking out of office feeling better than when they walked in.”
By using the mindset of education, the pressure is removed from “teacher” so that no question is off limits. This philosophy sets the tone for education and teamwork. When one uses intellectual curiosity to demonstrate the possession of a correct answer, one could face resentment. The best peer leaders learn to harness their personality to inspire trust and teamwork.
While your team is working to create the next product, they want to know that you’re there with them. Sometimes that means that they want your hands working alongside, and sometimes it just means that they want to know that you understand their daily routines, frustrations, and joys. Regardless of which approach your team members prefer, they want you to guide them in the next, and right direction.
Your team will remember that you were there with them when you encourage. Today’s culture makes it easy for bosses to find faults, but you will have much greater influence when you frequently ask this question of your team members: “You know what I liked about what you did (or said)?” Be relentless as you look to find the ways that their input, skills, and contributions have benefited the entire team.
This is always of interest to the receiver; no one has ever responded, “No, I don’t want to know what you liked!”
There are few things more beautiful than a leader who knows how and when to listen and where and when to speak; the times to agree and those to dissent; when to stay with the team and those other times when to go out. The successful leader never allows these moments to be lost. Instead, they are always intentional. While team members sometimes want to be inquisitive, your peers want to be connected with you. With intimacy comes great trust and loyalty.
A consistent engagement with your team on a personal level (within the business environment) turns your role from that of a boss to one of a fearless leader, mentor, and teacher. This intimacy comes when you go beyond their favorite sports team to learn about their childhood passions, when you understand their family’s immigration experience deeply affected their outlook on international business, and that their self-directed nature comes from their Scout training.
The best peer leaders are afraid that their talents and “secret concoction” may go unused, so they focus on how their team is furthering the company’s mission. When leading a group of your peers, you must have a firm hold on the secret formula that lies within you. Ask your team members what they believe to be your “secret sauce,” and be ready to listen without judging their responses. You may find that your team wants you to talk more at meetings, even though you might think you talk too much. Your team may want you to consult them but ultimately make a firm decision, while you may lead by consensus for you fear making decisions alone. When your team tells you what they want, find a way to do what they have asked!
2.5 Team Burnout and Quick Fix
Fast-paced progress on project/program implementation may result in team burnout that needs to be fixed urgently.
Neuroscience has found that everyone has a basic “seeking” emotional system, which mediates their drive to achieve, attain, and experience the fruits of the work on a project/program. Burnout is an emotional state in which the energy for “seeking” has waned, at least temporarily. It can be rejuvenated in the traditional way by providing compelling rewards that the person is motivated to attain, or the emotional system itself can be directly energized. Our conventional approach in business is the former, offering rewards that energize people to attain them. However, this is challenging because over the course of each person’s lifetime, they’ve had unique beliefs and experiences that have caused them to be driven by significantly different rewards. Fortunately, learning how to work more directly with emotional systems through body dynamics is beneficial. Primal emotional systems may be energized directly through a variety of somatic, or body-based, methods, including:
From neuroscience and physics you learn about yourselves and your capabilities and you see reasons to adopt organizational techniques beyond the ordinary. The following discusses more on shaping group emotional energy to increase creativity and performance.
Management of Burnout
Burnout results from the continuity of uncertainty, indecisiveness, and highly stressful situations that impact productivity and needs to be managed well in time, as follows:
Signs of Burnout
Individual and collective team burnout should be watched carefully before the damage becomes beyond repair. The signs illustrated in Figure 2.7 help keep burnout in check proactively:
Dragging to Work: loss of enthusiasm and coming to work unhappily
Indifference: not participating in the decision-making process and not showing interest in affairs
Intolerance: flaring up on small issues and taking every matter in a negative spirit
Cynical: critical behavior and negativity in all aspects
Bouts of Failure: failure impacts negatively on their personality and productivity
2.6 Conflict Management and Relationship Enhancement
In an increasingly competitive work environment, “soft skills” (personal attributes that enable you to interact effectively with others) are becoming pressingly more important than “hard skills,” particularly when hiring decisions are made.
A recent research study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has identified the following to maximize your effectiveness in teams:
Interpersonal skills: While your talent, commitment, and productivity are important, businesses demand team players who are able to manage conflicts when they arise and work well within team for shared goals.
Each of the following letters represents a step in conflict resolution:
R—Respect the right to disagree
E—Express the real concern
S—Share common goals and interests
O—Open yourself to different points of view
L—Listen carefully to all proposals
U—Understand the major issue involved
T—Think of probable consequences
I—Imagine several possible alternative solutions
O—Offer some reasonable compromises
N—Negotiate mutually beneficial agreements
Effective Decision-Making: In order to stay relevant and competitive in a dynamic business environment, you need to develop professionals who are capable of taking prompt yet logically sound decisions. The key is to be able to strike the right balance between playing safe (i.e., resources are not wasted) and taking risks to take advantage of opportunities. Decide a method for decision-making in a demanding situation.
Communication Skills: Exceptional communication, oral and written, continues to be a sought-after skill. Furthermore, a person capable of expressing complex technical concepts in layman’s terms is among a rare breed sought after by all.
After careful listening, think before you speak:
T—Is it true?
H—Is it helpful?
I—Is it inspiring?
N—Is it necessary?
K—Is it kind?
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Organizations that can anticipate business trends, initiate and prioritize projects, and combine creative critical thinking and conflict resolution in the workplace are greatly valued.
Managing conflict with coworkers doesn’t have to be difficult. Below are seven simple rules that should both help you deal with conflict and improve your relationships at work.
Rule 1: See Conflict as an Opportunity
Your perception of conflict has a direct impact on how it plays out in your professional life. If you embrace conflict and see it as an opportunity to better a situation or a relationship, then you’ll take on the challenge of seeing the confrontation through, regardless of how difficult it may be, because you know that the ultimate benefit of working through an issue will be worth it in the long run for both you and your working relationship with the other party.
When you disdain conflict and would rather lie on a bed of sharp nails than address a problem with a coworker, you’ll be more inclined to avoid it, mismanage it, or even deny its existence. In either case, your negative perception of conflict will prevent you from dealing with it effectively.
Furthermore, avoiding conflict only makes it more likely that the issue will continue to be a source of contention with no end in sight.
Keys
FROM/TO
Negative/Positive
Disruption/Opportunity
Incompatibility/Diversity
Error/Improvement
Right or Wrong/Differences
About the person/About the issue
Rule 2: Choose Your Battles Proactively
Take on the issues that matter to you and/or that impede you from being as effective as possible on the job and let the rest go. Life’s too short to be wasting any of your valuable time and energy on issues that ultimately don’t matter or that don’t impact you in a detrimental way.
Enhance your working relationships and apply the concepts of resolution to the team members and groups.
Keys
Individually
Work Group
Rule 3: Do Your Homework
The more prepared you are to address and resolve a conflict, the better you’ll do. This includes taking the time to think through the problematic issue(s), personality dynamics, relevant past experience, and desired outcomes before engaging in an authentic conversation to resolve a conflict with another party. It’s no different than preparing for a speech or an exam. With preparation, you become more confident, focused, and in control of your emotions.
Keys
Rule 4: Take the Initiative
Conflict is not about who’s right or wrong, who is more at fault, or who should be the first one to apologize to the other. The fact is that when the conflict is bothering you, then it is yours to resolve. Waiting for the other party to come to you doesn’t help you address the problem; it only prolongs it.
Keys
Rule 5: Focus “Out” before Focusing “In”
Focusing “out” means understanding the point of view of the other person/party before expressing your own. Why does this matter? Essentially, it puts the other person at ease knowing that their concerns have been heard and validated. When people feel listened to and acknowledged, they have a tendency to relax and lower their defenses. This not only helps ease the conversation, but increases the likelihood that the other party will be more willing to hear your side of the matter.
Keys
Rule 6: Seek Mutually Beneficial Solutions
Successfully managing conflict means having the ability not only to bring an issue to resolution but also to do it in a respectful, collaborative manner with the other party. One without the other will greatly diminish your results.
Keys
Rule 7: Empower the Third Side
In a conflict, there’s your side, there’s their side, and there’s the “third side.” According to William Ury, author of Getting to Peace, the third side in a conflict is all the people who are directly and indirectly impacted by someone else’s conflict. Although many third-siders see themselves as innocent bystanders, they actually have a tremendous influence on establishing a work environment that either supports constructive and functional conflict resolution or reinforces dysfunctional and destructive conflict resolution.
Keys
Conflict managed effectively is a tremendous asset that helps individuals and groups maneuver through issues, disagreements, and problems that are common in the workplace. These seven simple rules provide sufficient guidance and incentive to help you take charge of conflict.
Relationships Matter
Professionals build networks to help navigate the world. No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, but playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team. Athletes need coaches and trainers, directors need producers and actors, politicians need donors and strategists, scientists need lab partners and mentors. Ideas may come from one person but turning it into reality always requires teamwork, which is eminently on display in the start-up world. Very few special start-ups are started by only one person acting alone. Everyone in the entrepreneurial community agrees that assembling a talented team is as important as anything.
People also act as gatekeepers. Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford, has marshaled evidence that shows that when it comes to getting promoted on job, strong relationships and being on good terms with your boss and peers matter more than competence. This is not nefarious nepotism or politics (though sometimes it’s that). There’s a good explanation: A slightly-less-competent person who gets along with others and contributes on a team may be better for the company than somebody who’s 100 percent competent but isn’t a team player.
Importance of Your Team
Interpersonal Skills
Maintaining a team requires interpersonal skills. The essentials of interpersonal skills are depicted in Figure 2. 8.
Project Team
The most important task for a project manager is to ensure that a project is properly staffed and that the project team has all the resources necessary to deliver success. In order to properly assess project team readiness, you must first clear two basic assumptions:
2.7 Leadership and Teamwork
Project management is leadership intensive and starts from the level of an individual team member. Learning self-leadership skills is mandatory for each team member. Not many members regard themselves poor team players. They are content with their share of the work; getting along with team members and not stabbing anyone in the back is usually considered enough to rate themselves good team players. It is the responsibility of each team member to learn self-leadership skills to incorporate the best into teamwork.
Members with leadership potential reduce conflict and disharmony in a team. They are good at selection of words and body language to respect a diversity of ideas and thoughts.
They know how to get people focused on what they have in common, whether it is shared values, shared objectives, or the bigger picture. They use humor to defuse tension and they know how to help people depersonalize issues. They make people excited about their work by showing enthusiasm and a sense of urgency.
Summary
The most critical aspect in team building is to reach to the right person. This has been discussed in detail in the first section on the assessment of readiness of a team member. The established gap in assessment may help to ascertain the training need when necessary.
Team performance for results-driven management is discussed to help incremental advancement on a project and manage successful deliverables.
Choosing from the various leadership styles is critical in order to manage a given situation and make advancement in the right direction.
Working under stressful situations for project implementation may lead to team burnout, which needs a quick fix, that is, managing team performance without any negative impact. High-paced work environment needs effective conflict management to maintain relationships.
References
Goffee, R., and G. Jones. 2000. “Why Would Anyone Like to Follow You.” Harvard Business Review 78, no. 5, pp. 62–70.
Guzzo, R.A., and M.W. Dickson. 1996. “Teams in Organizations: Recent Research on Performance and Effectiveness.” Annual Review of Psychology 47, pp. 307–338. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.47.1.307
Human Resource Competency study conducted in 2012 by The Society of Human Resource Management led to the formulation of the HR Competency Model. https://rbl.net/news/detail/the-rbl-group-announces-the-results-of-the-2012-hr-competency-study
National Association of Colleges and Employers. “Research Has Identified How to Maximize Your Effectiveness in Teams.” http://www.naceweb.org/career-readiness/competencies/career-readiness-defined/
O’Connor, K.E. “Peers Leadership.” http://kevinoc.com/peer-leadership/