Unit 9 Managing Teams
Overview
“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” And so, it follows that a group or a team can only be as effective as the least powerful person on the team. Therefore, the success of the entire team depends on the success of each individual member of the group. The extent to which the team members align and optimize their individual skills, behaviours, and attitudes towards the goal of the team is directly proportional to the success of the team. We see this clearly demonstrated in every team sport. If one team member’s attitude is not in alignment with the teams’ goals, the team will not perform at an optimal level. Thus, it is the role of the team leader to ensure that all team members are “on the same page” or are in the 34% of the fully engaged group (see latest Gallop poll and refer to Unit 7). They do this by facilitating growth, providing the required training and skills to perform, motivating and encouraging each member to be a strong link in the organizational chain. In this unit, we will look at some key aspects of holding the team together or managing the whole – motivating all team members to pull together and in the right direction.
Topics
This unit is divided into the following topics:
- Managing the Whole
- Identifying Challenges and Change Initiatives
- Application of Skills Learned for Greater Effectiveness of Teams
Learning Outcomes
When you have completed this unit, you should be able to:
- Describe the place of leadership in results
- Explain the discipline of results-based leadership
- Contrast a team-based leadership style with other approaches to leadership
Activity Checklist
Here is a checklist of learning activities you will benefit from in completing this unit. You may find it useful for planning your work.
Learning Activities
- Read section 14.1 of Principles of Management to explore how direction and intensity relate to motivation. For further study watch the video on the X model of employee engagement.
- Complete the Gallup Q12 survey to see if you are an engaged, not engaged, or an actively disengaged team member in your organization. Watch the video The 20-Mile March.
- Read section 14.2 in the course text and compare the six content theories.
- Read Section 14.3 and add your notes to the chart. Watch the video on the content and process theories.
- Read the case study and offer advice to Marijas sales team.
- Assume the role of sales manager and create a video (or written script) on one of the two scenarios listed.
Assessment
- Unit 9 Team Memo (Please confirm assignment instructions in Moodle)
Resources
Here are the resources you will need to complete this unit:
- Bright, D. S. & Cortes, A. H. (2019). Principles of Management.
- Other online resources will be provided in the unit.
9.1 Managing the Whole
The responsibility of managing the whole rests on managers. We have seen this in many of the past units of study. Managers ought to possess a clear understanding of the firm’s vision and mission and be able to motivate the team members to reach that goal. This calls for being a visionary, an example, a coach, a healer, and a motivator.
As managers move forward in managing the whole, managers need to be skilled in work through teams. Teams, as we will discover in our readings, are different from work groups. As has been said, five people on an elevator are a group. But when the elevator is stuck, these five individuals transition to a team – they now need to work together towards the common goal of getting out the elevator. Managers must deal with teams that are increasingly diverse in terms of cultures, languages, and personalities. They must be prepared to deal with inter-team and intra-team conflicts, all the while motivating team members to move towards the organizational mission and vision. Managers must therefore possess a high level of emotional intelligence (EQ). Emotional Intelligence was made popular by the book written by Daniel Goleman and is based on the ability to:
- Recognize your own emotions
- Recognize the emotions of others
- Use your awareness of (1) and (2) to guide your thinking & behaviour to develop strong, strategic relationships.
Goleman explained that an individual’s emotional intelligence (or the lack of it), is based on five components:
1. Self-awareness
2. Self-regulation
3. Empathy
4. Motivation
5. Social Skill
Figure 9.1 Emotional Intelligence from Wikimedia CC-BY-SA-4.0
For a clear explanation of five components of emotional intelligence and its importance to leaders and managers, you will be reading the article, Why Emotional Intelligence is Important in Leadership.
Having understood emotional intelligence and its importance, how do you relate emotional intelligence to your ability to manage a team? The following activities will help guide you as you answer this question for yourself.
Activity: Read & Evaluate
Read the article, Why Emotional Intelligence is Important in Leadership and take this questionnaire on emotional intelligence. On completion, identify your strengths and areas for development and see how well you are faring on emotionally intelligent leadership.
Next, read Chapter 15 of Principles of Management.
Questions to Consider
After completing the assessment and reading of chapter 15 of the text, consider the following questions:
- Why is a high EQ an important asset for managers?
- Based on the results of your assessment, outline steps you can take to improve in your lowest scoring area.
- It can take some time for a team to move from group to performing stage to see results. Which components of EQ are essential for you as a manager during this phase? Why so?
- If a manager possesses low EQ, what impact will this have on team conflict? How differently will an emotionally intelligent manager handle conflict?
- How does a high EQ relate to managing the whole?
Activity: Reflect and Apply
Reflect on the following scenarios and identify which of the 5 components of EI these are connected to:
- Outburst of anger that leads to decision to resign from work
- Team leader calls for celebrating project victory while team member grieves loss of family member
- Coffee/Tea spill on shirt on way to work affects how you treat your team members rest of day
- Purchase of exercise equipment beginning of year, but relegated to disuse by month of April
Note that the learning activities in this course are ungraded, unless specified. They are designed to help you succeed in your assessments in this course, so you are strongly encouraged to complete them.
9.2 Identifying Challenges and Change Initiatives
Much has been written about change initiatives in light of the great challenges managers face. The need for change has never been felt as in the time of the Covid 19 pandemic and its attendant challenges. Some managers tend to ignore challenges hoping that these will go away with time. The caption below illustrates this in a humorous manner. Effective managers deal with challenges in a proactive manner.
Figure 9.2 Challenges and Change Initiatives from Go Comics
As we dwell on the topic of challenges and change initiatives, we all agree on the need for change. We believe in it, always recommend, and advocate it for others – our team members, our CEOs, directors, our families, friends etc. But, when it comes to our own lives, we must admit it is harder to digest and implement.
Neeru Paharia, an assistant professor at the McDonough School of Business, published a study called “Sweatshop Labor is Wrong Unless the Shoes are Cute”. Although the primary focus of the study is the rationalization of buyer’s behaviour that they would otherwise condemn, amongst other insights, the study brings to the surface, how we tend to use a different yardstick to measure our individual progress and choices, than that of others. George Carlin said, “every person driving faster than me is a lunatic and every person driving slower than me is an idiot”. We are quick to advocate and initiate changes for others because we see their need for it. At the same time, we overlook our own need for personal growth and development.
One greatly overlooked challenge is the manager’s journey of continuous personal development and self leadership. In the busyness of moving and motivating team members towards organizational goals, managers can neglect their own development and self leadership.
Several Self Leadership Assessment tools are available online. Most of these tools are based on the work of Charles Manz and Henry Sims (1987) on self-leadership theory and their prototype set of 21 questions. In Activity 9.2 we provide the ASLQ self leadership assessment for you to complete.
In engaging in self leadership assessments and continuous professional development, managers keep their personal brand sharp, current, and attractive. Just as much as there are preferred brands for products and services, every individual is a brand. There is a well-known insightful quote from Jeff Bezos on branding: “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” (Source). Does personal leadership brand matter? It does matter! People prefer to engage and do business with leaders they trust. The truth of the matter is, every leader has a brand. What’s yours?
Managers and leaders need to engage in continuous personal brand building exercises. As the image below humorously suggests, people do not leave bad jobs, they just leave bad managers.
Figure 9.3
Activity: Dealing with Change During the Pandemic
See the following links to learn about industries and businesses that succeeded during the pandemic:
- Why Some Companies Thrived During the Pandemic
- Industries Thriving During the Pandemic
- 20 Small Businesses Thriving During Coronavirus
As you read these articles try to understand the thinking behind the adaptive leadership approach of these organizations. For more on Adaptive Leadership, see articles from HBR.
Activity: ASLQ
Complete the ASLQ Self leadership assessment and see how you measure up to leading yourself. The ASLQ (Abbreviated Self Leadership Questionnaire) developed by Jeff Houghton, is the shorter version of the RSLQ (Revised Self Leadership Questionnaire). The questionnaire is a helpful tool to see how well leaders lead themselves.
9 Questions Assessing Self-Leadership
The following are the nine questions used to assess self-leadership as per the ASLQ.
Instructions:
Read each of the following items carefully and try to decide how true the statement is in describing you.
Score:
1 = Not at all accurate
2 = Somewhat accurate
3 = A little accurate
4 = Mostly accurate
5 = Completely accurate
Statements:
- I establish specific goals for my own performance.
- I make a point to keep track of how well I’m doing at work.
- I work toward specific goals I have set for myself.
- I visualize myself successfully performing a task before I do it.
- Sometimes I picture in my mind a successful performance before I actually do a task.
- When I have successfully completed a task, I often reward myself with something I like.
- Sometimes I talk to myself (out loud or in my head) to work through difficult situations.
- I try to mentally evaluate the accuracy of my own beliefs about situations I am having problems with.
- I think about my own beliefs and assumptions whenever I encounter a difficult situation.
Scoring:
Greater than 36 – Excellent self leadership skills. Capacity to influence your behaviour and think positively.
19-36 – Average self leadership skills. Ask: How can I improve in my low scoring areas
Less then 19 – Lack of self leadership. Mentoring and coaching maybe needed.
Source: The Abbreviated Self-Leadership Questionnaire (ASLQ): A More Concise Measure of Self-Leadership
Houghton, J.D., Dawley, D., & DiLiello, T.C. 2012. The Abbreviated Self-Leadership Questionnaire (ASLQ): A More Concise Measure of Self-Leadership. International Journal of Leadership Studies, Vol. 7(2), 216232.
9.3 Application of Skills Learned for Greater Effectiveness of Teams
Throughout this course we have learned many skills for leading our work in the organizations we serve. We can move our organizations to the next level if we understand and apply the concept of teamwork. While there are numerous definitions for teams, one of the most practical working definitions of teamwork comes from the Belgian draft horse pulling contest.
The Belgian draft horses are amazingly strong animals that can pull 8,000 pounds. The interesting fact is that when two horses pull a load together, they don’t just pull 16,000 pounds combined, but can pull up to 22,000 pounds. And when they train together as a team and pull together, they can pull up to 32,000 pounds. A recommended read for further study on this matter is The Magic of Teamwork by Pat Williams. In this book, Williams uses the example of the Belgian draft horse to develop the concept of synergy in teamwork. Synergy is where, the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
Figure 9.4 Horses pulling sledge loaded with logs. From Wikimedia Commons.
In applying the many insights gleaned from this course, let us be mindful of creating experiences of synergy for our team members through effective teamwork.
As we summarize Unit 9, it is clear that authentic, team-based leadership is critical for the completion of projects and achieving goals. The PMI report of 2021, reinforces the need for good leadership in reaching goals and objectives.
Activity: Trusting Your Team
Watch the video Trusting Teams: The 5 Practices where Simon Sinek talks about how to create an environment in which people can work at their natural best.
Questions to Consider
After watching the video, consider the following questions:
- Discuss the difference between “wanting to do” and “being told to do”.
- How does this tie into the topic of motivation that we have discussed in Unit 7?
- Discuss ways, managers can create the “emotional engagement” that Simon Sinek talks about. What are some pitfalls to avoid?
Unit 9 Summary
In this unit, you have had the opportunity to learn about the managers role in holding the team together. Working together with unique, different team members can be challenging. But the manager needs to keep everybody on the same page as the team moves towards organizational goals and objectives. Working with diverse personalities calls for emotional intelligence (EQ) on the part of the manager. In the busyness of getting everybody to move forward with a spirit of synergy, managers must not forget the need to “sharpen their axes” or in self leadership and development. Afterall, “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” and the manager cannot be that weak link in the organizational chain.
Personal Application
Before participating in the assessment for this unit, consider how you might apply what you have learned.
- Assume you are leading/managing a: (a) small division in an organization, (b) small scale start up, or (c) ministry team in church.
- You will pick one of these three scenarios and create an infographic to your team on the importance of one topic covered during this unit.
- The infographic will emphasize the importance of applying this topic/ practice for organizational success and will include specific steps to motivate team members to implement these initiatives.
Please see helpful links below on creating infographics:
Please see the Assessments section in Moodle to confirm assignment instructions, including the grading criteria.