Team Leadership

Effective Teams

Effective teams have common characteristics and scholars have identified the most important ones (Northouse, 2004):

1. Clear Goals: Just like the saying, a clear defined goal is half-way reach. The same is valid for teams. Furthermore, is the only way to measure performance bottom line.
2. Results Driven Structure: An effective team always has an structure that stimulates results according the goals the team has.
3. Competent Team Members: All the tasks that the team performs must be done by the group. In order to do so, the members of the team must supply the right mix of experience, knowledge and training to achieve every goal.
4. Unified Commitment: A highly effective team develops a sense of body, where every member feels integrated into the team.
5. Collaborative Climate: Because of the sense of body, every member knows that his or her efforts are a contribution to achieving the team’s goals. Thus, everybody is willing to collaborate.
6. Standards of Excellence: A highly effective team sticks to standards, self developed or imposed, that help them to achieve their goals. The team understand the importance of measurable milestones and performance reviews in order to reach the objectives.
7. External Support and Recognition: A supportive environment for a team is essential for goal achievement, if the team has organizational support and resources, it will be more likely that it delivers on time.
8. [Good] Leadership: A team without leadership is no team at all, the function has to be performed, by one, two or even every member of the team. But in any given time, there has to be a clear leader to refer to get directions and guidance as needed.

Ups and Downs of Team Leadership

The Up Side

• Changing role of the leader and followers is been taken into account to explain the different roles that team members can perform to achieve the goals.
• Clear leadership functions help to identify a team leader, according the nature of the group and his/her personal characteristics.
• Well perfoming teams characteristics are well known, and easily identifiable. With a modest effort, it should be easy to see how far or close the team is from a well performing team characteristics.

The Down Side

• Changing roles are a challenge for leaders and followers, the nature of the tasks and roles performed by team members must be well understood by both parties, specially if the team have to perform at its best.
• Good team characteristics not too easy to reach. Although, the eight empirical characteristics of well performing teams are well known, it might prove to be a daunting task to “fully comply” with this ideal list.

Team Leadership Summary

The role of team leadership has to do with two primary functions: team performance and team development. At the same time the leader has to take care of internal and external factors that affect team performance and development. McGrath’s model explains that in a four quadrant representation.

A high performance team has eight characteristics that distinguish it from the rest:

1. Clear Goals
2. Results Driven Structure
3. Competent Team Members
4. Unified Commitment
5. Collaborative Climate
6. Standards of Excellence
7. External Support and Recognition
8. [Good] Leadership

In team leadership, the leader’s functions may be performed either by the leader or by the followers, it is then critical that the leader and the followers understand clearly the boundaries of the functions and the importance of each one of them.

To become a team of excellence requires a great deal of work and commitment to achieve the common goals the team has.

Further Investigation and References

Northouse, P.G. (2004) “Leadership Theory and Practice” (3rd Ed)
Sage Publications

Lussier, R.N.; Achua, C.F. (2004) “Leadership: Theory, Application, Skill Development” (2nd Ed)
South-Western

Yukl, G.A. (2002) “Leadership in Organizations” (5th Ed)
Prentice-Hall

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