Introduction
The leader builds a team, but, unlike the builder, he does not deal with bricks and mortar, but with the most difficult thing that can only be in this world – with a person. A person has a lot of desires, aspirations, and motives – all these sometimes contradict each other, usually under the influence of values, beliefs, fears, and fears. The creation and development of a team consisting of a group of people takes place in the conditions of each person’s internal work. People interact with the leader and with each other. There are many of them, but the leader is one! All this is quite complicated, but the proposed material will help you figure it out.
Discussion
You need to manage consciously If the manager decides that it “somehow itself”, then he will get a result that he cannot control. You need to manage consciously. Especially by building and developing a team. The goal of creating a team is to create a new working organism: with involvement, motivation, and a common goal.
To understand the concept and features of team development, let’s turn to the most popular team development model in the world – Takmen and Jensen. They described the stages (phases) of team formation from the very beginning to the result. So, people gather and call themselves a team, or someone calls them that. Then the team is formed, develops, grows, and strengthens. In fact, at first, it is not a team, but a working group that plans to become a team. At the stage of formation, the group can demonstrate efficiency, but in the process of “mastering” and “lapping”, efficiency decreases until the team begins to normalize, after which stable functioning and increased efficiency finally occur. The team goes through four stages until it is ready.
People are used to watching the development of a plant, the growth of a child, or the construction of a construction structure, therefore, without knowing the specifics of team formation, we can despair ahead of time, be disappointed, and make a variety of mistakes, including disbanding the team during the birth process. To avoid misunderstandings – “we teach the match.” People are focused on mastering the situation and recognizing the social and work context. At the same time, work assignments are performed for which evaluation criteria have not yet been formed in the minds of the participants. Participants are confused but do not allow themselves aggression, because not everything has been clarified yet, and it is not yet known what reaction may follow.
People at the initial stage are quite detached from each other. The role of the leader in the first stage is to help to get acquainted and to cope with fears, uncertainty, and embarrassment. Participants need to explain the common goals, values, and roles of each. It is also important to familiarize participants with the criteria for the effectiveness of their work, with approaches to assessing the performance of tasks, as well as with development and training opportunities and assistance mechanisms in case of difficulties. The leader should introduce the participants to where they got to, how this machine works, how to use it, what to strive for, and how to understand whether the goal has been achieved.
The goal of the leader is not to leave conflicts in the shadows, put them in a controlled mode, and make management transparent. Team building is not carried out at this stage. If at such moments it is not possible to discover what is happening inside the team, it is not possible to resolve conflicts or find understanding – ask for help, look for a business coach, coach, mentor, or study the literature on conflict management. If the leader coped with his role at the previous stages, the team sets itself the goal that the leader wanted to set. If the leader fails, the team still sets its goal, but this goal may not correspond to production goals. The task of the leader is to actively participate in the elaboration of group rules that would suit everyone. The leader also, together with the participants, adjusts the criteria for success and assessments of the tasks performed. At this stage, rules that are not related to production can be developed – an internal team charter can be developed that regulates behavior within the education. It is important for the leader to make sure that the rules have been developed that suit everyone, while they are fair and acceptable.
At this stage, there are also no unifying team-building sessions, but facilitation sessions are held, where each participant speaks out and common rules are worked out together. At this stage, you should not save money, the rules adopted in this format are the best contribution to the development of the team: they will be carried out without coercion and perceived as natural.
If the previous stages have been passed effectively, which is the huge role of the leader, then at the fourth stage the team can already be called a team and begins to function. Participants develop trusting relationships and are able to work comfortably. When solving tasks, you can observe flexibility and interest, the team strives for productivity. Productivity becomes higher than it was at the first stage. At this stage, personal and professional development takes place – participants exchange knowledge and support each other.
Conclusion
The manager at the stage of functioning should not lose vigilance and be attentive. He should evaluate general and individual successes, and give feedback. His role is to maintain and encourage cohesion, fairness, and healthy relationships within the team. We must not allow the team to be bored. It is important to think over, if necessary, more and more new work challenges and goals.
References
Moldoveanu, M., & Narayandas, D. (2019). The future of leadership development. Harvard business review, 97(2), 40-48.
Salas-Molina, F., Rodríguez-Aguilar, J. A., & Pla-Santamaria, D. (2018). Boundless multiobjective models for cash management. The Engineering Economist, 63(4), 363-381.
Young, M., Camp, K. M., & Bushardt, S. C. (2020). Leadership Development: A Hierarchy of Followership Skills During a Crisis. Journal of Leadership, Accountability & Ethics, 17(5).