In an environment as changing and unstable as the current one, it is essential for any company or organization to have leaders who know how to motivate, contribute to creating a good working environment and facilitate the professional development of the people under their charge. Only in this way will they give their best and be happy in their work.
At the same time, thanks to proper leadership, organizations will optimize their results. In this article, you will learn the keys to understanding what high-performance work teams are and how they work, and what the people who lead them do.
What does it mean to lead and work as a team?
Generally speaking, leading is getting people to follow you. How to achieve this has been analysed in a large body of literature, almost always in terms of the interaction of three components:
The environment and context in which it develops.
The work team, made up of people with their personality, skills , attitudes, knowledge, etc.
The personality, skills, knowledge and experience of the leader.
The leader's environment
Today's society has been described as VUCA, an acronym for the terms that, in English, refer to its volatile, uncertain , complex and ambiguous nature.
That is why today's organizations need "soft skills" (including leadership) that know how to stay on the right course at all times, far removed from the models of the past, in which workers merely obey their superiors. Constant learning, collaborative and non-hierarchical work, trust in people and their development are the only guarantees for companies to survive and grow in the future. Modern times
The work team
The second component of leadership is teamwork. In reality, both concepts are two sides of the same coin.
"A work team is an articulated group of people committed to a common mission, who integrate and coordinate their actions according to shared strategies, with known and accepted standards, and united by a sense of belonging" (Sánchez, 2020).
One essential thing to keep in mind: not all groups of people function as a team:
Distinction between group of workers and work team
For a team to exist, 5 C's must coexist:
Complementarity of the profiles of the people who make up the team. Although certain teams need people with certain qualifications or specific skills, the important thing is that they have complementary knowledge and skills that facilitate the achievement of the goals.
Coordination of functions and tasks to generate team dynamics and personal satisfaction.
Transparent and fluid communication in all directions. A team should encourage creativity and productivity, as well as the psychological and professional well-being of its members.
Interpersonal trust .
Commitment to the mission, the team and the organization to which one belongs.
What is teamwork?
To achieve the results of teams like those in this video, a process of group development or maturity is required. Bruce Tuckman represented this process with a four-phase model to which he later added a fifth (Robbins, 2009):
Development phases in a work team
Phase 1 : Forming
At this stage, of initiation or immaturity, the objectives are usually not entirely clear. No one dares to oppose ideas. There is fear on the part of the group, which depends largely on its leader to overcome this lack of knowledge.
This phase is one of orientation or fragmentation. Objectives become clearer, but kuwait whatsapp contact number with divergences. There is no agreement with the person who is leading and each person wants to impose their ideas, forming subgroups that fight for power and come into conflict. There is hardly any sense of belonging, motivation declines and frustration appears.
Phase 3: Normalization ( Norming )
This is the stage in which group cohesion is strengthened. Objectives and roles are clarified, problems are resolved by consensus, and group competence increases. The team's cohesion increases, and each member likes to belong to it and identifies with it.
Phase 4: Performance
In this integration phase, the team functions effectively and efficiently. Problems are solved and constructive efforts to finish the job appear. Energy is directed toward effective work.
Phase 5: Termination/Dissolution ( Adjourning )
At this stage, the group considers its dissolution. Its members can undertake new tasks or projects, feeling good about what they have achieved.
Leadership
Whenever there is a group, leadership appears. Often, the leader is someone imposed by the position, but this does not imply leadership. “Leading is having the ability to influence people in order to achieve a common goal” (Acosta, 2017). This does not reside so much in what is done as in the way of doing it: directing emotions in a positive direction, with optimism and enthusiasm (resonance).
You can manage without leading, but leadership without direction is unsustainable. Management “brings down to earth” the ideas and aspirations of leadership. The main differences between the two are reflected in the following table (Guilera, 2016):
People who run: People who lead:
They control when something should be done, how it should be done, and how much it will cost. They define what needs to be done and why.
They guide the day-to-day, seeking results and efficiency. They are interested above all in the long term.
They prefer a stable and predictable context. They prefer flexibility and innovation to stability and control.
They have the ability to solve problems. They have divergent thinking and creativity.
They base their decisions on rigorous data analysis and diagnostics. They base their decisions on intuition and vision.
They calculate the risks assumed. They take calculated risks.
They take advantage of opportunities and alliances within the organization. They seek external opportunities and alliances.
They satisfy their superiors. They motivate in an individualized way.