Ways an Organization Can Build more Effective Teams

A team is a small number of employees who possess complementary skills, who trust one another, are committed to the team’s goals and purpose, and each member holds themselves responsible for accomplishing those goals. Effective teams are put together by choosing team members who have the required technical or functional expertise, along with problem-solving, decision-making, and interpersonal skills [Bateman, 2018]. Benefits to building a team include:

• Increase productivity, improve quality, and reduce costs
• Enhance speed and be powerful forces for innovation and change
• Team members can provide feedback to one another; identify opportunities for growth and development; and train, coach, and mentor each other.

What can a manager do to design a truly effective team? Team effectiveness is defined by three criteria: productive output, satisfaction of team members personal needs, and commitment of team members to work together. To develop these qualities, managers can provide teams the opportunity to engage in team-building activities or work with an outside coach. Team building involves activities that help build or strengthen relationships among team members [Bateman, 2018]

Traits demonstrated by effective team leaders

Effective team leaders demonstrate personality traits that they are not necessarily born with but strive to acquire. Effective leaders have integrity, honesty and credibility, which inspires trust in their team members. Trust is what separates a leader from a manager. When the team has trust in the leader, they feel confident in sharing their opinions, they feel free to openly offer input, and know that if the leader pushes them to do better, he does so for the sake of the team as well as the organization [Walter, 2015]. These leaders are motivated to lead, are determined and driven to achieve and are always striving for improvement. They persist even in the face of obstacles and they take initiative. They are self-confident which is important because they will need to overcome obstacles, make decisions when faced with uncertainty. Their self-confidence instills confidence in their team members. Effective team leaders also have a high level of knowledge about the industry, the company, and technical matters of the business in which they are involved. Finally, the most important skill is the ability to recognize the needs and goals of others and to make adjustments to the personal leadership approach as needed. “Effective leaders do not rely on one leadership style; rather, they are capable of using different styles as the situation warrants.. [Bateman, 2018]”

How an organization ensures the team leads are exhibiting the traits of an effective team leader

An organization can look at what the team leads do and how they motivate the team to get job done. They can look at the task performance behaviors to determine the team leads efforts to ensure that the team reaches its goals. Task performance is the actions the team leader takes to ensure that the team reaches its goals. The organization can look at the work speed, the quality and accuracy, production output, and how team members are following the rules. If a team lead is exhibiting traits of an effective team leader, it will show in the job performance of the group [Bateman, 2018].

The organization can also look at the group maintenance behaviors exhibited by the leader. Group maintenance behavior shows the actions team leaders take to ensure the satisfaction of the team members. The team leader provides the team with team-building exercises to build and strengthen work relationships. Group maintenance shows that the team leaders is genuinely concerned for and supportive of the team, shows appreciation of them, and relieves team stress where possible. This type of leader behavior has a positive impact on team member satisfaction and motivation [Bateman, 2018].

Finally, the organization can observe the team leaders influence, integrity, communication skills, willingness to delegate, and ability to be respectful, kind, and fair in all interactions with the team [Scott, 2019].

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