{"id":10308,"date":"2016-11-30T18:32:42","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T18:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/?p=10308"},"modified":"2016-11-30T21:10:54","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T21:10:54","slug":"leadership-is-key-to-harnessing-the-power-of-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/leadership-is-key-to-harnessing-the-power-of-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership is Key to Harnessing the Power of Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>As a manager, you need to ensure that your team is a good example of team effectiveness.<\/strong><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10312\" src=\"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/twork.jpg\" alt=\"Team leaders meeting\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/twork.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/twork-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>\n<p>A scout leader was trying to lift a fallen tree from the path. His pack gathered around to watch him struggle. \u201cAre you using all your strength?\u201d one of the scouts asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes!\u201d was the exhausted and exasperated response.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. You are not using all your strength,\u201d the scout replied. \u201cYou haven\u2019t asked us to help you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Good managers have always fostered teamwork. But highly effective leaders are now showing the performance power of building a team-based organization. When effectively organized and led, teams:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Multiply an organization\u2019s flexibility and response times<\/li>\n<li>Flatten vertical hierarchies and smash functional chimneys<\/li>\n<li>Provide a vehicle for wide scale participation in organization change and improvement efforts<\/li>\n<li>Turn involvement and empowerment rhetoric into reality<\/li>\n<li>Expand jobs and elevate the sense of purpose and meaning they provide<\/li>\n<li>Foster a spirit of community, cooperation, and belonging<\/li>\n<li>Build the commitment of those people who will ultimately make \u2014 or break \u2014 any organization change or improvement effort<\/li>\n<li>Harness the improvement energy and ideas of everyone throughout the organization<\/li>\n<li>Become the key unit of organizational learning through sharing collective experiences and multiplying intellectual power<\/li>\n<li>Replace command and control discipline with far more powerful and lasting self and peer discipline<\/li>\n<li>Improve communications and deepen understanding of change and improvement decisions being made<\/li>\n<li>Produce better problem solving and more thorough decision making<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Where teams have been effectively organized and led, the list of team outcomes have led to dramatic improvements in productivity, customer service, quality, process management, innovation, cost effectiveness, job satisfaction, morale, and financial performance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Leading Teams: We Have Got To Take It Personally<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If you would create something you must be something.<br \/>\n\u2013 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 18th century German poet<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Most managers grew up in a command and control era. In those days, a \u201cstrong leader\u201d was a decisive problem solver who was a tough disciplinarian. He (most were men) \u201ctook control\u201d and \u201cmade things happen.\u201d Teamwork was when everyone rallied and pulled together to meet the leader\u2019s goals and follow his direction.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s tough to change those deeply ingrained values and approaches. In our workshops and consulting, some days it feels like we see a never-ending stream of \u201cold school\u201d managers (some of the worst can be newer and younger managers) who are struggling to transform themselves into effective team developers and leaders.<\/p>\n<p>It can be done. It is being done. Our team\u2019s effectiveness depends largely upon our effectiveness as a leader. Our team leadership effectiveness hinges on:<\/p>\n<p><strong>My level of self-confidence.<\/strong> Sharing power and developing others to do what I used to do is almost impossible if I am insecure. If I draw much of my self worth from how well others \u201clisten up and follow my orders,\u201d I am going to have a tough time empowering and developing a strong team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A new view of my job<\/strong>. A strong team leader knows that his or her job is not to be the main problem solver. That just ensures more upward delegation and an ever-weakening team. Rather, strong team leaders make sure teams \u2014 well equipped and supported to solve them \u2014 are solving the right problems.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Servant-leadership.<\/strong> Our job is to direct and guide our teams. But we\u2019re also there to serve them. They are our \u201ccustomers\u201d (although \u201cpartners\u201d is generally more appropriate). So what\u2019s my performance gap? How do I know? What\u2019s my personal improvement plan for closing my biggest gaps?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strong team leadership skills.<\/strong> A Fortune poll found that \u201ca team player and team leader\u201d was the most important skill CEOs felt an MBA should have. This is also the single biggest factor in our confidence levels with teams. There\u2019s a strong relationship between our skills at facilitating a team discussion, handling conflict, encouraging and capitalizing on diversity, keeping a meeting on track, building a team\u2019s effectiveness, etc., and our enthusiasm for teams.<\/p>\n<p>A strong, effective management team. As a manager, we need to ensure that our team is a good example of team effectiveness. That provides a model and authentic team leadership for everyone else.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.clemmer.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Clemmer<\/a> is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop\/retreat leader, and management team developer on leadership, change, customer focus, culture, teams, and personal growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a manager, you need to ensure that your team is a good example of team effectiveness. A scout leader was trying to lift a fallen tree from the path. His pack gathered around to watch him struggle. \u201cAre you using all your strength?\u201d one of the scouts asked. \u201cYes!\u201d was the exhausted and exasperated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10308"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10344,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions\/10344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}