Page 124 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

Selecting, Building, and Developing Your Work Team 109

a climate of support for the process itself and how the process is to proceed.
Do not start without the support of key opinion leaders.

3. Create conditions for candid discussion, honesty, and objective feedback.
Model constructive behaviors that help establish a successful team. These pos-
itive behaviors focus on behavior and performance, not judgments and opin-
ions. Be descriptive rather than judgmental. Describe the effects that behavior
and practices are having on the organization rather than their motivation or
rightness or wrongness. Keep things objective, based on observed perform-
ance and effects, not labels.

4. Stay work oriented; use solid data. Team building, because it requires
analysis and feedback, is often seen as risky. People may get angry or hurt.
They may let out their emotions. Whenever possible, use projects and respon-
sibilities as the basis for team building rather than having the team analyze
only communication and dynamics. People are more willing to try new
approaches and behaviors within the context of work.
While focusing on work, the astute group leader can help the group mem-
bers build awareness of their individual behavior and performance to
strengthen their effectiveness.

5. Don’t expect changes overnight, but do expect changes. Most of our orga-
nizational and personal behavior is ingrained. For most of us, change is diffi-
cult, even when we want it. Team building should be thought of as an ongoing
process, not a single event. Your constant attention to the process of team
building, modeling helpful behaviors, providing feedback to team members
on their successes and failures, and maintaining positive expectations that
teamwork will improve—all of these will help team members unlearn dys-
functional ways and foster improved teamwork.

6. Do not raise expectations that cannot be met. Credibility and trust,
gained through a positive team-building process, are difficult to earn but easy
to lose. Be careful of promises that are not directly under your control. Orga-
nizational and political constraints frequently are limiting.
Gary, an experienced manager, brought his leadership team together at a
retreat every three months, determined that they would strengthen their work-
ing relationship and solve organizational problems. By the fourth retreat, they