Since 2003, Dr. Maria Simpson's weekly eColumn, Two Minute Training, has been a welcomed source of information on leadership and team development for a select group of readers. Now, the first collection of these columns is available to the public in Leading Unstoppable Teams! Written for the organizational practitioner and based on her experience as consultant, executive coach, and mediator, these tips and ideas provide important information on how to encourage a team to higher performance and how to develop the skills necessary to become an effective team leader. Leading Unstoppable Teams! is a handy reference for managers when a quick update or answer is needed, and can serve as the basis of management and leadership training programs. Short and focused on a single idea, each of the 57 articles provides the quick, practical answers to questions that pop up in today's organizations. Its style and approach match the specific needs of today's leaders and managers and those who are preparing to take on leadership roles in the future. Readers' responses are enthusiastic. . . . these communication tips are timely and frankly they have begun to feel like an essential part of my personal growth. I hope you know what a difference you make in . . . people's lives! I wanted to thank you once again for your wisdom . . . and for taking the time to show genuine, positive regard for those who have had contact with you. . . Each time I read the newsletter. . . I trust that I am on the right track. Please continue to enlighten and educate, it is a gift that is appreciated and honored. Sacred work is never easy but you do that work with grace. Brilliant. Simply Brilliant.
Leading Unstoppable Teams!
The Best of "Two Minute Training"By Maria SimpsonAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2010 Maria Simpson
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4490-9219-1 Contents
Introduction.........................................................xiPart I: What Makes Teams Unstoppable.................................1Leaders Who Know How to Lead.........................................5A Sharp Focus........................................................27Trust................................................................37Motivation...........................................................57Part II: What Keeps Teams from Being Unstoppable.....................67Weak Leadership......................................................69Clashing Team Members................................................81Meetings That Waste Your Time........................................109Resistance to Change.................................................125Unresolved Conflict..................................................147Part III: From Stopped to Unstoppable................................165Sources..............................................................183Additional Sources...................................................187Index................................................................189
Chapter One
What Makes Teams Unstoppable
While different teams focus on different tasks and exert different levels of responsibility, they all have certain traits or characteristics in common.
Strong leadership. Unstoppable Teams have strong but not authoritarian leadership that allows for the creative process of disagreement; knows how to motivate and encourage people to do their best; is willing to make tough decisions when necessary, including those related to massive organizational change; and can persuade others to support a particular perspective or course of action. Interestingly, this kind of leadership is not limited to the identified leader of the team, but can be exerted by anyone on the team at the appropriate moment.
Fortune magazine devoted an entire issue to exploring teamwork (6/12/06). The articles reinforce the need for strong leadership by explaining that teams are made, not born. Putting five people into a room and calling them a team doesn't make them a team. It makes them five people in a room. "Great teamwork is an outcome; you can only create the conditions for it to flourish ... you cannot simply will it to happen." And creating the conditions is the role of the team leader.
A sharp focus. Unstoppable Teams maintain a sharp focus on goals and a unanimous commitment to these goals. Teams are not effective when there is a conflict between personal and organizational goals, or if the goals are so unclear that no single action or decision is any better or more effective than any other. The team may be Unstoppable, but it is probably going in the wrong direction.
From teams led by Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs to corporate successes such as Mastercard and Levittown, the Fortune articles focus on the dynamics among the team members that made them successful. They cited Lockheed's Skunk Works and Apple's Macintosh as examples of teams that are absolutely committed to the organization's goal. There are no personal agendas to distract energy or attention, and that singular commitment results in meeting impossible deadlines. As the authors report, "The caffeine-fueled software team once debugged for 48 hours straight rather than face [Jobs] without having finished the task."
Another example is Levittown, a "massed-produced suburb," that took the ideas of Henry Ford's production line and moved them to another industry, home building, with one key change: The item being built didn't move as cars on the production line did. The people building the houses moved, and the product remained stationary. It was a remarkable achievement.
Working in teams of two or three in a precise, 26-step choreography, the framers, the painters, the installers, the electricians, and so on would do their assigned task - and move on to the next home, over and over. At the peak of production, the building teams could complete 36 homes a day, a home every 15 minutes.
"Remarkable" is an understatement.
Individual success does not necessarily translate to team success, nor does success on one team translate to success on another. Films with great casts flop, Eisner and Ovitz fought, and American all-star teams in both baseball and basketball lost badly to teams with far less experience and talent. As the authors quote Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 USA Olympics miracle hockey team, "I'm not lookin' for the best players ... I'm lookin' for the right players."
Mutual trust. Unstoppable Teams have a strong sense of mutual trust that allows the open communications so necessary to explore issues, disagree productively, and maintain the relationships necessary to be successful. Unless team members trust each other, personally and professionally, the team will not be able to engage in the sometimes difficult conversations so necessary to being Unstoppable. Teams with trust and good communications raise difficult issues, disagree without getting personal, know how to settle the disagreement, and are not afraid to ask questions that challenge the current wisdom.
The Fortune issue on teams describes the development of the "Priceless" campaign by McCann Erickson for Mastercard. One of the team members explains, "We were very comfortable working together, so we debated everything freely." As we'll see in one of the articles included here, leaders embrace conflict, not avoid it, and use the process productively.
Trust and open communications also mean sharing important information, not hoarding it as a sign of control or power. Thomas Edison's team included people from all over the world. "He was never the lone inventor," says Bill Pretzer, curator of the Edison collection at the Henry Ford Museum." It was "his ability to tap into their skills that turned his half-formed visions into an astonishing stream of workable products."
Motivation and recognition. Members of Unstoppable Teams are motivated and recognized to maintain their commitment to the goals and to each other. Something has to make team members want to be Unstoppable. An effective leader will understand what that motivation is for each team member, and whether that motivation comes from internal or external sources. Teamwork doesn't just happen. It has to be nurtured by leaders who create an environment for success and team members who are committed to ensuring that success.
In this section, we'll look in detail at these four characteristics of Unstoppable Teams, and see how this information can be applied to your leadership style and the success of your team.
Leaders Who Know How to Lead
In The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner define leadership as "... the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations." (p. 30, their emphasis) I'm not entirely sure everyone wants to have a sense of "struggle," but team members will work very hard over long hours if they believe in the leader, believe in the goal, and want to prove they can meet the challenge. The authors also say:
We want [leaders] to be credible, and we want them to have a sense of direction. Leaders must be able to stand before us and express an attractive image of the future - and we must be able to believe that they have the ability to take us there." (p. 29)
In short, they have to make us believe that they know how to lead.
The concept of leadership can be discussed in several different frameworks, from the role of the leader in relation to the stages of organizational development, to the type of change supported by leadership, to whether or not your style of leadership is emotionally intelligent, to making the best of the conflicts that occur in teams.
The articles in this section take a look at this range of topics and how they can help you develop a leadership style that supports an Unstoppable Team and its challenges.
Eight Steps to Demonstrating Leadership
For some reason, many people think there is some magic to leadership, and that they can demonstrate leadership only if they achieve a certain status or learn "the secret."
Not true. People demonstrate leadership at all levels and in many different situations. Not being in the top ranks of your organization does not preclude you from demonstrating leadership. It just means you demonstrate it on different issues or in different situations. Planning the distribution of a new product or designing a new tracking system takes as much leadership as spotting the market changes that create the need for the new product in the first place.
Knowing how to demonstrate leadership will help you create a strong presence and be recognized in that role.
1. Understand the leader's role. Many managers fail as leaders because they never make the mental shift from managing to leading, from supervising the work of others to inspiring it, from working in the present to planning for the future. Until you make this shift, you will continue to manage or execute, but not distinguish yourself as a leader. (See Eblin, The Next Level, for an excellent discussion of this difference.)
2. Articulate your vision-over and over again. Communicate a clear purpose and direction. Be clear about what you want to accomplish, how you will accomplish it, and what roles others will play in your plan. Without clear direction, you will lose your own focus, and confidence in your leadership will wane. People need to know why they are working or they will begin to think their work has no purpose. And there go morale and motivation.
3. Build relationships and garner support. As you establish relationships with others, your actions generate trust and confidence. When you want to move toward your vision or take a new direction, the trust and confidence you have developed with others will prompt them to support your ideas. You have a network that you can count on. It's important not to endanger the trust inherent in that network. It takes time to build, no time at all to lose, and a very long time to re-establish.
4. Persuade and inspire others. Reaching a goal is not an independent action. Leaders accomplish their goals by articulating the goals clearly, and then persuading others to follow them in pursuit of those goals. Organize your thoughts, present them clearly and persuasively, convince others that your direction is the right one to take. Being persuasive requires practice and an understanding of other people's interests so they can be addressed. Look and sound like a leader. Improve your vocabulary and presentation style. If you are not persuasive, you will gather neither followers nor resources.
5. Anticipate and address resistance. Any change, however positive, will generate resistance, however minor. Be prepared to recognize the sources of resistance, show the benefits of the changes you propose, make some difficult decisions, and help people feel safe in following you, or they won't.
6. Work through teams. The leader's job is to have the vision, see a way toward making it a reality, and convince others to share it. To make the vision concrete, find the best people to work with and trust them. Don't micromanage; support and coach them to excellence. Treat team members with respect, and recognize their contributions. Without them, your vision will never become a reality.
7. Address conflict early. A good part of leadership involves embracing conflict, not avoiding it. Disagreement points out the flaws in the plan that might make it fail so they can be addressed early, and generates the creativity needed to improve the project. Leaders know how to manage conflict and negotiate the best agreement for all parties so there is maximum commitment from everyone involved. In fact, the concept of the "conflict competent leader" is becoming more and more important in leadership development programs.
8. Execute the plan. You must act to implement all the decisions you have made. There is nothing more disappointing than someone who has a great idea, encourages and inspires others, and then never uses their energy or acts on any of the plans that have been put into place. Make the decision; take the step. Your followers are waiting for you to lead.
Developing Your Leadership Style
No matter what our title or rank in the organization, every one of us has the opportunity and capacity for leadership. When it comes our turn to lead, though, we may find ourselves asking what style to use, what role might be most effective.
Styles of leadership change based on organizational need and business circumstances. The literature describes all kinds of different leadership styles, so there is no single style that fits all situations. The goal is to fit the style to the need. Since the stages of organizational development determine the leadership style needed, it's interesting to examine how the two are connected.
Entrepreneurs. The first stage of leadership rests with the entrepreneur, the person with the big idea and the passion to see it realized. If successful, the organization becomes bigger than one person can manage, and experts in many areas are brought in to manage the larger organization. Management shifts from the loosely organized start-up to the more formally organized small business. Management can become focused on the technicalities.
Empire builders. Many leaders then focus on growing the organization, demonstrating that bigger is much better. In the time of mergers and acquisitions, these leaders were "empire builders," and for a while, not only did that approach work, but it increased the personal profiles of these leaders as well. (The New York Times, 11/10/07) There's probably some considerable ego built in here.
Fixers. Many of the mergers or acquisitions that created these empires simply didn't work, and the resulting organizations needed to be fixed. Whether these leaders were called "turn-around artists" or "fixers," they had a specific expertise that was needed to address the specific and most important problem at the time. Al Dunlop, or "Chainsaw Al" as he was called, was a turn-around artist who succeeded by selling off whole divisions and firing people en masse. It worked until his tactics almost sank Singer, so he was fired, too. The era of slash and burn was over.
Team captains. Now, a new approach to leadership seems to be one that those of us not at the top of the hierarchy have known was best, anyway - the Team Captain. While other leaders had a strong but narrow range of business expertise that was well-suited to the organization's immediate need, these new leaders combine business expertise with a collaborative style that brings the top team together and drives that approach down through the organization. There is less individual ego involved and greater people skills that make it possible for people to accept even difficult changes.
This approach is consistent with the ideas of emotional intelligence that propose that people may be hired initially for their technical expertise, but are ultimately successful because of their relationship expertise. It is also consistent with the idea that projects need teams of people committed to the goal to be successful, not just one person no matter how passionate he or she is about the concept.
Leaders respond to their times and circumstances. When someone is needed to create a new future for the organization, you need visionary leadership. When the organization is doing well, then maybe the "custodial" leader is necessary - a kind of "don't mess it up" approach. And when the organization needs fixing, then you need a real problem-solver. No matter the leadership style, though, you need a team leader to define the goal, generate commitment, and get the work done.
If you are thinking about your own leadership style and which approach to take, think first about the specific organizational need that a new leader must meet, and then think about how working with your team can meet that need. Remember, too, that the need may change from one area to another, so being flexible will be your greatest strength.
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Excerpted from Leading Unstoppable Teams!by Maria Simpson Copyright © 2010 by Maria Simpson. Excerpted by permission.
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