Building Relationships to Build Success
Recently, I read an interesting article by Susan Fowler in which she explored the different ways you might lead a group compared to leading a team. It kind of stopped me in my tracks because in all my years of being a leader I’ve never thought to differentiate between teams and groups.
According to Susan, if each person’s job influences another’s success, then it is a team. Conversely, if there is no interdependence and group members work independently, even with a common job description, then it is a group.
This group versus team idea is intriguing. As I began to ponder, I started to wonder if some of the difficulties encountered by organisations occur as a result of teams acting like groups and groups being judged for not acting like a team.
Teams Acting as Groups
Most organisations are led by a senior leadership team. The two main purposes of this team are to ensure the organisation functions well and to deliver the organisation’s strategy. Senior leaders are generally given specific areas of responsibility as well as being expected to progress the organisation’s strategy.
Senior leaders that work as a team understand how their work impacts on and contributes to the success of the other leaders. They trust one another and remain open to the ideas of others. They seek feedback and are willing to participate in vigorous debates ahead of decisions. Senior leaders who work as a team achieve more collectively than they would working on their own.
Senior leaders working as a group generally value delivering in their specific area of responsibility above delivering the organisation-wide strategy. They exhibit low trust towards others in the team and react defensively to any suggestions as to how they might do their job more effectively. They pay little attention to how their work impacts the success or otherwise of others. The challenge for a team that is acting like a group is that whilst each member might be high performing, their delivery is limited to individual contributions rather than the exponential impact that comes from collaborations. We know that a champion team will always beat a team of champions.
Groups Expected to Act as Teams
Consider middle leaders — the leaders that sit between the senior leaders and the teams of people doing the work at the coal (or chalk) face. When middle leaders are working in the organisation, assuming they are effective, they will be leading a collaborative team.
The challenge comes when organisations bring middle leaders together and expect them to act as a team. If there is no interdependency between the middle leaders then they are a group not a team. In this situation it should surprise no-one that middle leaders will advocate for solutions and strategies that provide the greatest benefit for their team. If you find yourself wishing that your middle leaders team would act as collaboratively with each other as they do with their teams, then you know they are a group.
Turning Groups into Teams
First and foremost, make sure that the group needs to be a team. Remember, to be a team there needs to be interdependency. If the answer is no, then only bring the group together for information sharing and meet individually to listen to their advocacy.
If the answer is yes, and you want the group to act as a team, then here are some actions you might take:
- Relationship Building
Help the leaders to get to know each other better. Through relationships, people discover what is important to others and will often uncover ways that they can help each other be more successful. Relationship building will be events designed for people to get to know each other better and to make connections. Be wary of team building activities if you are trying to build relationships. Getting people who don’t know each other well to work as a team to solve a challenge may backfire on you. - Team Building
Figure out the purpose and shared goals for the team. This can be surprisingly difficult to do. If the team gets stuck trying to figure out their purpose, work out the shared goals and use them to inform the purpose. Once the purpose and shared goals are agreed then you will be able to start identifying the interdependencies of your everyday work together. It is often wise to use an external facilitator to do this team building work as they can bring experience and perspective to this important work.
Isn’t it great, that as leaders, we still have so much to learn?