Developing Teams

Developing Teams

As a new manager, developing an effective and winning team is a core component of attaining success, both in the short and long term. An effective manager seeks a winning team based on its characteristics and individual team members. Developing a new team requires a manager to understand that human resources are the most critical assets for the organization (Mind Tools Team, 2018). The important component of successful teams in the drive to attain better results based on the core values that define individual employees. As a new manager, developing a team is one of the initial critical aspects of effective management. Therefore, this paper explains how, as a manager, one can create a diverse team of employees who possess various strengths and methods to be used to improve team dynamics. In its last part, it describes two management approaches to align the team with the company’s vision.

Creating a Diverse Team

Knowing the culture of a business is essential because it drives people, irrespective of their backgrounds. In her article, Molly Brenan (2015) shows that institutions and organizations should move from collective good intention to building diverse leadership teams to attain optimal performance and better results. Evidence suggests that diverse teams produce better results and allow a company to attain a competitive advantage in the marketplace and industry. Diverse teams also experience reduced employee turnover, provide greater benefits, and get a competitive edge when seeking top talent. Therefore, to build a different team, a manager must customize their team vision and strategy. The implication is the manager must customize what he or she implies by diversity.

Diversity matters should be a priority for the team (Brenan, 2015). Secondly, a manager should focus on building the strengths of individual team members to attain overall and common goals by the team. The implication is that the manager should suggest how the team can leverage the strengths of individual members. Thirdly, the manager should understand that employees have different strengths based on their development experiences, achievements, and needs. As such, the manager should gather certain information on how the members of the team need to succeed in their roles. Through this approach, they will feel positive concerning the need to develop themselves (Taylor, 2018). For instance, a manager can understand the strengths of each employee by asking each to take an assessment test to know their areas where each can do better or best. Through this, a manager determines the kind of roles and responsibilities that each member should be assigned or given. The manager can also institute training programs to ensure that members who have knowledge gaps are also equipped with information to assess their strengths and accomplish each task offered to them. Through engaging and performance-based conversations, the manager can understand the strengths of each member and increase diverse views and ideas for better results.

Methods to enhance Team Dynamics

Improving team dynamics is essential in attaining the teamwork approach and ensuring that teams work effectively. When people work in groups, they take on unique roles and behaviors. These roles and behaviors affect members of the groups and the team as a whole. A team that has positive dynamics flourishes and accomplishes its goals and responsibilities. Positive team dynamics lead to trust among members as they work to fulfill a collective goal (Caramela, 2018).

Further, they make collective decisions, and everyone has a role in ensuring that things happening. Positive dynamics lead to creativity and innovative ideas in teams. Several methods can be used to enhance team dynamics. Firstly, as a manager, one must know their team. A manager knows his or her team by learning concepts like group phases so that they can preempt problems that may emerge. The leader should also identify both positive and negative roles and their effects on the group. Secondly, the manager should define the roles and responsibilities of each member. A manager can implement this task by creating a charter for a team that defines mission and objective as well as each member’s responsibilities (Mind Tools Team, 2018).

Thirdly, enhancing team dynamics requires a manager to address and tackle any problem immediately or quickly so that it does not affect the overall morale of employees. It is essential that a manager provide feedback to demonstrate the effect of a team member’s actions and encourage them to reflect on what they can do to alter their behaviors (Caramela, 2018). Effective communication, breaking of any barriers and enhance a team’s culture are other methods that a manager can use to enhance team dynamics.

Management Techniques to align the team to Company’s Mission

Teams where members are aligned to their mission can attain better outcomes faster. Further, employees always enjoy a greater sense of teamwork and less likely to leave the organization. As a manager, communication is an essential tool to help team members align with the mission of the company. Communication should be consistent with regular feedback and strategic plans that should be accomplished by the team (Lavoie, 2016). Managers that provide consistent feedback help employees to focus on their performance. Feedback is an essential component of effective and consistent communication that allows the teams to attain better outcomes. Secondly, tasks should be allocated properly and equitably based on resources. The manager must assign the right tasks to the right people based on their strengths with the aim of ensuring that the team succeeds (Johnson, 2014). Tasks are meant to challenge team members so that they can grow and improve their performance. For instance, through consistent feedback, the employer will know the employee’s plans so that they can be transformed into assignments and projects.

References

Brenan, M. (2015). Five Ways to Build Diverse, Inclusive Leadership Teams. Retrieved from

https://ssir.org/articles/entry/five_ways_to_build_diverse_inclusive_leadership_teams

Caramela, S. (2018). 4 Ways to Improve Your Team Dynamics. Retrieved from

https://www.business.com/articles/improve-team-dynamics/

Johnson, A. (2014). How to get employees to align with the company’s mission? Retrieved

from https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/growth-strategies/2014/06/how-to-get-employees-to-align-with-company-mission.html

Lavoie, A. (2016).  3 Steps for Aligning Your Organizational Goals.

Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275768

Mindtools Team (2018). Improving Group Dynamics. Retrieved from

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/improving-group-dynamics.htm

Taylor, T. A. (2018). Diversity, Inclusion, and Culture: How to Build Great Teams. Retrieved

from https://open.nytimes.com/diversity-inclusion-and-culture-steps-for-building-great-teams-ca157bd98c07