Leadership, team spirit and effective team development: 4 steps to the Dream Team!

Successful teamwork does not work by itself

Just looking for a few employees, stuck together in a room and you're out of the number? Unfortunately it is not that easy. To make a group a successful one Team must be a process that takes place in several phases and above all time is needed.

And your support as a leader: You must also actively participate and consider how you can actively promote and support your employees during the individual development phases.

1. Nibbling and learning

The most important thing with a (even only partial) newly assembled team: First of all, all have to get to know each other and establish contact with each other. Who is there, what can he or she particularly good, what can be expected from the individual members? For this classification a lot of time and energy is needed, so the group at this point is not yet fully powerful with regard to the actual task.

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As a leader, you should instruct your team in this phase to provide security and guidance - and get the ball rolling. You may already know some strengths and weaknesses of the individual employees. So, temporarily determine who is doing what and when. Important: Check the work results regularly at short intervals. With this structuring, controlling and supervising leadership, you help the members of the group clarify their relationships and positions and find their tasks.

2. Define roles, set game rules

The second phase of team development focuses on the following questions: "Who has which influence and which power here?" "Who has what rights?" As a team leader, too, you are particularly critically observed and evaluated in your leadership role. In this phase, it is therefore crucial that you underpin your position and gain real acceptance as a manager. Go on to explain to your employees in more detail how and why you make which decision. Start by involving your team in clarifying certain questions. In this way, you train first joint decision-making.

In this phase, the group must jointly decide which "rules of the game" they would like to work with in the following. “One for all and all for one” is nice - but the cooperation needs a few fixed rules to promote the performance of the group and to ensure the progress of the joint work. At this point, the following questions should therefore be answered and the corresponding rules laid down:

• Who exercises which function?
• How is this function to be exercised?
• How are violations of the rules sanctioned?

Even if it is annoying: It is important to clarify these questions directly at the beginning of the teamwork. Otherwise the worst is always discussed about roles, rules and behaviors. This means not only a loss of time and energy, but there is also the risk that the performance will not develop further and the group will remain at this stage. As long as your employees are still debating who owns what role, rights and influence, it is your job as a leader to intervene in the decision-making process. Provide clear frameworks and goals - but be careful to always be fair, clear and clear.

3. Start the actual cooperation

Once the power struggles are over, things can finally get started. Then the first characteristics of "real teams" can already be observed: There is a will among the members to work together and the interest in making the group efficient. The team is now able to discuss ideas and ideas and make decisions together. Members also begin to discuss, evaluate and value each other's performance. An economic view of the planning and execution of the tasks develops.

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As a leader you can now lean back almost relaxed. It is important to keep an eye on the work of your team and to support the team by giving a lot of attention and recognition to the commitment of all members. Through positive feedback you encourage and strengthen independent action. The team's further learning tasks are now to develop flexible, creative and effective problem-solving strategies, optimize workflows, and leverage the resources and resources available. If these tasks are successfully managed, your team can become a real high-performance team in the fourth step.

4. Closed unit with high productivity

The fourth and final phase of team development is characterized by a familiar and informal approach among the team members. The group now sees itself as a closed unit and is also concerned with its task and positioning within the organization. At this point the exchange with other teams is also sought and positively stimulating. Positions and roles are clearly distributed, the team is now a closed and powerful unit and has qualified to take responsibility for decisions and their implementation.

As a manager, you are probably faced with the most difficult task: you have to let go and allow your team to be competent. Transfer responsibility, delegate decisions and enable your team to work independently! However, this does not mean that the team is now free from fools. This freedom should be based on regular target agreements so that the focus is not lost. The rule “The goal is fixed, the way is free” applies to you. In the case of a really competent team, you, as a manager, must also accept that the team may take other ways, which you are not used to, to achieve the set goal.

Conclusion: Do you already have a high-performance team?

If your team has successfully completed all four development phases with your support, you can determine the following features:

• Mutual interest and appreciation
• Maintenance of communication and interaction
• Mutual support
• Harmonious work climate
• Above-average commitment
• Strong sense of feeling
• Clear objective
• Identification with common goals
• A willingness to take responsibility
• Effective time and project planning
• Constructive conflict management
• Integration of the team into the overall organization

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