Question

imagine that you are the leader of a newly formed self-managed work team. The team includes 12 people, all from different functions and departments within the organization. How will you lead your team through the various stages of team development?   How will you handle challenges that arise?

Answer 1

A major challenge a manager has to face is in moving the team through the various stages of team development. For a manager who has less experience of teams and team dynamics taking over a team and then leading that team can be a very stressful experience. A manager should know about the various stages of developing a team and should know how to move the team through these stages with the minimum stress.

In 1970s Psychologist, B.W Tuckman developed this model and Tuckman suggests that there are four team development stages that teams have to go through in order to be productive.

These four stages are:

Forming: this is when the team meets and starts to work together for the first time.

Storming :this is when the members within the team start to "jockey" for position and when control struggles take place.

Norming: this is when rules are finalised and accepted and when team rules start being adhered to.

Performing: this when the team starts to produce through effective and efficient working practices.

My role as a Manager will be go through the four stages fairly rapidly and move from forming through to performing in a relatively short space of time. A lot depends on the composition of the team, the capabilities of the individuals, the tasks at hand, and of course the leadership from management. No team passes over the storming phase. All teams must be prepared to go through the difficult and stressful times as well as reaping the benefits of the productive phases. My Task as a manager is to identify where along the path of team development ,my team is and then move it on to the next phase with the minimum resistance.
Let’s dig more at each of the stages in detail.

Forming:
This is a stressful phase when new teams come together. Everyone will be a bit wary of each other, particularly if they do not know anyone The first meeting is a nervous one and here as a good manager I will recognize this and make attempts to ensure the team is put at ease. As the forming stage is the stage where cliques can develop, my role as manager is to be aware of this and various alliances that will occur at this stage. Not all alliances will be counter-productive to the team’s future success but it my duty would be to watch and observe the behaviours of potential cliques. My challenge at this point is basically to give an inert group of people who hardly know each the best start possible as a new team.

I will have an open discussion right at the start of the team’s task and enable this to happen with the result that people feel they have been listened to; they have been able to contribute; they know the rules and regulations by which the team will operate and they now have a greater appreciation of the people they are working with.


Storming:
Storming is a challenging phase.it always seems to come as a surprise, no matter how well the I as a manager might have prepared and led the team up till now. This is where the my leadership qualities will be tested to the full.

Storming usually arises as a result of confused and unclear goals, roles and rules. This results in confusion when different behaviors are evident and conflicts can arise with the potential for factions being created within the team.

During this stage I will coach both individuals and the team, support them and ensure agreement as regards what specifically the goals, roles and rules are with respect to the team and to each and every individual.

I will try to go over and above the agreements made to the team during the forming stage and ensure that the understanding is uniform across the team. The earlier in the storming stage this is revisited the better.

Once the manager has got team through the storming phase they have to be aware of a challenge that can come out of the blue. And that is the challenge of a new member. No sooner has a manager got their team through the "storm" then it is joined by a new member who then starts to question the ways of working and potentially starts to destabilise the team. All new members to the team must be made aware of the team goals, roles and rules before they join and they must be made aware of the process that is in place or the giving and receiving of feedback if they have any suggestions as to how they can improve the ways of working for the team. This is an area where mostly managers lose the progress that they have made with their team.I will take the time out to bring a new member up to speed with all the rules, roles and goals, I will provide the new member join the team with alot of a briefing.

Norming.

This is the stage where the rules and regulations are being adhered to and people are working together positively. Relationships become stronger as people are more aware of each other. Strengths and weaknesses are realized and utilized accordingly. Norming is characterized by acceptance. Whereas in the storming stage, people were apt to rebel very quickly, this is now not the case and if someone has a grievance, complaint or suggestion then the proper processes are used and people tend to be listened to. My role here as manager in this stage is to ensure that this calm continues and that any behaviours that arise that may threaten the calm are channelled in the right direction. I will play an important role in conveying information particularly in relation to the successes that are starting to occur within the team. I will be spending a lot of time with individual team members coaching them and supporting them to develop their capabilities that relate to the individual’s team role and the tasks that they have to perform in relation to the team goals.


Performing.

Few teams make it to the performing stage. Many get stuck at Norming and although everything appears normal, there is a lack of momentum and motivation towards achieving the all-important team goals.

At the performing stage team members really concentrate on the team goals and are determined to work towards them.. They are also aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the team, and they appreciate these, and also work towards developing the weaknesses. This is a period of great personal growth among team members.My role as manager at this stage will be to play very much a non-directive role, concentrating on strategy to plan the next way forward. The team will be in many ways, self-directing, perhaps even self-appraising with the manager taking very much a back-seat role. My role will be to facilitate communication and ensure that the successes are communicated and rewarded.