A typical leadership team resembles a pyramid. The leader is at the top, and executive team members are at the base. It’s the power structure of most organizations in miniature. That hierarchy, however, doesn’t usually work for high performing teams. A high performing team’s structure more often resembles a circle. The leader does not occupy a place of prominence anywhere on the circle; he or she acts much like a member of the team. This kind of team leadership model is used at many levels of NASA (rated #1 for leadership of all American Federal agencies in 2012), and their engineering teams often have no leader at all.
A Circle of Peers
When an executive team operates as a group of peers, the model is a circle. Everyone has their role to play, and the leader has a particular kind of role within the team. Leaders willing to sit in the circle believe that the collective strength of the team is stronger when all of the team members share responsibility for the teams performance. In this structure, the leader is accountable to the team, just as the team is accountable to the leader. Everyone takes ownership of the group’s goals.
It is important that the leader never forget that he or she is the leader. Leaders don’t abdicate their responsibility. Much of it is shared with the team, but not totally given up. It is still the leader’s role:
to keep the team working in the right direction,
to address dynamic problems between members,
and to make decisions when the team may is stuck or has reached an impasse.
They are responsible for ensuring everyone is performing adequately, and to address people who are not. This is not to say team members cannot make decisions or address another member’s poor performance. It’s just that these are usually tasks for the leader.
Respect
For a team to be high performing, it must consistently meet its goals over an extended period of time. One of the most important aspects of a high performing team is mutual respect. When a leader treats his or her team like equals, this respect is reciprocal.
It is both the role that the leader chooses and the values that are implied by the leader’s behaviour that help create high performing teams.
|
David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
