This is the fourth part of a series I am writing about the essential elements that bring a team together. Previously we have looked at purpose and goal setting and now we have got the basic conceptional elements outlined we can move on to pragmatics, starting with leadership.
Teams need leaders and while some argue that a team is a collective ultimately it needs to be structured in such a way that provides clarity and direction but also accountability and responsibility. If we are not careful plurality can confuse levels of accountability and for this reason I favour the "captain of he ship' approach.
Leaders vary in their approaches and usually act within the capabilities of their personality as ultimately leadership is expressed on an individual level with the majority of leadership skills being about interpersonal (i.e. communicative and motivational) skills. Leaders are responsible for a variety of things including picking the team, breaking down goals into tasks and delegate to team members. Additionally they should be focused on vision and other "bigger picture" elements such as creating / maintaining the strategic narrative of the organisation and nurturing and developing team members.
Leaders are also key in terms of tracking progress against goals and effectively steering the ship to ensure the team remain on course.
The leader defines the culture of the team and its environment so it is important to have a clear idea of how the team is to function. The leader should model the behaviours they want from their team. This culture includes how communication works, which should not only be top down but bottom up with trust and candour at its heart.
In my resources I have developed what I have called the servant model in which both leaders and members serve. This opposes the world view of many organisations who tend to see things from a top down view and this is why in the short term so called "psychopathic leaders" are very effective while their goals are aligned initially with the organisation they are leading, but in the longer term can actually be harmful to the organisation as their selfish unfeeling approach creates more problems than it solves and usually in big organisations they leave with a golden handshake and somebody else has to step in and clear up the mess they created.
One final thing is that leaders absolutely have to stay on top of tensions within the team and between their members. Conflicts when they arise should be managed quickly and effectively, nip them in the bud before they become a festering sore.
As always stay safe and stay well.
