Why we are not serious about developing team leaders?
In many of the organisations I work with, I find that teams are a protective factor against the adverse effects of stress and burnout. We know that team leaders and managers play a critical role in the team’s performance and their engagement. Yet many organizations are missing an opportunity to seriously develop team leader capability
In a recent survey Gallop found that 70% of the variability in team engagement was determined solely by what the manager did. Frontline managers are the most critical lever to lifting engagement.
The 6 things team leaders do to increase engagement and performance
Whilst Gallop didn’t ask this question, I would speculate that those team leaders having success in achieving high engagement in their teams are doing 6 things:
- Leverage the inter-connectivity of tasks across the team members;
- Leverage the diversity within their teams (especially cognitive and gender diversity)
- Link the team’s work to a compelling and agreed purpose
- Regularly review the team’s norms related to how they relate to each other, the work, and their stakeholders;
- Influence the wider organisation by promoting the team’s work to stakeholders who can then advocate for the team
- Encourage peer to peer coaching across all team members.
Uplifting skills needed to lead teams
Unfortunately, many of organisations I have worked with and continue to work with miss the opportunity to prioritise the development of team leaders. Many of them have leadership programs that focus on executives and managers, but they often fail to include a systematic process for building capability in their team leaders to lead teams. Many team leaders are promoted to those roles because of their technical expertise, yet that does not necessarily translate to skills required in building and maintaining high performance in their team. Why is this so? What impact would you expect by implementing a systemic capability uplift in Leading Teams?
To learn more about 6 ways to lead high performing teams check out 6teamconditions.com
To read more about Gallops recent survey.