Achieving Superior Results: Recognizing the Immense Value of a Team
Teams rivet themselves to the vision more easily than individuals working alone. With regular accountability and collaboration, teams can more clearly assess potential hindrances and trajectories of decisions, observing how an action done on the front lines of the organization either reinforces or sabotages the company vision.
Part 1: Live the Values
Ultimately, our potential as leaders will be determined not by born leadership abilities, but by letting ourselves be crafted through circumstances, instruction, observations, reflection, failures, and renewed efforts. Leaders who make the greatest impact have spent years in the leadership development process themselves. Organizations rise and fall based on a firm set of values. And one of the most reliable ways to build credibility inside and outside our team is to Walk the Talk.
NORMING & PERFORMING
After the first two stages of team development, the third stage is called norming – the time when the team is actively working together. During the norming stage, most teams have achieved an open climate where team members express emotions constructively, willingly and confidently contribute to the team, and demonstrate caring attitudes about the team and organization. In this third stage team members are consciously skilled. The final stage of team development is performing – the time when the team is fully functional as individual members and in collaboration with other team members. During this fourth stage, team members are unconsciously skilled. Consequently, team members comfortably reveal their true selves and self-identify as an integral member of the team.
FORMING & STORMING
We can learn from the past. Past leaders. Past events. Past lessons. Several years ago, the National Research Laboratories examined successful teams from World War II to determine if there were common dynamics that contributed to their success. Their research defined four stages of successful team development. The first stage for team development is forming – the time when a team first comes together. The second stage of team development is called storming – the time when team members struggle with identifying their place within the team.