The Hindu Business Line : Chemistry of corporate teams

Teamwork is a concept well known to everyone. But the chemistry and discipline it involves are not. Some important criteria for building a good team are its size, skills, purpose, approach, and accountability. Teams are assembled for different purposes. Some teams are formed to make recommendations (task forces). Others are formed to make or do things (worker teams). Quite often, teams are formed to operate and manage things (management teams).

Address hurdles

Teams that make or do things need to develop the skill of self-management as a prerequisite. Teams that recommend things find their biggest challenge when they make the handoff to those who must implement their findings. Groups that operate and manage things must address structural hurdles such as hierarchical overtones and turf issues.

An assembly of people does not per se become a team. Describing a team, Katzemback and Smith wrote: “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills, who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach — for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”

Small number is a pragmatic virtue. It is compact and ideal for collective and co-operative action. Large groups pose logistic issues that take away the vital time and energy of the team leader. Teams must possess an optimum strength of complementary skills, which may be broadly classified as technical skills, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal skills.

Purpose and response

A team’s purpose and performance goals go hand in glove. Teams develop direction, momentum, and commitment only by working together. Corporate teams usually shape their purposes in response to a demand or opportunity that they face and find in their pathway to progress.

Teams must also develop a strategic approach — that is, how they will perform together to accomplish their purpose. Team members must agree on who will do what, how schedules shall be met, which skills need development, and how the team will make or modify decisions when wanted. In other words, this step defines the modus operandi in the chemistry of teamwork.

Getting people to work together as a team depends to a large extent on the ability and attitude of the leader. The leader must clarify purpose and goals; build commitment and self-confidence among the team members; and provide opportunities for every member to participate. More important, like every other member of the team, the leader himself must roll up his sleeves and get down to hands-on work.

An effective leader always gives prominence to his team, and does not project his own personal image. All great generals have always fought their battles from the front-line and in the foreground. When victory is celebrated, however, they recede to the background, but ensure that their colleagues and other ranks remain in the limelight to receive all the adoration and accolade.

(The author is a Chennai-based freelance writer.)