SPG Blog

Managing Teams Versus Developing Teams

A well-managed team can function adequately in an organization but a well-developed team can become a powerful asset. A developed team has the support and vision of organizational leadership partnered with highly skilled contributors who are effectively utilized in a creative and collaborative environment.

Developing a team takes care, patience and a willingness to allow lively discussion and occasional differences of opinion among team members. Most often, the team that allows full participation of all team members will come up with the strongest and best solutions. A decision is inherently stronger when team members bring a variety of perspectives to the team and share those perspectives freely and safely. Although it takes time to develop a synergistic and powerful team there is a great payoff.

Here are some tips for developing a great team:

• Make sure every team member is important. If you don’t want a team member’s voice heard take him or her off the team.
• Follow good protocols on your team. For example, have an agenda and take minutes. This keeps everything professional and orderly so that it is easier for team members to accommodate some chaos due to occasional differences of opinion.
• Develop a clearly defined method of making decisions as a team.
• Invest in creating good facilitation skills in some of your team members. A great facilitator can help to create an amazing team!
• Make sure there is a systemized way to hear the voice of everyone in the room. Leave enough time to create a team plan–this may feel slow in the beginning if your organization is used to “managing” a team instead of developing a team. Initially, developing a team takes time up front but a well-developed team can save time during the implementation phase. Make sure team members have time to talk through their thoughts as the team makes decisions.
• Take time to assess the strengths and weaknesses of all the team members. Take time to figure out how you can use this information to your advantage. Share with team members.
• Find out what areas of the project each team member is or is not passionate about. Try to use their passions and strengths as much as possible to have them create the most effective solutions possible. The more you are able to tap into these two areas the more powerful your team will be.

Taking the time to develop a team will help you create a treasure. This investment is worthwhile because high functioning team members give their best and use their skills to make incredible contributions to the organization. Take some time to look around at how you can develop your team.