Leaders must build strong teams. The manner in which this is done will determine the success or failure of the organization and the leader.
Concepts about teams that are failing:
- Those in leadership are shielded from the truth and the facts.
- Fear rules the action.
- Criticism is muffled.
- Strong opinions are given without supporting data, evidence or solid facts.
- Leaders avoid asking questions.
- Unsupported opinions are allowed to control action.
- Team members refuse to debate the issue as a team but rather talk about it after the fact.
- Team members pledge support of the action but undermine it afterwards.
Concepts about teams moving forward:
- Grim facts are openly discussed.
- Leaders never criticize open debate and discussion.
- Arguments are never based on opinion or emotion but facts.
- The team leader uses a Socratic style.
- Questions are used to push for deeper insight.
- Team members unify behind the decision.
- Team members give credit to others for the overall success of the team.
- Team members are willing to debate in order to discover the best answers to support the organizational causes.
- The team refuses to place blame but uses failures as opportunities to learn.
- Team members are committed to excellence.
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Great post, Bishop. A key area you pointed out was in #5 about teams moving forward. One observation I have made over the years is that teams tend to ask the wrong questions. The wrong questions almost certainly ensure that the staus quo will continue. If we operate in a stuck system, or a stagnant team that faces recurring problems, trying harder to solve them (the problems) may mean we are only attacking the symptoms of those problems. A different set of questions may help us determine what the real problem is.
ReplyDeleteWhat are crucial questions to keep in front of a team? There are numerous possibilities but I believe we could group them into four major areas:
1. Questions of Mission and Vision
Drucker suggested many years ago that the single cause of organizational failure is that the following questions are rarely asked or given significant thought:
Who Are We? [what is our self-defined identity and how do others perceive us?]
What is Our Business? [Do we have a unique purpose?]
How Do We Get it Done? [what strategy, sources and structure do we need?]
2. Questions of Priorities and Effectiveness
What do we do as a group well?
What does the organization need most from us right now and how do we get it done?
What is one thing I can do now to help the group be more effective?
Are we addressing real problems or are we only messing around with the symptoms?
3. Questions of how the team approaches its tasks (Very much related to the last section)
Questions such as how do we bst serve those we are supposed to be serving? or Are there better ways for us to make group decisions?
4. Questions about relationships among team members.
Satisfied and fulfilled team members can make or break the success of teams. We need to ask questions of our honesty with one another and whether there are hidden agendas among the group that derail the relationships of the team.
For my two cents (or given the length of this post, a dollars worth), I think much of what we do as teams (groups, boards, committees, ministries) in our organization can be greatly improved by learning how to ask the right kind of questions to move the team forward.