To ensure victory; leaders need their team to believe in what they believe and have the correct team dynamic for a successful outcome.
Whether we discuss a sport or business team, Tuckerman’s model provides great insight of a theory to follow. We use Tuckerman’s premise to discover how a team develops its behaviour, belief and culture based on the following five stages:
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
- Adjourning
- Forming – is an introduction and get to know others within the team stage. Your leader needs to have a well-formed plan and be able to communicate the plan. Your team members will have unique strengths and weaknesses in skills, and a good leader will know the behaviour, motivators and stressors of the individuals, thus ensuring a successful outcome.
- Storming - is a phase where each team member considers how they fit into the team, they will challenge and be challenged though skill base, behaviour and the belief of the task. A good leader will anticipate this and have strategies in place, if they don’t they will fail. They need great communication skills and a description of what is required to ensure success. It is important to work on any challenges before you move to Norming
- Norming - the team moves into a normal stage and the leadership is established, you have the respect of the members and your team has respect for itself. You can experience a few issues on the way; however, this will quickly be resolved. Any disputes will be minimal and sorted out quickly. The individuals may be socialising sharing ideas and communicating effectively.
- Performing - this is where you will see positive progress, the team believe in what you believe and they believe in themself, they will be confident and achieving essential milestones. As leader, you can delegate and develop the individuals to perform at their peak. Communicating and sharing success is essential, if you do not you could skate back to Storming and lose valuable time, money and energy.
- Adjourning – When one team member leaves or the team is divided, it will feel the loss, subsequently the leader needs to manage the team’s expectations. Strategies need to include how you mourn the loss of one retiring member and how you replace the new member. The dynamic will change shape as influences like skills, personality and behaviours can be a real threat or an asset. You need to plan to ensure continuation of success, expect the team to revisit the Storming stage. If managed well via communication and having members believe what you believe, the team will respond positively and be performing before you know it.
Utilising the behaviour tool Work of Leaders Everything Disc (ED), the profile will give you insight into you and the talent within your team. It will certainly aide this process to ensure your teams success.
When Kevin Rudd first came to power as Prime Minister, it was noticeable that his team did not believe in his beliefs and values. Sure, the Labor Party has its beliefs, but Kevin’s Caucasus may not have known his agenda. Kevin Formed his front bench team, they reached the Storming stage and did not move past to the next stage of Norming. Labor found a new leader, Julia Gillard becomes the next Prime Minister, and Kevin is removed from the leadership and positioned to the backbench.
Both Kevin and Julia did not manage this process well at all. Forget factions, had Kevin outlined and communicated what was expected and consulted with the members of his front bench he would have passed the Storming stage. Julia on the other hand did not manage the Adjourning stage and Kevin was to remain a thorn in her side. The impact on the Labor team and the Australian community has seen damaging results and the focus off what they were elected to do, to lead the country. Instead, we saw Julia with two oppositions.
Great leaders are people who innovate, have a vision, they have the ability to communicate their ideas and inspire others to share in their beliefs. Neither Kevin nor Julia did this well.
Has Kevin learnt his lesson? Only history will tell….
Do you lead or manage your team?
