Management Skills for

Supervisors

SKILLS FOR EFFECTIVE

TEAM LEADERSHIP
(Summary)

Narelle Marr (Human Resources – Organisational Development)

V5.0 – October/November 2003
 What Makes Teams Effective?

• The team has a clear and unambiguous mission.

• Team goals and values are clear, understood and accepted by all the team members.
The team is oriented to goals and results.
• There are measurable targets for achieving the goals.
• The team members have the skills necessary for achieving the mission.
• The team has an optimum mix of skills and abilities.
• Individual skills are identified, and roles and responsibilities for each member of the
team are clarified.
• People understand their assignments and how their roles contribute to the work of the
whole.
• The team structure and procedures are consistent with the task, goals and people
involved.
• There is clear, timely and open communication downwards, upwards and sideways
within the team, as well as with suppliers and customers.
• The team has sufficient opportunities to meet and work through problems.
• Issues, difficulties and blockages to effectiveness are always confronted and dealt with
in an open way.
• Both co-operation and conflict are used to get the best results.
• There are sound and understood procedures for decision-making that allow the team to
tackle issues without getting bogged down in trivia.
• Team members implement decisions with commitment.
• The team develops a self-discipline that uses time and resources well.
• The team regularly reviews the way it operates and sets targets for improvement.
• Individual and team development needs are regularly reviewed.
• The team leader is supportive of the other team members and has high personal
performance standards.
• There are formal or informal rewards that value the team members for their
contributions as well as the team’s successes.
• Team members show support for each other and there is a high level of trust between
them.
• Relationships with other groups are sound.

Sources:
Team Building: Current Issues and New Alternatives, William G. Dyer, Addison-Wesley, Reading,
Massachusetts, 1995, pp. 15-16.
Team Development Manual, 2nd edn, Mike Woodcock, Gower, Aldershot, UK, 1989, pp. 13, 33.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 1
 Characteristics of an Effective Team Leader

1. General Attitude and Behaviour

• Support a team philosophy

• Open, honest and fair
• Act consistently
• Display tolerance and flexibility
• Exhibit a willingness to change
• Treat team members with respect
• Keep a balance between the needs of the team members and the needs of the task
• Motivate the team members
• Show loyalty to the organisation and team members

2. Planning

• Develop a team vision with the team

• Set team goals with the team
• Clearly define team roles and individual roles
• Give team members the information they need to do their jobs and explain new tasks
clearly
• Allocate tasks equitably and in accordance with team members’ individual roles and
responsibilities
• Allocate resources needed for the tasks
• Set deadlines for achieving the tasks
• Help team members to see the importance of their work
• Establish guidelines or groundrules for the team’s effective operation in conjunction
with the team members
• Establish high standards
• Use effective work methods

3. Meetings

• Plan team meetings, including organising the agenda, venue and attendance of
members
• Facilitate meetings and team contributions by drawing out quieter members and
quietening those who are louder
• Ensure that all team members are heard
• Initiate discussions by directing the team towards its purpose
• Direct discussions around topic areas, not personalities
• Keep the team focused on its tasks and goals
• Summarise and clarify the main points of discussion, enabling the team to move
forward
• Monitor time well for meetings, tasks and project deadlines

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 2
4. Decision Making

• Make decisions with input from the team members

• Guide decision making to incorporate all the relevant facts
• Facilitate group consensus
• Accept ownership for team decisions

5. Communication

• Relate well with all members of the team

• Demonstrate assertiveness
• Keep communication open
• Give praise and recognition when warranted
• Seek feedback
• Criticise constructively when appropriate and necessary
• Confront in a positive way when appropriate and necessary

6. Development

• Create an atmosphere of growth

• Encourage individual development
• Empower team members to take initiative
• Encourage controlled risk-taking
• Encourage creative potential
• Encourage critical analysis
• Delegate activities that will help develop the team members’ skills and abilities
• Coach team members when appropriate and necessary

7. Support

• Build a supportive, positive climate

• Make self available and accessible
• Support team members in difficult situations

8. Problem-Solving

• Help the team and team members address problems

• Maintain confidentiality
• Manage conflict
• Mediate to allow team members to present opposing view points

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 3
9. Evaluation

• Ensure that the team follows an effective method of working together

• Assess processes, outcomes and team performance with the team
• Review performance without resorting to personal criticism
• Inform the team if the procedures are not working and need changing
• Evaluate results and maintains follow-up activities

10. External Role

• Develop sound relationships with other teams

• Represent the team with other groups or teams

Sources:
How to Lead and Motivate Others: Key Skills for Effective Leadership, Iris Barrow, Reed, Auckland, NZ,
1995, p. 121.
360 Degree Feedback: Strategies, Tactics and Techniques for Developing Leaders, John L. Jones & William
Bearley, Lakewood Publications, Minneapolis, Minnesota & HRD Press, Amherst, Massachusetts, 1996, pp.
171-175.
Communicating in Groups and Teams: Sharing Leadership, 2nd edn, Gay Lumsden & Donald Lumsden,
Wadsworth, California, 1997, p. 315.
Team Development Manual, Mike Woodcock, Gower, Aldershot, UK, 1989, pp. 36-37.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 4
 Characteristics of Effective Team Members

Each team member should play an effective role in a team. This means that everyone is
equally responsible for ensuring that the team works well together.

1. General Attitude and Behaviour

• Act in a positive and constructive manner

• Be committed
• Be flexible
• Work well with others
• Co-operate
• Try to keep the peace
• Operate within the parameters of team rules
• Take an active role in working towards common goals
• Help the team stay on target
• Complete tasks within specified deadlines
• Show loyalty to the team leader and team

2. Planning

• Take an active role in team planning

• Suggest a timeline for carrying out plans
• Have a contingency plan in case something goes wrong

3. Meetings

• Attend meetings regularly and promptly

• Avoid disruptive behaviour such as side conversations and inside jokes
• Contribute ideas
• Avoid defensiveness when fellow team members disagree with their ideas
• Ask one another for ideas and suggestions and listen to them
• Encourage others to express their ideas fully
• Help the team make decisions
• Accept ownership for team decisions

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 5
4. Communication

• Be a good listener
• Give feedback
• Acknowledge feedback from others
• Give praise and recognition when warranted
• Criticise ideas, not people
• View criticism as an opportunity to learn
• Confront in a positive way when appropriate and necessary

5. Support

• Support the other team members

• Encourage the team members
• Seek assistance, if required, in achieving allocated tasks

6. Problem Solving

• Help create an atmosphere in which people feel free to reveal problems

• Maintain confidentiality
• Bring problems to the team for solving together

7. Monitoring

• Monitor their own performance and progress

• Constantly seek ways to improve their own performance and the team’s performance

Sources:
The Leader’s Window: Mastering the Four Styles of Leadership to Build High-Performing Teams, John Beck
& Neil Yeager, Wiley, New York, 1994, pp. 16-17.
The Encyclopedia of Team Development Activities, ed. J. William Pfeiffer, Pfeiffer, San Diego, California,
1991, pp. 285-286.
Working in a Team, TAFE NSW, Sydney, n.d., pp. 27-28.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 6
 Team Planning and Review

To gain acceptance of and commitment to team goals and strategies, the team leader
should involve the whole team in the planning session.

SWOT Analysis

It is important that a team identify any internal strengths and weaknesses and external
opportunities and threats before developing a team plan. This is called a SWOT analysis:

• What does our team do well?

• In what areas does our team need to improve?
• What opportunities can we take advantage of?
• What threats will we need to avoid or overcome?

Vision

The team can then form a shared vision of some future state that it would like to achieve. A
vision answers the following questions:

• What is our long-term goal or aspiration?

• What is the picture of our ideal future state?
• How do we see our organisation, department or team in 3, 5 or 10 years’ time?

Action Plan

The next step is to formulate an action plan to achieve its vision by:

• Building on strengths
• Eliminating or reducing weaknesses
• Taking advantage of opportunities
• Avoiding or overcoming threats.

This action plan should consist of:

• Objectives - What do you intend to achieve in the next year?

• Strategies - How do you intend to achieve the objectives?
• Time frames - When should the strategies be completed?
• People - Who is responsible for implementing each strategy?
• Resources – What resources (e.g. staff, budget, materials) are required?

NOTE: It is important that the team plan is consistent with and supports the Division’s or
Faculty’s plan. It should also include ways in which the team can benefit from the
diversity of its membership.

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Continuous Improvement

The action plan should be monitored on an ongoing basis, with adjustments made to ensure
the success of the plan. The plan should then be reviewed after 12 months to determine:

• Which objectives were achieved? What contributed to their achievement?

• Which objectives were not achieved? What hindered or prevented their achievement?
• What areas can be improved for the future? How can they be improved?

The continuous improvement cycle of planning, implementation, review and

improvement is used to effectively manage the performance of teams and individuals.

Planning

Improvement Implementation

Review

Team planning therefore supplements performance management of individual team

members:

• What does a team member do well?

• In what areas does the team member need to improve?
• What learning opportunities will help develop the skills and knowledge needed for the
team member’s current or future position?
• What resources and support will the team member need in order to implement the
professional development plan?
• What outcomes were achieved as a result of implementing the plan?
• In what areas has the team member made progress?

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 8
Source: Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Study Guide/Action Planner, Kenneth Blanchard, Patricia
Zigarmi, & Drea Zigarmi, Blanchard Management Corporation & Zigarmi Associates Inc., Escondido,
California, 1985, p. 62.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 9
 Directive Behaviour … Supportive Behaviour

Directive Behaviour

Anytime a leader:

• Sets goals or objectives

• Makes clear the role each person will play in the accomplishment of the task
• Plans work in advance to be accomplished by the follower
• Organises resources
• Communicates job priorities
• Sets timelines for future work
• Determines methods of evaluation for follower performance
• Shows or tells a follower how to do a specific task
• Checks to see if work is done properly and on time

Supportive Behaviour

Anytime a leader:

• Asks for suggestions or input on task accomplishment

• Facilitates follower problem-solving in task accomplishment
• Listens to the problems of the follower (job-related or non-job related)
• Encourages or reassures a follower that he/she can do the task
• Communicates information about the total organisation’s operation
• Discloses information about self (job-related or non-job-related)
• Praises the follower for task accomplishment

Source: Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Study Guide/Action Planner, Kenneth Blanchard, Patricia
Zigarmi and Drea Zigarmi, Blanchard Management Corporation & Zigarmi Associates Inc., Escondido,
California, 1985, p. 12.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 10
 Situational Leadership

Situational leadership theory is based on the premise that you will be a stronger and more
effective leader if you choose your leadership style to suit the needs of individual
employees at a given time. There is no “best” leadership style – what is appropriate will
vary, depending on the situation. Effective leaders use a variety of styles, matching their
style to the needs of the individual, the situation and associated variables.

To become an effective leader, supervisors need to learn to use a variety of leadership

styles flexibly. To do this, they need to know how to diagnose the needs of the people they
supervise and come to some agreement with them about the type of leadership style they
need.

Leadership consists of 2 main behaviours:

• Directive behaviour - clearly telling people what to do, how to do it, where to do it,
when to do it, and then closely supervising their performance. Structure – Control –
Supervise
• Supportive behaviour – listening to people, providing support and encouragement for
their efforts, and then facilitating their involvement in problem-solving and decision-
making. Praise – Listen – Facilitate

There are four basic leadership styles:

• Style 1: Directing
(High direction, low support, leader in charge of decision making.)
The supervisor provides specific instructions and closely supervises task
accomplishment.
• Style 2: Coaching
(High direction, high support, leader and follower are involved in decision making but
the leader has the final say.)
The supervisor continues to direct and closely supervise task accomplishment, but also
explains decisions, solicits suggestions and supports progress. The supervisor
schedules regular meetings to provide direction and support.
• Style 3: Supporting
(Low direction, high support, follower plays a major role in decision-making with the
support and encouragement of the leader.)
The supervisor facilitates and supports the employee’s efforts towards task
accomplishment and shares responsibility for decision-making with them. The
supervisor occasionally checks performance.
• Style 4: Delegating
(Low direction, low support, follower in charge of decision-making.)
The supervisor turns over responsibility for decision-making and problem-solving to
the employee. The employee asks the supervisor for help when needed.

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When deciding which leadership style to use, it is necessary to consider the employee’s
development level. The development level is task-specific and depends on 2 factors:

• Competence: knowledge and skills gained from education, training and/or experience;
and
• Commitment: a combination of confidence (self-assuredness of being able to do a
task) and motivation (enthusiasm and interest in doing a task).

People who are at different levels of development need to be treated differently.

The four development levels are:

• D1 – the employee has low competence and high commitment (the “enthusiastic
beginner”), therefore the supervisor needs to provide direction (S1 - directing).
• D2 – the employee has some competence and low commitment (the “disillusioned
learner”), therefore the supervisor needs to provide both direction and support (S2 -
coaching).
• D3 – the employee has high competence and variable commitment, therefore the
supervisor needs to provide support (S3 - supporting).
• D4 – the employee has high competence and high commitment, therefore the
supervisor does not need to provide direction or support (S4 - delegating).

It is important that an employee’s development level for a task is accurately diagnosed.

When the leadership style doesn’t match the development level, the supervisor may be:
• Over-supervising by providing more direction and/or support than needed. This leads
to frustration for the employee as they are not allowed to use their full range of skills
and knowledge.
• Under-supervising by not providing enough direction and/or support, e.g. turning over
responsibility to an employee before they are ready or delegating inappropriately. This
leads to frustration for the supervisor because the employee will not be able to perform
to the appropriate standard.

To determine the right amount of direction and support:

• The supervisor could observe the employee’s performance and attitude, analyse their
level of competence and commitment, and then select the appropriate leadership style
OR
• The supervisor and employee could contract for the appropriate leadership style. This
process involves:
- Agreeing on goals. Goals start performance in the right direction and permit a
supervisor to analyse an employee’s competence and commitment to perform well.
The supervisor should make sure that performance standards are clear and
understood by the employee – if the supervisor can’t measure it, they can’t manage
it!
- Agreeing on the employee’s development level for the task.
- Matching the leadership style to the employee’s development level.
- Planning for how you are going to work together.
- Following through – i.e. delivering the appropriate leadership style and adjusting it
as progress is made or difficulties are encountered.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 12
As progress is made, the employee moves to the next development level. The supervisor’s
leadership style should likewise move:

• From S1 (directing) to S2 (coaching) by increasing support; or

• From S2 (coaching) to S3 (supporting) by decreasing direction; or
• From S3 (supporting) to S4 (delegating) by decreasing support.

Remember that each employee will have different needs and move through the
development levels at different speeds. If a temporary setback is experienced, the
supervisor should move backwards through the steps:

• From S4 to S3 by increasing support, or

• From S3 to S2 by increasing direction, or
• If necessary, from S2 to S1 by decreasing support. Review, clarify and agree on the
goals.

There are five steps to follow to develop an employee’s competence and commitment:

1. Tell them what to do.

2. Show them what to do. People then know what good performance looks like.
3. Let them try.
4. Observe performance. This step is critical. Catch people doing something right! A
supervisor who tells people what to do and then leaves them alone to get on with it,
assuming good performance, is abdicating responsibility.
5. Praise progress and re-direct if necessary. This is the key to helping employees move
from one development level to the next. Eventually little external support is needed.

There are three secrets of one minute management:

1. Goals start performance in the right direction and permit a manager to analyse a
person’s competence and commitment (development level) to perform well. Agree on
three to five goals and use different leadership styles to supervise performance in
relation to those goals.
2. Praisings foster improvements in the development level of individuals and permit a
manager to change his/her leadership style gradually from more direction (directing) to
less direction and more support (coaching and supporting) to less direction and less
support (delegating).
3. Reprimands stop poor performance and may mean that a manager has to move back
gradually from less direction and less support (delegating) to more support (supporting)
or more direction (coaching and directing). NOTE: Reprimands are not a training tool
but a way to deal with competent people whose performance has dropped because of
motivation or attitude problems.

“The true test of an effective leader is not what happens when you’re there, but what
happens when you’re not!” (Kenneth Blanchard)

Source: Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness through Situational Leadership,
Kenneth Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, & Drea Zigarmi, 1985, Collins, London, 1985.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 13
 Team Roles

For effective team operation, the team should have a balance of task and maintenance
behaviours, and self-oriented behaviours should be eliminated.

Task Behaviours / Roles

Task behaviours are conducive to accomplishing a task and achieving a goal or objective.
The types of behaviour that are helpful in achieving the team’s tasks are:

1. Initiator
Initiates or proposes tasks or goals; offers new ideas; new definitions of a team
problem; new attack on a problem; suggests solutions to problems.

2. Information Seeker
Seeks information or opinions; requests facts or an estimate; seeks relevant information
about a team concern; seeks suggestions or ideas; asks for clarification of information,
values, suggestions or ideas.

3. Information Giver
Gives information or opinions; offers facts or generalisations; provides relevant
information about a team concern; states a belief about a matter before the team; gives
suggestions or ideas; relates own experience to the team problem to illustrate points.

4. Expert
Has and provides specialist advice.

5. Clarifier
Clarifies and elaborates or interprets ideas or suggestions; clears up confusions; defines
terms; gives examples; indicates alternatives and issues before the team; tries to
envision how a proposal might work if adopted.

6. Coordinator
Combines ideas or suggestions; shows relationships among various ideas or
suggestions; offers a decision or conclusion for the team to accept or reject; coordinates
activities; tries to draw together activities of various subgroups or members.

7. Ideas Summariser
Summarises ideas; restates suggestions after the team has discussed them.

8. Consensus Tester
Tests for consensus; asks to see whether the team is nearing a decision; sends up a
“trial balloon” to test a possible conclusion.

9. Evaluator
Assesses the quality of suggestions, solutions or norms; assesses progress; analyses
problems.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 14
10. Implementer
Focuses on implementation details, timing and methods.

11. Procedural Technician

Emphasises the importance of rules, procedures and precedent.

12. Representative
Speaks, liaises or negotiates on behalf of the team.

Maintenance Behaviours / Roles

Maintenance behaviours are aimed at fostering good relationships and team cohesion. They
relate to social and emotional needs. The behaviours are described as:

1. Exemplar
Exemplifies the team’s ideals in personality, attitudes and behaviour.

2. Harmoniser
Attempts to reconcile disagreements; reduces tensions; mediates; conciliates
differences in points of view; proposes compromise solutions.

3. Gate Keeper
Helps keep communication channels open; encourages participation by others and
sharing of ideas; suggests procedures that permit sharing remarks; suggests time limits
so that everyone will have a chance to be heard.

4. Feelings Summariser
Summarises what the team feeling is sensed to be; describes reactions of the team to
ideas or solutions.

5. Encourager
Is friendly, warm and responsive to others; indicates by facial expression or remarks
the acceptance of others’ contributions; encourages cohesiveness and warmth; praises
and accepts others’ ideas; supports; empathises.

6. Compromiser
When one’s idea or status is involved in a conflict, offers a compromise that yields
status; admits error; modifies in the interests of team cohesion or growth.

7. Standard Setter
Helps set goals and standards; expresses standards for the team to use in choosing its
content or procedures or in evaluating its decisions; tests the team’s effectiveness by
offering observations on team process, and pointing out examples of constructive
behaviours and effective procedures; reminds the team to avoid decisions that conflict
with team standards.

8. Confronter
Brings conflicts out into the open.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 15
9. Tension reliever
Reduces formality; drains off negative feeling by jesting or pouring oil on troubled
waters; putting a tense situation in context.

10. Follower
Agrees with decisions of the team; thoughtfully accepts others’ ideas; serves as an
audience during team discussion.

11. Group Observer

Monitors group operations, provides feedback to the group.

Self-Oriented Behaviours / Roles

Self-oriented behaviours aim to meet some personal need or goal without regard to the
team’s problems or goals. When this occurs, the team’s functioning may be hindered as the
individual becomes self-absorbed at the expense of team development.

1. Blocker
Resists stubbornly; negative; returns to rejected issues.

2. Recognition-seeker
Calls attention to self by boasting, bragging or acting superior; highlights own
achievements.

3. Dominator
Manipulates the team; interrupts others; gains attention; seeks to dominate discussion
and to impose own views/objectives.

4. Aggressor
Attacks others; ridicules; hostile; sarcastic.

5. Avoider
Remains apart from others; resists passively.

6. Absentee
Withdrawn; uninvolved.

7. Smotherer
Compulsively nice; stifles attention to conflict.

8. Confessor
Reveals personal fears and failings; uses team as therapy session.

Sources:
“Team Dynamics”, Ian Brooks, New Zealand Universities Administration Course, 1-6 Sep. 2002, pp. 6-7.
Dunphy 1981 quoted in Organisational Behaviour: An Organisational Analysis Perspective, Richard
Dunford, Addison-Wesley, Sydney, 1992, p. 110.
Benne & Sheats 1948 quoted in A Diagnostic Approach to Organizational Behavior, 2nd edn, Judith Gordon,
Allyn & Bacon, Boston, 1987, p. 282.
Communication in the Workplace, Leah Shmerling, Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1996, pp. 251-252.

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 16
 The Four Stages of Team Development
What a Team is Doing in This Stage If a Team in This Stage, It Might Feel:

Stage 1: Forming
• Getting to know the task and one
another
• Learning each other’s skills and
expectations
• Testing each other’s commitment and
attitude
• Beginning to define tasks and roles
• Focusing on symptoms and problems
not related to the task
• Excited about being part of something
new
• Anxious about the goals and what it
takes to achieve them
• Suspicious about what’s expected of
them
• Unsure about how their contribution
will fit in with the team’s mission and
goals

Stage 2: Storming
After a new team is formed, its members typically go through some rough times.
• Set unrealistic goals • Frustrated that progress isn’t being
• Rely on only one person’s experience made as fast as expected
and ideas • Angry that ideas are criticised or
• Resist working together ignored
• Make little progress • Impatient with members who are slow
• Compete for control or who don’t pull their weight
• Focus on the task or goal, not on how to • Jealous of others who might have more
get it done rewarding or easier responsibilities

Stage 3: Norming
The team gets on course and identifies how its members can work together effectively.
• The team is having some difficulty, but
is making progress toward reaching the
goal
• Use each other’s ideas
• Give and receive constructive feedback
• Set, and usually follow, team ground
rules and norms
• Value individual differences
• Respect for other members’ needs and
capabilities
• Relief that the team is making progress
• A growing sense of trust because
everyone is committed
• Increasingly comfortable working
together

Stage 4: Performing
The team is now fully functioning.
• Make progress toward the goal with
speed and efficiency
• Work together to diagnose and
overcome obstacles
• Use feedback to make changes
• Find ways to continuously improve how
they work together
Source: Working in Teams, Development Dimensions International, n.d., Pittsburgh, pp.11-14.
• Pride in their work
• Excited about being part of the team
• Enjoyment in working together and
meeting goals
• Fully committed to the team
• Secure in relying on other members

Summary - Skills for Effective Team Leadership V5.0 October/November 2003 Page 17
Helping Teams through the Stages of Team Development

Team leaders and trainers need to help their teams move through the various stages of team
development and, while the path may not be entirely predictable, there are actions which
can be taken to enhance progress at each stage.

Stage 1: The Undeveloped Team (Forming)

• Facilitate “getting to know you” exercises, stimulating greater personal knowledge.
• Demonstrate openness by example.
• Invite members to share their concerns and problems.
• Encourage consideration of individual strengths and weaknesses.
• Make team activities enjoyable.
• Give maximum support.

Stage 2: The Experimenting Team (Storming)

• Encourage greater openness.
• Begin to involve team members in review of team performance.
• Build bridges between individuals.
• Allow conflicts to surface.
• Question decision-making and problem-solving methods.
• Find opportunities to experiment.
• Give high level of support.
• Encourage individual team members to “air their grievances”.
• Seek common ground.

Stage 3: The Consolidating Team (Norming)

• Develop problem-solving skills.
• Develop decision-making strategies.
• Develop individual skills.
• Develop a capacity for the team to compensate for individual weaknesses.
• Encourage people to share strengths.
• Celebrate successes.
• Clarify objectives.
• Regularly review performance and plan improvements in team functioning.
• Give moderate support.

Stage 4: The Mature Team (Performing)

• Build bridges with other teams.
• Experiment with different forms of leadership.
• Allow leadership to change with the needs of the task.
• Clarify values.
• Consider the possibilities of enhanced inputs into the organisation.
• Encourage informal communications.
• Fight insularity.
• Expose team functioning to external scrutiny.
• Give minimal support.
Source: Team Development Manual, 2nd edn, Mike Woodcock, Gower, Aldershot, UK, 1989, pp. 19-20.

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