How to manage a team effectively in business

Premakumar Fernando

TEAM WORK: A work place is where employees want to be far more productive than one where they literally force themselves to come to work. Happiness is one of the most powerful and fundamental of the elements necessary to attract and keep the right people. Employees who are happy in their jobs will work hard and well - and will be reluctant to leave.

This article deals with how to manage a team effectively for them to be happy and to be productive.

If computer hardware gets better and cheaper every month, if software upgrades come too often to keep up, if one day your customers are in USA and the next day they're in Japan, what's constant in our business life? The answer is HUMAN CAPITAL.

To take full advantage of that, one must manage and invest in human capital. By investing in human capital means simply including employees among the capital - the assets - of your team, department or organisation. Normally we think of assets as just equipment, cash, or real estate.

Particularly in our country we do not consider human capital as the most valuable asset and it is often neglected resulting in Trade Union actions with millions of losses to the state as what we experienced last week the go slow at the Ports Authority.

Just as you would upgrade equipment, develop new sources of cash, or remodel your office building, you must ensure that human assets have opportunities to upgrade old skills and develop new ones. You must protect, honour and value the human investment; in order to do that you must know who's at work in your organisation.

Given the cost of hiring new employees, and the destabilising effect of a higher turnover of staff, you can't afford not to make your organisation a happy place to be. You need to look critically at the physical, social, and achievement environments to ensure that the mix of those three promotes a place where employees want to be.

One of the leading companies in its Annual Report states - "The group as a whole spends considerable sums of money on training and welfare."

They have commissioned a programme to train 50 senior employees on their current and potential future role in the group. No wonder this company performs so well compared to many other conglomerates in Sri Lanka both in the public and private sector who have failed to recognise the importance of investing in human capital.

Individuals are the source of most innovative ideas, but teams of people working together are generally an organisation's best instruments for turning ideas into marketable products and services.

What is true about idea is equally true about the business process. Successful companies have greatly expanded their use of teams to attack a wide variety of objectives: new product development, process re-engineering, the delivery of professional services, adopting new technologies and revitalising business units in decline.

Teams can do wonders, but they can also be impediments to real progress if they are not properly designed, staffed and operated. The team leader's task is to affirm the positive, reinforce individuals' and groups' accomplishments and share their successes.

Keep employees focused on achievements and discourage dwelling on what could have been or what they don't have. We Sri Lankans generally do the reverse. We harp always on what they have not achieved and we rarely join in success sharing. Napoleon's description of leaders as 'dealers in hope' seems appropriate for Sri Lankans.

If you are a new manager or a seasoned one with little experience in team-based work, being part of a team can throw you off stride. If you are a true team leader, you'll quickly discover that you cannot act like you are the boss. This is exactly what is happening with our Public Sector institutions.

As soon as a Government changes new leaders are being appointed and they want to become bosses forgetting the role of being a team leader. The result is demotivated work force and a collapsed institution. So how should you rightly act? If you are a good team leader, you must find a collaborative way to contribute and support your team members.

People who enjoy their work will do their job more positively and constructively than those who are unhappy or frustrated in their jobs. The team leader and his attitude help set the tone. Employees are happier in a workplace run by managers who enjoy themselves, their work, and their employees. (The opposite also applies).

Isn't this the reason why Private sector establishments are more successful than the Public Sector enterprises in Sri Lanka? The Private Sector entrepreneurs enjoy themselves as they own the establishments, whereas the leaders of many Public Sector enterprises are with no vision or mission to achieve. Some of the things that could be deliberately targeted to make leaders happy are:

Manage your thoughts: Think positively, choose to think the thoughts and stories about your work that you enjoy thinking about - and avoid thinking about the rest. For example; think about what your team achieved in sales in a difficult month when all your competitors failed and how motivated was your sales force.

Enjoy your work: The most important thing for the leader and his team is that you like what you are doing. If you are not enjoying work, do something about it.

Act spontaneously: Share those qualities that make you special. For example if you are gifted to crack a joke in a tensed situation do it so.

A team in business sense is not just a collection of individuals; it is a small number of individuals with complementary skills committed to a common purpose with collective accountability.

In Sri Lankan setup we lack this attribute of collective accountability. When some thing good happens the leader takes full credit and if some disaster happens the buck is passed on to the subordinates.

Teams are particularly useful when organisations confront situations in which:

* Completion of a task requires a particular combination of knowledge, expertise, or perspective that cannot be found in an individual.

* The work of individual must be highly inter-dependent.

* The task or project will result in a defined deliverable.

What are the characteristics of effective teams?

Management scholars and consultants have study teams and team based performance fairly intensely for the past number of years and as a result there is a real deal of consensus on the characteristics of effective teams. Any successful team must have following characteristics:

*Competence-everyone brings something that the team needs

* A clear and compelling goal

*Every member contributes; every member benefits

* A supportive environment

Competence: An effective team is composed of people who each bring critical competencies to the effort.

Each is a link in chain of competencies that, together, has the talent, knowledge, organisational clout, experience and technical know - how to get the job done. Some institutions particularly the State sector make the mistake of basing team membership on formal titles or in organisational position.

Someone will suggest that, "You'll really make Peter angry (or jealous) if you don't put him on your IT Team," or "Janaki is the Senior Manager, so be sure to include her on the team." Unfortunately, neither Peter's potential nor Janaki's title are reasons to put them on a team. Isn't this what is happening in various tasks committees appointed by the Government.

A clear, common goal: In many Public Sector Enterprises various teams are appointed without a clear idea of its purpose. Different people have different ideas about their ultimate objective.

This is the true state in many boards and corporations where the Chairman perceives one line of thinking and the Vice Chairman perceives another line of thinking. It is almost impossible to work in that kind of environment when other team members cannot articulate a clear and a common goal.

Commitment to the common goal: A shared understanding of the goal is extremely important, but really effective teams go a step further. They are composed of members who are committed to the goal.

In Private Sector the leaders are committed to achieve their targets and goals and this is very much lacking in the Public Sector. There is a big difference between understanding and commitment. Understanding ensures that people know the direction in which they should work.

Commitment motivates them to do the work and to keep working when the going gets tough. The essence of a team is a shared commitment to goal achievement. That means that each team member must see the goal as very important and worthy of effort.

Every member contributes-every member benefits: Performance depends on every one contributing-pulling for the goal. Individuals who only show up at meetings to render their opinions but do not work drag down performance and demoralise more active team mates.

The monthly board meetings of Public Sector Enterprises are a classic example of this in our culture. The board members gather for the meetings to render their opinions and often demoralise the doers of the institution.

If team membership is to have value, it must be earned through real team work. Free Riders cannot be tolerated. And just as each member must contribute to the team's work, each should receive clear benefits.

Benefits can take many forms: the psychic reward of doing interesting and meaningful work; a learning experience or monetary gains.

A supportive environment: No team operates in a vacuum. A team is a small organisation embedded within a lager environment of operating units and functional departments.

It depends on these organisational into one degree or another for resources, information and assistance.

For example, for any Public Sector Project to succeed you need the support of the Minister in charge and the Ministry. The extent to which they are supportive, indifferent or hostile to the team and its goals are bound to have an impact on team effectiveness.

Traditional managers play many roles: decision maker, delegator, director, and a scheduler of others' work. As a Team leader one must act more like a coach. You must empower others to solve problems and create plans. Let me conclude this article by making following suggestions for you to be an effective team leader.

Be an initiator. Begin actions and process that promote team development and performance.

Be a model to others. Use your own behaviour to set expectations for the team.

Be a good coach. Act as a counsellor, mentor, and tutor to help team members improve performance.

Be a facilitator of communication and collaboration between the team and other groups.

Be a mediator of conflict between team members.

If you show people you don't care, they'll return the favour. Show them you care about them, and they'll reciprocate.