When you’re forming a new team: 10 tactics for success
Last week I wrote about what happens when you inherit someone on your team. Whether that is a whole new team, an existing employee from another team, or a former colleague, adding a new team member can change the dynamics of the team.
What happens when you are forming a new team from scratch? If you have never managed people before, this can be a daunting task. Sometimes you have the ability to hire in a whole new team or sometimes it is a combination of hiring and inheriting.
Forming a new team can be exciting and there are many books and models about team formation. The most traditional model is the Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing Model that leads you through the four stages of a team. This is helpful to understand team dynamics and how a team actually has a life of its own. If you search for this, many articles will be returned to you!
I also highly recommend reading The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team; it is a quick read and holds many great tips on forming and building successful teams. I think we all have been on a dysfunctional team, unfortunately. This could be at work, at church, at a volunteer organization, in athletics or sports, in community theater or the arts. We all know how this feels — frustrating, high emotions, in-fighting, toe-stepping, resentment, etc.
I was a member of a team once that was fairly dysfunctional. Team meetings would be competitions, feelings were hurt from time to time and one colleague cried a few times. That was madness. There really was no reason for this. Once I emerged from this team, I realized what would have helped — points #1 and #2 below.
I have formed many teams over my career at several different companies and organizations. I have been most successful when I very intentionally did the following:
Write a charter.
If you have ever managed a project, you know about project charters and scopes of work. For a team, it is similar with a few differences. A team charter defines the purpose of the team in terms of objectives, scope of work — what projects, products, services, processes will the team create, manage, and improve, measures of impact, and guiding principles for how the team will work together. Admittedly, I have written charters and not written charters. When I take the time to craft a charter for the team, I never regret it. It provides a true North Star for the team to rally behind. It helps connect the work between team members; it also helps when the team needs to decide on whether to take on a new effort or not. If it aligns to the charter, then yes. If it doesn’t, then maybe the answer is no.
Establish clear roles and responsibilities.
While all of these steps are important, this one is the most important. I had a manager who was a people pleaser and never wanted to tell anyone that a project wasn’t their job. The problem with this is you may create some chaos and create bad feelings if everyone can do whatever they want to do. People need to know what is expected of them, what boundaries exist between them and others. We can all live with some ambiguity but clarity, if possible, is ideal. Remember a time where you had no clue what to do or what to prioritize. Or, remember a time when you learned someone else was working on a project you thought was your responsibility. Didn’t feel good, did it? These situations can be prevented by defining roles and responsibilities among the team and sharing them with the entire team.
Seek input.
Now, a team charter and role definition don’t have to be defined in a vacuum. Sure, I have written them from my desk but I find it is always better and more accepted when I solicit the team’s input on this effort. Share your thoughts and be open to hearing theirs. Your team may surprise you with what they come up with. Not everyone can do only what they want to do all the time. This can be a tough message to deliver too. But, if you can establish areas of responsibility with each person, the tasks and work will follow from that. Sometimes, that work isn’t sexy but necessary to achieve the overall objective. Here is the thing about input. Certainly seek it out but, ultimately, the decision is yours as the manager. I have always found there is a path to getting to what everyone wants. I have rarely found that not to be the case.
Share with other teams.
As I mentioned above, sharing the team charter and everyone’s roles and responsibilities should prevent misunderstanding and toe-stepping and promote a true sense of team. Write all of this down in a document or presentation (don’t just verbally share) and openly share this with your team. The whole team needs to understand what everyone’s roles are not just their own to see how they fit with the broader picture. If your team is part of a larger team or department, share this with those teams you interact with as well. Work needs to get done across all teams in an organization. It does not hurt to be transparent and proactively share what your team is responsible for. This can inspire people to not take on projects themselves but to reach out to partner with your team instead.
Be consistent.
This may seem obvious but I have had managers who change the charter or the rules of the team mid-stream without telling anyone. To create a clear sense of team and accountability, be consistent with your messages, advice, work assignments. If you need to make a change in the team’s purpose or a person’s responsibilities, don’t sneak that in. Acknowledge it openly and communicate the change and the reason for the change. Making changes on the sly and not telling anyone can easily create conflict, misdirection and even result in a lack of productivity or disengagement.
Hold meetings.
Even more obvious than the point above, is to hold regular meetings with your team. Now, before you roll your eyes at me, I cannot tell you how many employees have come to me over the course of my career who have said they have never met as a team — never met with their manager except two times a year. I am not an advocate to hold meetings for meetings sake. And, I am not a huge fan of having every meeting be a round robin of what everyone is working on. I actually think there are other offline, more efficient ways to share status. I do think an active team owning various processes or projects have a lot to talk about. These meetings don’t have to be weekly. Depending on the team, it can be monthly or even quarterly. Meetings can be a way to introduce new topics and hold a conversation about an issue, a new project, celebrate success, or talk about the future.
Connect the team.
In addition to just holding team meetings, try to enable peer to peer meetings and sharing. When team members can connect with each other, it makes the team stronger. Oftentimes, team members may seek each other out but if not, try pairing people up to work on a project together. Ask a team member to mentor another on a certain tool or skill. Tap a team member on the shoulder to transfer knowledge to someone else to build bench strength. Steer a team member to another to help solve a tricky problem or learn how to work with a senior leader.
Resolve conflict quickly.
Should conflict arise between team members, try and resolve it quickly. Most of the time, it is a simple misunderstanding or a conflict in personality. I once had this issue and it started to affect the team overall. I took both team members out for coffee to have an honest conversation about what was not working. As I have found in my career (and in life), the “thing” is not the “thing”. Meaning, it looked like they didn’t like each other nor did they want to work together. That was not the “thing”. Instead, it was a miscommunication about....can you guess? Yes...roles — who was supposed to do what. Once we cleared that up and talked about how to communicate and work with one another, the situation improved.
Recognize and celebrate.
Not to be discounted, is to recognize everyone for how they contributed to a project, a solution, the success of the team. I like to take the last team meeting of the year to celebrate success each team member has had. Everyone likes to hear their name and recognizing everyone for what they have specifically done matters. Some managers think this may not matter but, believe me, it does. Team meetings are a great venue to show appreciation or celebrate the end of a huge project. When team meetings are on the calendar on a regular basis, you can plan for these events pretty easily. Do something fun. Especially when we are glued to our laptop cameras, be creative for how to recognize people.
Plan for the future together.
Finally, I find it most effective to try and plan for the future together. I could do this from my own desk but I prefer to involve the team in brainstorming, reacting to some of my ideas and contributing their own. Everyone wants to be heard; they want to know their voice is counted and has meaning. So, provide these venues to plan as a team. Let everyone have a chance to share and try not to shoot down ideas right away even if they don’t align to the charter. Ask open-ended questions instead of shooting the idea down. You never know what a person might be striving to communicate.
Forming and leading a performing team is one of the biggest responsibilities a manager has. It takes time to do this. This is an important point to remember. Teams don’t just happen and sustain themselves easily. Spending attention and planning time to ensure the team stays connected, understands roles and responsibilities, resolves conflict, celebrates, and plans for the future together. Teams are very much like a person; they have a life of their own and they need to be encouraged, nurtured and guided. For managers, this is your role.