Team Leader Training | Tools for Team Leadership: Delivering the X-Factor in Team eXcellence

Any organization attempting to utilize a team concept must prepare and continually develop its team leaders , at every level. This book is designed to provide you with insights, exercises, and tools to enable you to succeed. Your organization may decide to provide some developmental opportunities too. All good training efforts start with a training needs assessment. Exercise 2 provides a series of focus group interview questions; exercise 3 is a survey that was used by one organization that recognized the need to provide more training to current leaders. Notice that the questions attempt to recognize what is going well in addition to identifying the problems that the training was intended to fix. Table 1 outlines the training modules the organization ended up offering its team leaders.

TABLE 1: Proposed Objectives and Components for the Nontechnical Training and Development of Team Leaders
Examine what your experience and research tell you about effective leadership Identify strategies to gain/maintain credibility as a leader Trustworthiness Competency Enthusiasm Assess/enhance your skills as a participative leader in a team environment Planning, organizing, motivating, monitoring Building commitment vs. gaining compliance Examine your approach to the seven keys to effective teams How to establish a clear sense of direction and set goals How to develop talent How to clarify roles and responsibilities How to establish effective team operating procedures (facilitating meetings, problem solving, decision making) How to enhance and maintain constructive interpersonal relationships (communicating, sharing information, listening effectively, providing useful feedback) How to reinforce team-oriented behaviors and maintain accountability How to build diplomatic relationships with key players outside your team (e.g., supervisors/advisors/management, skilled trades and maintenance, resource staff, etc.) Understand and utilize personalities on the team Understanding your personality Capitalizing on the strengths of your personality Strategies to work with personalities different from your own Personalities and change Personalities and leadership styles Develop conflict resolution strategies Assess/enhance your abilities to utilize the five basic conflict resolution strategies: “The avoiding approach “The accommodating approach “The competing approach “The compromising approach “The collaborative ("win-win") approach “See the advantages and disadvantages of conflict on a team “Learn how to deal with particularly difficult people “ Examine strategies to communicate organizational change plans Who to include as communicators of change ”connectors, mavens, and salespersons (see pp. 220-222) How to make messages "sticky" How the context affects the message Understand and deal with stress on the team What is stress? What causes stress? What are the consequences of stress? Examine three strategies to reduce stress: “Reducing stressors “Reframing perceptions about the situation “Activating your relaxation response “ Develop a plan to make use of these training sessions What is the diagnosis of the team's current state? When has this team been stuck, and what should be done about this? What is your plan to develop yourself as a leader in this environment?

Training can only be a solution when the problem involves the need to enhance skills and knowledge. If the problem is motivation, the organization needs to reexamine the degree to which it has made role expectations clear and the manner in which it reinforces fulfillment of these expectations.

It is difficult to anticipate all the specific training modules and tools you will need in your unique situation. Your general managers and human resource coaches need to conduct an assessment and design the training elements or find people who can provide them. What tools should your leaders be able to use? Maybe you need to think metaphorically. Exercise 4 can help you to identify which tools you think your leaders should have in their toolbox.

EXERCISE 2

Focus Group Interview Questions

Directions: Have the group respond to the following questions regarding teams and team leaders.

First, a general question: What are your perceptions regarding how successful the use of teams has been so far at this organization?
How would you describe the roles and responsibilities that team leaders play here? How does a leader help a team become more successful and satisfying ?
What knowledge, skills, and personal qualities does a team leader ideally possess to help teams succeed in this organization?
- Knowledge:
- Skills:
- Personal qualities:
What motivates team leaders to successfully fulfill their roles and responsibilities?
What gets in the way of the success of some team leaders? What are the obstacles?
What advice do you have for the joint steering committee as it prepares training plans to enhance the development of team leaders in this organization?

EXERCISE 3

Survey of Team Leader Training Needs

Directions: This organization cannot offer every training module imaginable as it tries to enhance the development of team leaders. Review the list of potential topics below. Rate the importance of offering training modules on these topics using the following scale:

1 = Extremely important ”this module should definitely be offered
2 = Important ”it would be good to offer this module if time permits
3 = Not very important ”maybe nice but probably not necessary

Be sure not to place too many items in the first category. We must be practical regarding how much time we can afford to have team leaders in training sessions.

_____How to establish/clarify team goals

____How to develop talent

____How to clarify roles and responsibilities

____How to improve the effectiveness of team procedures

____How to facilitate team meetings

____How to improve team problem-solving skills

____How to facilitate team decision making

____Building more constructive interpersonal relationships

____Improving communication skills (sharing information, listening effectively, providing useful feedback)

____Improving your conflict resolution skills

____Reinforcing team-oriented behaviors and maintaining accountability

____Building diplomatic relationships with key players outside your team (e.g., supervisors/advisors/management, skilled trades and maintenance, union representatives, resource staff, etc.)

____Strategies to gain/maintain credibility as a leader

____Planning skills

____Organizing/coordinating skills

_Strategies to motivate people

____How to assess team progress

____Building commitment vs. gaining compliance

____Understanding why teams get stuck and what to do about it

____Understanding and utilizing the personalities on your team including your own

____Providing strategies to communicate organizational change plans (e.g., who to include as communicators of change, how to make messages "sticky," how the context affects the message)

____Identifying causes of stress and determining how to reduce them

____Developing your personal leadership development plan

Below list any other training modules you think should be considered and rate the importance of each.

____ ____________

EXERCISE 4

A Dozen Tools for Team Leaders

Directions: From the list below, pick a dozen tools for your team leader toolbox. Come up with creative ideas for how team leaders at your facility could use each tool metaphorically to serve their team. How would a leader use a hammer ? Perhaps to nail down the details of plans. How would a leader use a saw? Perhaps to cut through the bureaucracy to help team members get the resources they need. Have fun with it ”add to the list of tools and discover some interesting analogies .

TOOL	USE BY TEAM LEADER
1. Hammer	1.
2. Saw	2.
3. Drill	3.
4. Screwdriver	4.
5. Vise	5.
6. Chisel	6.
7. Pulley/lever	7.
8. Bubble balance	8.
9. Sander	9.
10. Duct tape	10.
11. Crowbar	11.
12. Pliers	12.
13. Awl	13.
14. Paintbrush	14.
15. Ladder	15.
16. Wrench	16.
17.	17.
18.	18.
19.	19.
20.	20.