What Mistakes do Managers Make that Undermine Team Productivity?
A sense of teamwork is easily destroyed by a manager who fails to practice what he or she preaches. Such a manager promises to share decision making with staff members but does not do so. Candid and full debate over an issue is abandoned by the manager who talks about team meetings and shared leadership yet dominates meetings and hoards responsibility. The manager may talk about empowering team members or, at least, letting team members engage in participative management—influence how work is done, if not how decisions regarding the work are made—but does neither. They are manipulations designed to get maximum work from the department. Instead, decisions tend to be made by the formal leader with little involvement of other team members.
Managers may involve members in meetings. But the bottom line in involvement of employees is this: Are member ideas utilized to reach the decision?
This is not to say that teamwork demands that leaders abdicate their authority and give it to team members, as already mentioned. Teams need to agree up front about how they will operate. If you want to build a sense of teamwork yet retain a strong leadership role, all you need do is communicate that to the team.
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Let’s assume that you want to share leadership of the team with its members. If that is so, then here are some further steps to take:
The team structure must be supported by senior management and the organizational structure—the team concept can fail from lack of support and commitment of top management. The team structure should:
Focus less on task activities and more on team member relationships.
Encourage employees to display self-discipline and to take responsibility for their own behavior and actions.
Offer sufficient training so all know best how to operate as a team.