When it comes to leading and managing a team of subordinates, the role of leaders is crucial for the high performance of the team. The role of leader as a team builder will be discussed in the light of Tuckman’s stages of group development model. According to Tuckman (1965), there are four important phases which is essential for every leader to make it sure that their teams go though these phases.
Leader’s role as team builder:
1. Forming
Forming is the first step of team development process. It includes selecting and recruiting team members to form a new team. This stage plays a crucial role for the future success of a team. Leaders need to show patience at the early stages of assembling a team. Leaders should be able to recruit the right person for the right position. Failure of selecting the right person or recruiting a wrong person in the first place leads the team far away from the path of success. During the forming stage, team members get introduced with each other start building a cooperative and friendly work environment that will be helpful to boost their productivity. This will also help the team members to share their opinion and views with each other through constructive conversation, criticism, debate, and divergence.
2. Storming
Storming, a shortened form of the word “brainstorming”, is the second stage of team development process. During the storming phase, leaders set the objectives of the project, divide the whole task into smaller parts and announce the deadlines for each outcome. Moreover, leaders assign duties and tasks among the team members based on their capability and skill sets and also inform the team members about their responsibility. Leaders motivate the team members to focus and stick to the goals of the organization and take appropriate actions to avoid distractions.
3. Norming
Norming is the third phase of team development process. Norm means an average standard or level. In an organizational context, norm refers to an expected set of behavior that matches with the organization’s custom. Leader’s ability to support the norming process is essential for the advancement of the team development process. During this phase, team members learn to recognize their authority as a leader and to show leadership in their areas of work duty. They also get informed more about the organizational obligations and accountability towards their job and other co-workers. In most cases, norming stage takes more time to get established comparing to the other stages of team development process.
4. Performing
Performing is the fourth stage of team development process. Leader’s ability to drive the team through consistent performance is extremely important for achieving the long terms strategic goals of the organization. Leaders should delegate as sensibly as possible. They monitor the performance of individual team members and motivate them to exceed their capability by giving recognition, promotion and rewards. Once the team has attained the desired performance standard, leaders need to spotlight on the other goals and parts of work.
To summarize, leaders must identify which stage of team development process their team is at. Once they have identified the stage, they need to determine what needs to be accomplished to move towards the next stage. Moreover, they should be able to alter the leadership approach as the teams move from one stage to another stage. This is how leaders move their team forward and make the team development process successful.
Reference:
Tuckman, Bruce (1965). "Developmental sequence in small groups". Psychological Bulletin 63 (6): 384–99.
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