Teams are apart for much more time than they are together. Most professionals spend large amounts of their time writing, reading, calculating, designing, researching and in meetings with clients. Much of the time is spent on technical or professional matters and some on business tasks. It is part of the leader’s job to create a climate where team members can enjoy their autonomy and yet be sufficiently disciplined and willing to be team players. Keeping their colleagues informed on matters that are important to them is a good example. The agreement of ground rules of the sort described in Direction: Objectives, Values, Strategy and Change provides a good basis for this to happen. But even with ground rules, good leaders still keep an eye on what is happening. They monitor behaviour without being too intrusive and gently remind people about the agreed norms of behaviour. It is much easier to remind them when they have agreed to them in the first place.
These are some of the things that good team players do as a matter of routine:
- Provide information quickly to their colleagues when it is requested.
- Take the initiative to keep colleagues informed on matters that they think are important to them.
- Help colleagues to solve problems when requested.
- Lend a hand when colleagues have too much to do.
- Willingly intercept phone calls for colleagues who are away from their desks or who need uninterrupted time for concentrated effort.
- Willingly act as sounding boards for colleagues wanting to check out planned ways of proceeding.
- Fulfil all of their commitments rather than just their professional or fee-earning ones.
- Flag up impending crises or major problems in good time.
- Remind their colleagues of the team’s ground rules when they are not being observed.
- Act as ambassadors for the team and its work.
- Willingly step in on behalf of colleagues who are absent if the situation demands.
There is a final and very important point for team leaders to bear in mind. Using teams constructively has great merit. Successful leaders of professionals recognize this. We have also noted that they also have to have the ability to balance the needs of the team and the needs of its individuals. Team members need the authority and freedom to get on with their day-to-day work. Good leaders are adept at creating the space for this to happen but within the context of clear and agreed objectives and norms of behaviour. If the context is right then good performance usually follows. If there is no proper framework within which people can act effectively then, however talented they are, anarchy is more likely to result. The challenge for team leaders is to get the best out of the team, as a whole, whilst at the same time enabling each individual member to excel.