Two Must-Haves for Teams to Be Successful
I’ve been asked to summarize what it takes to be a good leader in one page…well, not easy. It takes a lot.
Mission and Team
However, I think there are a couple of must-haves for a team to be successful, must-haves that the leader must deliver and ensure they are generated and maintained throughout the live of the team’s efforts. These things are a clear mission/goal, including clear status, and a team that feels supported and encouraged by the leader and the organization. Mission is what you and the team must accomplish and the Team is how it can be done.
There are a lot of other things that a leader must do. However, these two items must be in place if the team and the leader hope to be successful. Everything else is a supporting behavior or capability. For example, having and expressing a mission of the team’s goal and success support the need to have a clear mission/goal. What is the team aiming towards?
Mission/Goals
In my experience, whenever a team is not clear about its mission/goals is like a ship without a compass or GPS. Where is it? Where is it going? How do you get there? What progress has been made? That’s why in any project/effort, the initial period when the mission/goal is defined is critical. There’ll be many stakeholders with various interests in the output of the team. But do they agree? Whether they agree or not, it is the leader’s responsibility to ensure there is one mission and set of goals for the team to work towards. Otherwise confusion will reign.
For project managers, a project charter is a tool to help get this agreement in place. It not only states what the project’s mission is, but it empowers the project manager to run the project, defines resources available, timeline desired, etc. While a project charter is something the project manager should expect to receive, in my experience it is rare for it to be developed without the project manager driving the effort to develop it. As a leader, do it! It will force you to think through things you may otherwise forget and it’s a good tool to confirm agreement.
But knowing the mission is only the beginning. As a leader, you must make sure progress against the mission is visible to all team members and stakeholders. This visibility will help the team focus on what needs to be done and validate how well they are doing. It will also identify when corrective action is needed to get the effort back on schedule. Tools such as Commitment-Based Project Management (aka Map Days), project management tools, dashboards are very valuable in this endeavor. Make sure it is visible to everyone and that they don’t require extra effort just to report status. The goal of any of these tools is to help the team and the leader ensure progress.
Team Support
The second must have is that the team feels supported and encouraged, not just by the leader, but by themselves and the organization. The leader is the biggest factor here. A leader that is credible, trusted, that instills a sense of community, inspires and supports the team, and ensures they and the team are good stewards of the organization will go a long way towards this need. The leader will not only work and support the team, but will also work with the entire organization to ensure the organization supports the team and its efforts.
The Six Domains of Leadership™ model is a great framework the leader can use as they provide the team support. It starts with a foundational layer of Personal, Relational, and Contextual Leadership (which, in turn, have the leadership effects of Credibility, Trust, and Community). It then follows on with Inspirational and Supportive Leadership (High Aspirations and Initiative), and then caps it with Responsible Leadership (Stewardship). You can find more details in some of my articles in Medium (e.g., “Leadership Effects — How to Achieve the Results You Want” and “Situational Leadership and the Six Domains of Leadership”) as well as at Delta Leadership’s website.
Summary
As a leader, ensuring that there’s a clear mission and status and that the team is supported are the two key items to ensure team success. They may not be enough, and supportive leadership actions will be needed. But they all fit within these two must haves.
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