What Team Are You Leading?
Managing teams means managing individual people.
I often think about the essence of a good team. What makes a team be a team? Many people say it is about people. When you manage great people, half of your work is done. But what if you manage great people who are also individualistic? Where is the beloved teamwork now? I can tell you one thing — it is a management job to make it work.
What is a team?
Today, teams are everywhere. Teamwork is the main company value. At interviews, personalists ask you straight away if you like working in teams. You are a part of some team or even teams in a corporate environment. I dare to say it is a real team madness.
Classical theorists of management define a team as a group of people working together to achieve a task that would not be achieved by the individual. If you need to lift an 80kg box out of the ground, you might not succeed on your own. But with a pair of extra hands, it should not be a problem. A collective effort and working on one goal together make the team.
Yet, there is a clear tendency to group people and to not leave anyone alone. Well, that’s wrong. Teams should always make sense. If it is a formal description of people led by one manager. Fine. But there is nothing in letting someone do the job on…
