TEAMWORK
I read an interesting article about management and teamwork. It stressed the importance of managing each individual on a team as an individual. That is, everyone is different, with different skills, motivations, backgrounds and so forth. The goals of a team must be the same but how and why each member plays his or her part can be completely different. For example, the author noted that a person who is motivated by praise may not respond to money and team members who are motivated by praise may prefer different methods of expressing praise. A leader who assumes that everyone on the team is the same will not get the best results. Similarly, a person who works best at night won't do his or her best work early in the morning.
This simple message applies to everything we do and it's important to all of the team members, including the manager and the managed. If a manager tries to form everyone into the same mold, some or all of the team members will fail to be the most productive they can be. If the team accepts this mold, it will be unhappy and relatively unproductive. The goal may not be achieved at all or it will be more expensive in effort, pain, or money. All events can be hurt by bad management: How many times have we seen an oppressive or unthinking manager try to dictate every step of everyone's job, rather than relying on the individuality of the team members to get things done in the best way. How many times have we seen team members try to fit into a common mold and slowly sink into boredom and mediocrity?
The answer, as it so often is, is communication. It's the job of the manager and the managed to communicate: The manager needs to communicate the team goals but the managed needs to communicate his or her personal goals and strengths. It doesn't work for the manager to assume that everyone understands, let alone shares, the organization's goals; everyone needs fully to accept the goals, to feel that the goals are important and worthwhile, to want to achieve the goals. Similarly, the managed need to let the manager know what they want. It could be money, it could be praise, it could be feeling a valued member of the team, it could be the personal satisfaction that comes from doing one's best. Whatever the need, while it's up to the manager to fill it, it's up to the managed to communicate the need to the manager. The managed also needs to communicate his or her strengths and approaches to problems so that the manager can allow his or her best work
One size fits all doesn't work in teams and we all have to be properly fitted to do our best work. When we all bring this knowledge to the team, there's no limit to what we can do.
7-9-01
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