How to Lead your Rookie Team to Success

How to Lead your Rookie Team to SuccessHow to Lead your Rookie Team to SuccessHow to Lead your Rookie Team to Success Lipkin, author of What Keeps Leaders Up at Night (Amacom, 2014)Setting up and managing good groups requires careful thinking about the kollektivs composition, size, objectives, and protocols. To counteract some of the common problems that can make a good team go badEstablish Group Diversity. Although a leader might feel tempted to assemble five like-minded people on a team, uniformity can stifle creativity and breed lackluster results. Consider selecting a diverse group of people who represent, as much as possible, different genders, ages, ethnicities, functional skills, and experiences.Make it clear to the team why you did so. Youll see some unfamiliar faces zu siche because I want to make sure we get a wide range of input as we try to invent a new toothpaste container.Define Expectations. If leaders clearly state the results they expect from a group, whether in an a d hoc meeting or an ongoing work team, they can more easily keep everyones effort on track toward the desired goal. That also helps ensure accountability for results.After all, its not easy holding people accountable for results if you have never told them exactly what you expect them to do. We will create specifications for a new type of toothpaste tube by close of business on Friday.Emphasize Collective Awareness. If team members understand common group biases, they will more easily spot and correct their biases. Look, we all prefer to squeeze the toothpaste tube rather than roll it up. Lets keep that in mind when someone suggests a new type of tube that might require rolling it up.Provide the Right Training. Although leaders commonly hire people who will make good team players, they do not necessarily train people to work well in teams. Unless every member of your team has actively played team sports throughout his or her life, some individuals may find it unfamiliar territory.Ye s, everyone may naturally gravitate toward groups, but effective group behavior requires certain skills, such as performing a specific role despite the fact that you could perform other roles just as well. Tackle teamwork training as thoughtfully as you do technical or on-the-job training.Developing a set of teamwork skills among your people not only enhances their self and social awareness, it also provides them with the tools they need to operate successfully in a group.Team skill training can come from an outside consultant or your organizational development department.Get your team thinking about the nature of group dynamics and the collective strengths and weaknesses of a group by actively discussing such questions as1. What are the strengths of our team?2. What are the weaknesses of our team?3. What are the roadblocks we seem to face when it comes toCommunication?Decision making/problem solving?Managing project, time, and delivery?4. What conditions do we need to thrive?5. Wha t conditions cause us to suffer?Such discussions heighten everyones awareness of what it takes to function productively in a group. Lets review our last major breakthrough, when we invented the tuna fish can style key for rolling up a toothpaste tube.Stress Freedom of Thought. A leader can prepare the team for an important meeting by urging them to do their homework individually and bring to the meeting information and ideas free from team influence. Stress that no bit of data and no possible alternative is too silly or dumb to present to the meeting.Before we get together for our first team session on Wednesday, I want you to research and think deeply about the history of the toothpaste tube. Jot down facts and ideas that pop into your head as you do your homework.Insist on Information Sharing. A leader must insist on information sharing. When people can freely access all information during a discussion, they feel less inclined to leave out material that might lead to a better deci sion or solution.Recommend that everyone list all of the information in their possession that relates to an issue. Who wants to talk about the invention of the first toothpaste tube? Lets examine every little wrinkle our competitors have added over the years.Promote Innovation. A good leader stimulates people to climb over the mental fence that can keep a group from devising, openly discussing, and adopting new ideas and solutions. Priming a group to think critically and creatively, versus just reaching a consensus, helps a team share more information, challenge each other without rancor or judgment, and get better results.We all know the two classic ways to get toothpaste out of the tube, but can we dream up a way that does not involve squeezing or rolling up the tube? And, by the way, why does toothpaste even need to come in a tube? Ill take the person who comes up with the most outrageous idea to lunch.Excerpted from What Keeps Leaders Up at Night by Nicole Lipkin All rights rese rved. Published by AMACOM Books, a division of American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.Author BioNicole Lipkinis a sought-after speaker, consultant and executive coach She holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology as well as an MBA. The author of Y in the Workplace Managing the Me First Generation, Lipkin has shared her expertise on NPR, NBC, CBS and other high-profile media outlets.