A group is a collection of people who gather, or can be classified by others, under one title. This title can be derived from many sources, e.g., function, origin, affiliation, …etc.
A team is a special case of groups, where the members of the group share a certain target that they are working collectively and collaborate to achieve. Therefore, all teams are groups, but not all groups are teams.
Team formation goes through certain stages:
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
- Adjourning
The team leader plays a significant role during all stages of the team development, but his role in the first three phases is crucial for the survival of the team. It is awfully hard to modify a norm within a team after it is already formed. Early intervention is the right thing to do.
Roles are certain behaviors that are expected from persons in certain situations under specific obligations. Each person in a team is expected to play one or more roles. The team leader plays his role; including all aspects of managing the team, directing the team towards its goals, and resolving conflicts.
Other important roles within a team can include:
- Coordinator
- Specialist
- Checker (verifying others work)
- Doer (execute)
- Pusher (follow up aggressively and chase actions)
Motivating a team towards its goal can be seen on two distinct levels:
- The individuals level
- The group level
A good manager / team-leader should be able to lay a good foundation for motivating the entire team as a group, but also to recognize the differences between the people and address everyone separately. Different people respond differently to motives and drivers.
There are many different views and theories that address motivation. Among those, there are two major schools of thoughts:
- Content Theory: focusing on the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that can be used to drive people
- Expectancy Theory: focusing on the process of motivation itself in a mechanistic way.
The Expectancy theory is usually based on three cores:
- The expectancy: The believe that better performance will result in better results. It is somehow the probability of achieving the target and therefore receiving the reward.
- The valence: The outcome that a person would be looking for
- The instrumentality: The believe that a good outcome will result from satisfactory performance.
The expectancy theory mandates that the above listed three beliefs should exist to activate a certain motivation of a person.
It is quite important to understand that different people respond differently to different motives. And a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motives is usually needed. Extrinsic motives, such as money and promotions, can be highly effective till a certain stage but afterwards it must be accompanied by supporting intrinsic motives as well, such as recognition, affiliation, and self-respect.
Another critical point to consider here is the importance of one’s belief in the meaning of what he is doing. Lack of meaning is destructive for all kinds of motivations. Therefore, a good leader would usually want to explain to his team the reasons that make their work important and why it is needed. Working on a meaningless task is a soul killer.
Among the many theorists who worked on the content theory, Maslow is the most famous. There are many criticisms of Maslow’s hierarchy but amongst them there is a prominent one that makes a lot of sense: Maslow’s hierarchy mandates that humans don’t move to an upper layer in the hierarchy until the lower level is fulfilled. For example, a person wouldn’t try to fulfill his esteem unless his physical needs are fully satisfied; humans don’t normally act this way. Mostly, people try to satisfy these layers simultaneously, even different priorities are assigned to each.
Another important critic to Maslow’s hierarchy must be considered; different people have these layers of needs in different orders. Something that I think Maslow himself recognized in his writings (although, I am not sure where did I read about it).