Leading High-Performing Team

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Leading High-Performing Team
High-performing teams are different from other kinds of team in that the sum of members’ individual knowledge, skills and competencies come to bear significantly on the final output of the group. Unlike in other teams where the team’s performance does not exceed the leader’s personal capabilities, either because the leader does not sufficiently empower the team or does not know how to do so. High-performance teams are able to exceed the limitations of its leader by drawing on the resources of team members to produce results that far exceed the leader’s abilities.
They are able to do this because each person within the team is a leader in their own right and other members of the group recognize and encourage this. …show more content…

The leader is able to foster a spirit of leadership that infuses the whole team and makes it self-starting, self-regulating and self- organizing. Members own the team vision and display a high degree of personal commitment. Additionally, they assume responsibility for monitoring and regulating one another, rather than leaving it all to the team leader.
The big question is ‘How can leaders build an inclusive team culture where one is a leader?’ The real question should be ‘Why are leaders unable to build more inclusive teams?’ It is important to understand some of the obstacles that prevent teams from progressing towards high performance.
- Team Leaders As Cultural Engineers: Most team leaders view their role in the team as limited to their professional competence, their position and the objectives of the team. They fail to see that their primary responsibility is that of crafting the team identity and character; building a framework to guide the interpersonal dynamics of the group. As result the team falls to the default culture of the leader or its most dominant members. And even when team leaders realize the need to build a culture, they do not know how …show more content…

Building a team where members feel like leaders and take the initiative requires the leadership to surrender some of its powers to the members. If leaders are more concerned about monopolizing power, they will do so at the expense of greater team creativity and collaboration.
To facilitate team performance, the leader must often recede to the role of facilitator rather than dictator. They must become willing to lead through persuasion versus instruction.
However, there are dangers to be aware of in this process. If teams become too decentralized in terms of leadership, it can lead to anarchy and unproductiveness. Therefore, the following three aspects most be well defined before a team can move productively into bottom up leadership without negatively affecting its effectiveness.
- Authority: The role and position of the leader must be well defined as the anchor that keeps the group on course toward its destination. The leader has information and perspective that is not available to team members, therefore responsibility for the team’s goal belongs to the

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