Team Roles
As teams mature fully into the performing stage of development
and have become highly effective or even high-performing, how do they continue
to grow and improve upon their already high level of performance? If they still have not accomplished their
primary goal at their current level of performance, without continued improvement
it is possible that the team could begin to stagnate and eventually fail. It So how do you squeeze more performance out
of a team that is already performing above the norm? Turns out the answer is peer pressure, sort
of.
Highly effective and high-performing team members generally
have high mutual trust within the team, are unconditionally committed to the
team, feel responsible to train and further develop each other, seek ways to continuously
improve the team and its processes (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). In a way they have become so connected that their
behavior and comments have a profound effect on the behavior. This effect can be positive or negative on goal
accomplishment. The individual members
of the team take on roles based on their personality and natural tendencies. Two types of positive or advantageous roles
that members take on are task-facilitating roles and relationship building
roles.
Task-facilitating roles as one might expect are focused on task
completion. There are many task facilitating roles to include direction giving,
information seeking, information giving, elaborating, urging, monitoring, process
analyzing, reality testing, enforcing, and summarizing. Even if the team only has one member
performing these roles, they work more efficiently. Without someone performing as a task facilitator,
the team loses focus and is slower to achieve their goals (Whetten &
Cameron, 2016).
As I stated earlier, teams at this level of performance are
highly connected and committed to each other as well as the team. Relationship-building roles improve the
interpersonal side of the team. The
relationship builders support, harmonize, relieve tension, confront, energize,
develop, build consensus and empathize.
They are all about helping team members to feel good about each other
and the work they do. It is ideal to have a balance of task and relationship roles: too much of either can be
counterproductive (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).
People tend to lean
toward either task or relationship roles, but can overlap between the two. I am definitely a task facilitator. As a team member, I am much more comfortable solving
problems, analyzing data, looking for options and alternatives. As I progressed in rank, I had to learn to do
both. I was and still am uncomfortable
with the feel good role, but understand the importance of attending to both roles.
As a leader in an organization though, I am more
relationship oriented. I am not sure why
that is exactly, but I believe it is the environment. On a team of peers focused on a goal, I want to be part of the solution. In the organization, my task is to develop the
people assigned to me and prepare them for increased responsibility. Providing guidance, support, encouragement
and praise in this role is what feels right.
Reference:
Whetten, D. A., Cameron, K. S. (2016), Developing management
skills (Ninth edition). Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN: 978-0-13-312747-8.
(student edition)
Just an afterthought:
I had some difficulty with this module. I did not expect to at all. I was in the Air Force. Teams and meetings are an everyday occurrence. From the beginning, this material conflicted
with what I thought I knew and it effected my learning. At first, I read the material and somehow
made it match what I expected to be in the reading. As discussions started, I realized I was not
on the same level with my class mates, much like I had not even read the same
material. I went back to the reading with
a more open mind which helped, but it still left a few holes in high-performing
teams. As a result, I will continue my studies in this area.
~Pete
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