Team Roles

A520.6.4.RB

High-performing teams are those that have negotiated the forming, norming, storming and performing stages; thus establishing a team dynamic that produces extraordinary results and solutions. In fact, “The most effective teams in this stage develop the capacity to perform beyond the norm. They achieve outcomes that are extraordinary. They extend the boundaries of what is possible. They become positively deviant” (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). As leaders, it is essential to understand how teams become high-performing through two key roles such as task-facilitating role and relationship-building role.

“Task-facilitating roles are those that help the team accomplish its outcomes or objective” (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). Centered around effective task completion, below are common task-facilitating roles.

·       Direction giving: Identifying ways to proceed or alternatives to pursue and clarifying goals and objectives.
·       Information seeking: Asking questions, analyzing knowledge gaps, requesting opinions, beliefs, and perspectives.
·       Information giving: Providing data, offering facts and judgments, and highlighting conclusions.
·       Elaborating: Building on the ideas expressed by others; providing examples and illustrations.
·       Urging: Imploring team members to stay on task and to achieve team goals.
·       Monitoring: Checking on progress, developing measures of success and helping to maintain accountability for results.
·       Process analyzing: Analyzing processes and procedures used by the team in order to improve efficiency and timeliness.
·       Reality testing: Exploring whether ideas presented are practical or workable; grounding comments in reality.
·       Enforcing: Helping to reinforce team rules, reinforcing standards, and maintaining agreed-upon procedures.
·       Summarizing: Combining ideas and summing up points made in the team; helping members understand the conclusions that have been reached. (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).

“Relationship-building roles are those that emphasize the interpersonal aspects of the team. They focus on assisting team members feel good about one another, enjoy the team’s work, and maintain a tension-free climate” (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). Indeed, with any team charged with producing results, the chance for increased stress and tension is high. Furthermore, relationship-building enhances team production by means of supporting and motivating each other. Common relationship-building roles are:

·       Supporting: Praising the ideas of others, showing friendliness, and pointing out others’ contributions
·       Harmonizing: Mediating differences between others and finding a common ground in disputes and conflicting points of view
·       Tension relieving: Using jokes and humor to reduce tension and put others at ease
·       Confronting: Challenging unproductive or disruptive behaviors; helping to ensure proper behavior in the team
·       Energizing: Motivating others toward greater effort; exuding enthusiasm
·       Developing: Assisting others to learn, grow, and achieve; orienting and coaching members of the team
·       Consensus building: Helping build solidarity among team members, encouraging agreement, and helping interactions to be smooth
·       Empathizing: Reflecting group feelings and expressing empathy and support for team members (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).

Of the two roles, I consider myself to be on the task-facilitating role side. In fact, entering military service as a young leader, I was highly task oriented and rarely bothered with relationship-building roles. Although I knew that building relationships and supporting one another was just as important, effective task completion was more important during that time. However, the more mature and experience me, now places a premium on relationship-building roles. Having been a leader for many years now, I believe that anyone can coach, train, or teach someone to complete a given task, yet not everyone has the ability to inspire, motivate and support others. Thus, it is important to have the right mix of team members that fall into the task-facilitating and relationship-building roles. In a high-impact and dynamic environment, it is important to have team members that can stay focus on the task at-hand and have those that can bring the team together and provide harmony within a chaotic situation.

References

Whetten, David A.; Cameron, Kim S. (2015-05-20). Developing Management Skills. Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.