We’re back again, readers and let’s get right into another entry of the Educated Leadership Blog!
This week’s topic is self-managed teams and how leaders interact and manage those teams. At first, saying a self-managed team needs leadership may sound almost oxymoronic. However, even teams that are self-sufficient need to have an idea what they are supposed to accomplish and how it fits into the big picture.
Brown, in his text, stated that “A self-managed work team is an autonomous group whose members decide how to handle their task” (2011, p. 349). The team needs to have a defined task, service, or product. They may be a permanent fixture or a one-time team or variations in between. The teams may be called by different names. I have participated on a cross-functional team, which is a type of self-managed team. There are also self-regulating work groups, autonomous work groups, high-performance work teams, and sociotechnical systems (Brown, 2011).
The teams are often made up of personnel from across the organization. The team is given authority to manage their processes by upper management so the group may accomplish its objectives. In short, a diverse group of people is brought together, given a task, given authority to act, and then senior management gets out of the way so they can work. It is up to the group to determine a plan and then to execute that plan to meet the goals and deadlines senior management has set.
As self-managed teams are a version of high-performance teams, their characteristics are nearly identical. It should be a small team of no more than 15 members. It should be diverse in make-up. The team members need to be skilled, knowledgeable and capable. The team and management need to have a strong sense of partnership and desire to achieve the goal. They should have a physical site and be able to procure the tools and materials they deem necessary for success. (Brown, 2011)
Self-managed work teams have benefits and drawbacks, as do most any management processes. The advantages include a strong sense of accomplishment for the team members, the ability to work at a pace and in the style the members find most advantageous, the opportunity for team members to stretch themselves and grow, and a chance for the team members to learn about other parts of the company from people with whom they do not usually interact. Management gets the rewards from all the opportunities afforded the workers and the learning they accomplish. Management will also get to see their people operate in new ways which may open new doors for the employee. Last, but not least, management gets a situation handled that requires less oversight than normal which allows them to focus their energies elsewhere. The drawbacks, in my opinion, center around the change in leadership that is required to lead these groups. Those who struggle with delegating authority will find working with self-managed teams distasteful.
It is incumbent on management to set the goals and deadlines for the team, as well as defining the restraints. They also need to monitor the team with periodic check-ins to look for possible issues that are negatively impacting the group. Anytime a new group is put together, there will be growing pains and sometimes the pains are bigger that the self-managed team can handle on its own. Also, at the check-ins, there needs to be feedback provided to the group so they have an understanding of how they are progressing. The teams are not purely on auto-pilot, but it is close. However, there may be times when the external leader needs to get more ‘hands-on’ with the team. The leader needs to pay close enough attention to see if there are major disruptions that are impacting the team’s ability to perform. At that point, the leader intervenes to get the team back on track and then steps back again (INSEAD, 2008).
If the team is not set up properly, there will be issues. The characteristics and needs of the team need to be carefully considered by management. There needs to be training and cross-training for the members. There needs to be recognition and compensation for success. As Professor Paul Tesluk mentioned in his interview with INSEAD (2008), as companies flatten their management structure, there is more need for teams that can self-manage. There just aren’t going to be enough managers to pay full-time attention to the teams.
Professor Tesluk also notes that the leadership style for “external leaders” of self-managed teams is different from the style of a leader that is in charge of a team (INSEAD, 2008). The leader must move away from a directive style and move toward a transformational type of leadership where the development of the team members is at the forefront. The members must learn and become proficient at setting schedules, defining processes, and managing the diverse perspectives the team will have within it. Those are learned skills that are not prevalent across most companies. They will need to be nurtured in the self-managed team.
I have had the pleasure of having a high-performance team work for me. I love it and am always on the lookout for opportunities to put together another group like that one. I was also a participant on a cross-functional team a few years ago. That experience was not as gratifying because the leader that set up the team was not able to step back and let the team work, he was always giving direction. The team didn’t meet the tasks it was set up to accomplish and most participants left with a bad taste in their mouth. To this day, the mention of a cross-functional team being considered will cause numerous eye-rolls in meetings.
In order to be able to lead a self-managed team, one needs trust and confidence in the team and in oneself. The leader needs to know what needs to be accomplished and be able to communicate that goal clearly. An understanding of the skills the people being invited to join the team will bring is a necessity. A commitment to getting the people on the team opportunities to expand their skill-sets and giving them the space to learn and even to make mistakes (yes, make mistakes) will go far toward providing the team opportunity to succeed. Professor Tesluk also points out that external leaders of self-managed teams need to convey the goals for the team in an inspiring manner (INSEAD, 2008). Therefore, the ability to communicate goals through storytelling may be a very important skill. One other skill will be the ability to pay attention without getting in the way. As mentioned above, the leader needs to be ready to step in and help when truly necessary.
I believe we will see more and more of these types of teams, especially in larger companies. I look forward to working with and on those teams!
Until next time…
Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice-Hall.
INSEAD (2008). Self-managing teams: debunking the leadership paradox, YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBnR00qgGgM
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