Leadership Attitudes in Different Stages of Team Development

Teams and groups are evolving and developing organizations whose leadership may require that leaders take on differing leadership competencies over the development of their teams.

Teams and groups are evolving and developing organizations whose leadership may require that leaders take on differing leadership competencies over the development of their teams.

There are situations in new organizations where a leader has to assume a positive teacherlike relation to the team, especially when the team is only beginning to learn the required skills. On the other hand, team motivation often increases with this skill development. This means that teacher leaders will have to stay rather pragmatic, almost guiding the team by the hand, while at the same time gently motivating the team to further develop their skills.

The job of a leader transforms and becomes even somewhat easier once the team motivation increases and learning is supported by strengthening motivation. One of the primary responsibilities of a coach leader is to channel the team’s motivation into relevant directions so that they may best keep increasing their competencies in areas serving the competence needs of the organization.

When a team has reached a stage where the skill-development is at its peak, the leader may have to assume the role of a visionary. This means among other things opening up new ways for the team to apply their skills based on the organization’s big picture, this way maintaining high motivation among the team. It goes without saying that this is just what a leader aiming to help the organization grow and stay profitable has to do, thus utilizing the gained innovative advantage.

Ultimately there will be situations over the life of a team where the team tasks may not require continuously learning new skills, while sufficient productivity has to be secured by the leader. This calls forth a supervisor mode in the leader, thus combining even mild micro-managing aspects with delegative style made possible by a certain acquired skill level among the team.

Articles