Leading the Team

This module addresses the team leader’s role in managing a team engaged in collective problem-framing and problem-solving activities. While each member of the team is responsible for how the team functions and performs, the team leader has a distinct and critical role in these tasks. Some of the areas in which the team leader is particularly important include:

Working with the Commander to define the team’s mission, establish goals, and set expectations.
Working with the Commander to set the tone for open and honest discourse.
Building and maintaining interpersonal trust and a sense of team cohesion.
Managing personalities and associated team dynamics.
Minimizing unproductive (interpersonal) conflict, while optimizing productive conflict.
Organizing the work of the team.
Managing the team’s pace and workflow.
Encouraging and guiding team members in exchanging, discussing, and integrating information.
Helping the team to avoid forming quick opinions that match the group consensus (i.e., groupthink) rather than critically evaluating information.
Maintaining awareness of the organizational context in which the team is working, including the Commander’s and other stakeholders’ needs and preferences.

“You need commanders and leaders who understand Mission Command. They have the responsibility to build the team, and give guidance to the team. They have the responsibility to set the tone, to set the conditions…”

(U.S. Army CIV)

Although the activities, tips, and strategies described in this module are aimed at team leaders, we suggest that team members and Commanders also review the material. Doing so provides a basis for discussion of the leader’s role and function, and a shared sense of the challenges that team leaders often face.

Key Issues and Challenges

A significant challenge for team leaders and Commanders is establishing a collaborative and trusting environment in which team members feel safe arguing, questioning, thinking creatively, and sharing ideas openly. Individuals must set aside the behaviors that are often encouraged or required in military settings, and openly question and debate ideas with those who may be higher in rank. These behaviors can seem high-risk, uncomfortable, and even inappropriate to those who are accustomed to deferring to higher ranking personnel within a hierarchical command structure.

A second challenge is that the military (and the U.S. educational system more broadly) has historically tended to dampen down creative thought and label ideas as either “good” or “bad,” “right” or “wrong.” Individuals have become conditioned to tie their identity to the ideas they create and the esteem they get from being told they have the “right” answer. As a result, members of a planning team may refrain from thinking creatively or putting forth alternative ideas out of concern for being wrong or fear of being judged negatively by others. See TED talk "How to Build your Creative Confidence" for more on this topic.

The Commander and team leader have critical roles in breaking down these barriers. Despite rank, and despite the service, agency, or background of team members, the Commander and team leader must create an atmosphere in which members are comfortable sharing ideas, thinking critically, questioning assumptions, and challenging ideas, without fear of rebuke. Senior leaders can do so by modeling these activities and being aware of how they respond to others’ ideas and critiques. The Commander and team leader also need to consistently reinforce the view that an attack on an idea is not an attack on the person, and that the debate is for purposes of developing a deeper understanding. Creating such a positive climate requires a leadership style that emphasizes and encourages continual learning, creative and novel thought, and positively recognizes those who test ideas with one another.

In addition to leading internal team activities, the team leader plays a key role in activities external to the team. The planning team does not exist in a vacuum; rather the team exists within a particular organizational context that has a unique culture and set of norms for interacting and conducting business. The team also has a “customer” — typically the Commander, in addition to other senior leaders, and sometimes external governmental organizations or allies — who are stakeholders with specific needs and a vested interest in what the team learns and produces (see Communicating with Stakeholders). As team leader, it is important to maintain awareness of the organizational context in which the team functions and the team’s role within that context. Tuning into the Commander’s and stakeholders’ needs, and to how the stakeholders perceive the team and its effectiveness, enables a team leader to help the team adjust the team’s goals, timelines and work products accordingly.

Tips and Things to Consider

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Engage in self reflection (Expand)

The team leader should take time to reflect on the behaviors and characteristics he or she tends to exhibit as a leader, and whether those behaviors will work well for this team. There is no one right way to lead planning teams, but our data suggest that leaders who emphasize participation and who downplay the importance of hierarchy are more effective, and their teams are better able to engage in free-flowing dialogue. Most team leaders have probably taken a variety of leadership assessments throughout their careers in the military. It can be helpful to review and reflect on how that leadership style will function with the demands of leading a team engaged in complex problem-framing and problem-solving activities. (see example assessment tools in Tools and Resources section).

Seek feedback from the team (Expand)

Seek feedback from the team regarding one’s leadership style and the specific practices and behaviors that best support the team’s work. The team leader might choose to seek feedback from the full team or individually from team members. Informal conversation (“How am I doing? What can I do better?”), as well as more formal, structured dialogue, or written or computer-based formats all work well. Regardless of the feedback method the team leader chooses, eliciting feedback will serve a number of important purposes:
1. It will show that the leader is open to the team’s feedback and ideas for improvement.
2. It will help to build trust within the team (Note), and
3. It can be a basis for reflecting on one’s leadership practices and adjusting those practices to better support individual team members and the team as a whole.

(See Tools and Resources for example ways to seek team feedback.)

Model what the team should do (Expand)

One way to move the team toward collaborative problem solving is to model and demonstrate the desired team behaviors. Demonstrate critical thinking by questioning personal assumptions. Encourage the team to challenge ideas by inviting them to question the leader’s ideas and assumptions. Engage the team in exchange and discussion by soliciting ideas, repeating information, and seeking clarification from team members as they offer ideas.

Some team leaders find it helpful to have a set of starter questions to seed the team’s discussion. Starter questions can help team members begin to voice ideas, expand their thinking, compare and contrast concepts, and critique their own and others’ ideas.

Adapt to fit the organizational culture (Expand)

Team leaders should recognize that what might have worked for them when leading a team in another organizational context may not be the best fit for the team within the current organization. Consider and discuss with the team what is wanted and needed from someone as a team leader within this organizational context. Elicit the team member’s views about what will (or will not) be accepted within the current organizational climate or mood of the organization. Work with the team to adapt one’s leadership style, and the team’s approach and work process accordingly.

Tools and Resources

This section provides a set of tools and resources that planning team leaders and members may find useful to supplement the topics covered in the “Leading the Team” module. The set of resources is not intended to be comprehensive; but it provides a starting point. It is organized around two primary areas: 1) leadership assessment tools, and 2) suggested reading.

Leadership Assessment Tools

(Note: several of these assessment tools have an associated fee. Those available free of charge are noted with an asterisk.)

Campbell Leadership Descriptor
Description: Self-assessment designed to help individuals identify characteristics for successful leadership, recognize their strengths, and identify areas for improvement.

SKILLSCOPE Team Feedback Assessment
Description: A 360-degree (multi-source) assessment checklist that provides individuals with feedback on job-related skills necessary for effectiveness in a leadership role.

Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ)
Description: A questionnaire assessment that measures leadership types. Considered the benchmark measure of transformational leadership.

Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ)*
Description: A questionnaire assessment used by team members to describe the behavior of a leader following observations of the leader in action.

Profiles of Organizational Influence Strategies (POIS)
Description: An assessment tool that measures how people use influence within their organizations.

MAKING SENSE OF COMPLEX PROBLEMS

Leading the Team

Key Issues and Challenges

Tips and Things to Consider

Tools and Resources

Leadership Assessment Tools

Suggested Reading