Managing the Team

A central aspect of the team leader’s role is managing the internal workings of the team. Managing the team includes managing the interactions among the team members, as well as controlling the pace, energy level, and overall workflow of the team. While it is the responsibility of all team members to monitor the team’s process and internal dynamics, the team leader is in a unique position to help the team maintain a positive and productive tone for discourse and sensemaking, and to maintain progress.

Some of the issues discussed in this module include:

• Managing diverse (and sometimes difficult) personalities and competing personal agendas
• Managing conflict, and differentiating between productive and unproductive conflict
• Ensuring the team has the benefit of every member’ knowledge and skills
• Monitoring the teams’ energy level and tone of interactions in order to manage the team’s workflow and productivity
• Stepping away from the work itself to discuss how the team is functioning – what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to be adjusted

We discuss these issues in the following pages:

• Managing Dynamics
• Managing Team Workflow and Productivity