If you are the manager of a team you naturally want it to be effective. You also want to encourage innovation and engagement. But with an unconscious pull in group mind-set towards comfort and maintaining the status quo this can be a challenge in the best of times, let alone during lockdown!

From our experience of dancing lion’s management development programmes, check your team set up against these guidelines:

1. The group should have a clear leader. 
2. The leader is self-confident and makes decisions. 
3. They demonstrate their power by allowing team members to contribute and arrive at a common decision.
4. Groups produce better solutions to problems and tasks. Leaders provide enough opportunities for team members to collaborate.
5. Having a uniform group of similar people may look efficient and cohesive but are they creative or just conforming? The pressure for conformity in a group is strong and can rob it of original thinking and stifle contribution.
6. When you are recruiting for your team try and choose different personality types and backgrounds – they are more likely to be creative than people who are all very similar to one another.
7. Share the interplay of different contributions to maximise the effectiveness of the group
8. If you are holding team meetings – only have the people necessary for the task included in the meeting. Too many passive, disengaged observers will dilute the energy.
9. As a leader, your success lies in your ability to facilitate communication and the freedom with which members can influence each other. 
10. Any leader who seeks to make all the decisions themselves will produce progressively worse decisions as the potential contribution of their colleagues is withheld in frustration.

I recommend reading the following article regarding the topic – “4 Ways to Strengthen Your Ability to Influence Others” from Centre for Creative Leadership website.

Your team needs to be able to express its intelligence in challenging business situations. If it can’t, then they will likely look for scapegoats to blame.

Summary

So…

• Create your group
• Know the dynamics
• Chair the interplay

Contact us at dancing lion to find out more.