How do you lead a team?

How do you develop team leaders in your school?

As each new team forms (at the beginning of academic years or the beginning of a new project) it is worth considering what 'theory' your school has about how to effectively lead teams.

Leading a team is a balancing act between focusing on the task in hand, the various roles of team members and the individuals concerned. Leading a team can sometimes feel like juggling a number of balls in the air, and if one ball falls the performance of the whole team could suffer.

We will look at a theoretical model for leading and managing a team, and explore how you can use it with teams you belong to.

Heads Up!

Middle leaders | Heads of Department | Multi-Classroom Leadership - a great article on multi-classroom leadership can be found HERE. Elevating excellent teachers so that they reach more students, and compensating them appropriately, led to robust student gains and teacher retention.

Case Study: Sundar Pichai

Sundar Pichai, full name Pichai Sundararajan, is a prominent Indian American business executive. He is the CEO of Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. In this video his leadership style is discussed. He is present and grounded, and good at driving results. A leader thinks long-term; the stable leader enables others to lead themselves.

“Often, I find my best leadership moments are when I behave like a fly on the wall, sometimes listening, and observing, and adding one critical question to the discussion. Often, I find my team has the capacity and talent to lead themselves. "Chill" leaders remind me of Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella! Both keep a good balance in their lives, they have families they are deeply committed to, and seem to know when to be "on" and "off" as leaders. Or, at least they see "off" as an important part of being "on."” (Stephen Kolas Yang)

Action Centered Leadership

Action Centered Leadership (sometimes referred to as ACL) is a model of team leadership that was developed by John Adair and published in 1973. Adair developed his Action Centered Leadership Model whilst lecturing at Sandhurst Military Academy. It is called ACL because it focuses on the key actions that leaders have to take when managing their teams. These actions refer to:

  • Task: Achieving the team's goal
  • Team: Developing and building your team, so that it is ever more effective
  • Individual: Helping individuals develop their full potential.

A leader must balance the actions they take to cross all three areas if the team is to succeed in achieving their goal.

Balancing the leaders' roles

  • Use the following article which provides Adair's description of the three roles a team leader must perform as either a Think Piece or as a sorting exercise.
  • If you are using it as a Think Piece:
    Highlight the key challenges for the team leader.
    What can you say about the balance of the leader's role?
    What resonates with you? What implications does it have for your own leadership? Identify your own strengths and areas for development as (a) an individual, and (b) as a leadership team.
  • If you are using it as a sorting exercise, cut up each statement into strips. As a leadership team organize the strips into groups. You could then prioritize within each group as to the activity which potentially has the greatest impact.

Your responsibilities as a manager for achieving the task are:

  • Identify aims and visions for the group, purpose, and direction – define the activity (the task)
  • Identify resources, people, processes, systems and tools (including financial, communications, IT)
  • Create the plan to achieve the task – deliverables, measures, timescales, strategy and tactics
  • Establish responsibilities, objectives, accountabilities and measures, by agreement and delegation
  • Set standards, quality, time and reporting parameters
  • Control and maintain activities against parameters
  • Monitor and maintain overall performance against the plan
  • Report on progress towards the group’s aim
  • Review, re-assess and adjust plan, methods and targets as necessary

Your responsibilities as a manager for the team or group are:

  • Establish, agree and communicate standards of performance and behavior
  • Establish style, culture, approach of the group – soft skills elements
  • Monitor and maintain discipline, ethics and integrity and focus objectives
  • Anticipate and resolve group conflict, struggles or disagreements
  • Assess and change as necessary the balance and composition of the group
  • Develop team-working, co-operation, morale, team-spirit
  • Develop the collective maturity and capability of the group – progressively increase group freedom and authority
  • Encourage the team toward objectives and aims – motivate the group and provide a collective sense of purpose
  • Identify, develop and agree team – and project – leadership roles within the group
  • Enable, facilitate and ensure effective internal and external group communication
  • Identify and meet group training needs
  • Give feedback to the group on overall progress; consult with and seek feedback and input from the group

Your responsibilities as a manager for each individual are:

  • Understand the team members as individuals – personality, skills, strengths, needs, aims and fears
  • Assist and support individuals – plans, problems, challenges, highs and lows
  • Identify and agree appropriate individual responsibilities  and objectives
  • Give recognition and praise to individuals – acknowledge effort and good work
  • Where appropriate, reward individuals with extra responsibility, advancement and status
  • Identify, develop and utilize each individual’s capabilities and strengths
  • Train and develop individual team members
  • Develop individual freedom and authority

UK National College for Teaching and Leadership

Building a Tower

This activity allows you to reflect on the role of the team leader. You can do this as part of a leadership team exercise or else use it in developing teams amongst your faculty.

Invite one person from each group to volunteer to be the team leader. Tell them that they will receive feedback on their leadership from the rest of the group. Ask the group to identify protocols for giving feedback in this context. Task observers note the leadership behaviors and the impact of these on the team. Ask each team to come up with a team name. Write these on the flip chart as a score sheet.

Each team is given the following materials: 1 mini chocolate bar, 20 sheets of newspaper, roll of masking tape, ruler, scissors.

  • Teams of five people and to include a leader and an observer.
  • Team to agree protocols for providing feedback.
  • Teams have 15 minutes to construct a structure that will support a small chocolate bar as high as possible from the ground. You may use only the materials provided.The structure must be freestanding, not secured to the surface on which it rests.
 

Feedback:

The leaders:

  • What were the challenges?

The team members

All materials on this website are for the exclusive use of teachers and students at subscribing schools for the period of their subscription. Any unauthorised copying or posting of materials on other websites is an infringement of our copyright and could result in your account being blocked and legal action being taken against you.