http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_3_50/ai_n13247086/
findarticles.com
by Leigh Rivenbark
Tools for Team Leadership
By Gregory E. Huszczo
Davies-Black Publishing, 2004, 300 pages
List price: $28.95, ISBN: 0-89106-201-7
The best teams are leaderful, not leaderless,” Gregory Huszczo writes in Tools for Team Leadership, a “self-study training guide” for use by individuals or whole teams and by managers who are thinking of creating teams.
This manual provides tools such as focus group questionnaires, checklists of responsibilities, exercises for teams, chapter reviews and pithy “commandments” to improve teams.
Huszczo, a consultant and professor of organizational behavior at Eastern Michigan University, urges organizations to assess their needs and determine if teams are the right option.
Team members need to identify their own natural leadership strengths. Huszczo offers questions: Will others follow you? Do you tend to emphasize that you’re in charge? Do you recognize your own weaknesses and talents? Do you encourage others? And do you take advantage of training and development opportunities? He also discusses personality types, such as introverts and extroverts, in terms of leadership.
A section on creating teams breaks down team types and stages of team development, from formation through disbanding. There is detailed help on selecting team members, such as determining who will choose them, how to notify the chosen members and what ground rules apply (for instance, whether those selected can say no). Learn how to structure an initial team meeting. Watch for the development of team norms–unwritten rules of behavior that can include problems such as the belief that getting work done is more important than getting it right.
Setting clear goals is vital, and a chapter lays out how to create a team charter that expresses why the team exists and how it should operate.
Communication skills for teams include using stories, questions, repetition and other means to convey information, as well as listening better by watching nonverbal cues and not judging feelings. Giving feedback improves with repeating what’s said, being specific and focusing on behavior rather than on personalities.
Huszczo notes that meetings often are pitfalls. Meetings can be complaint or demand sessions, forums for dominant employees, or failures when employees don’t participate. Agendas, clear roles and expectations of participation can help avert these problems.
In teams, problem-solving and decision-making should be subject to defined procedures. The book shows how to evaluate problems: Is there a need for a decision? Who will make it? What options exist? Who implements it? Huszczo’s model for problem-solving gives steps from initial analysis to action.
Leigh Rivenbark “Tools for Team Leadership”. HR Magazine. FindArticles.com. 09 Feb, 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_3_50/ai_n13247086/
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