• Home
  • About Us
  • Our Team
  • Contact Us
  • Login

Join In!

  • facebook
  • pinterest
  • twitter

Progressive Women's Leadership

Empowering. Supportive. Bold

EMPOWERING. SUPPORTIVE. BOLD.
  • Training
    • Career Development
    • Communication
    • Leadership
  • All-Access
  • Custom
  • eGuides
  • Blog
    • Leadership
    • Communication
    • Community
    • Life Balance
    • Gender Partnerships
    • Women in the World
  • Resources
    • Free Leadership E-Guides
    • Podcasts
You are here: Home / Featured Home / 3 ways to coach your team to new heights (from someone who spent her career studying teams)

3 ways to coach your team to new heights (from someone who spent her career studying teams)

June 10, 2022 By Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh

Can you count on your team? If you’ve got any hesitation, you might want to listen to a woman who’s spent her career studying teams.

“One of the clearest signs of an experienced leader is the attention she pays to her people and her teams,” notes Lindred Greer, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

But, unfortunately, she knows why many teams fail: Team leaders do not focus enough on team dynamics or what she calls “the fundamental driver of business success.” (A Google study of more than 180 teams also concluded that the dynamics of a team are actually more important than the talents and skills of the individual team members.)

After years of study, Prof. Greer now has a clear understanding of what makes teams effective. Here she gives you a few essential tips for building and managing effective teams.

  1. First things first: Keep building a diverse team

Quite simply, recruit team members that do not have a lot of similarities. Rather, build a team that welcomes diversity of thought. Members should have different ways of thinking, different backgrounds and styles of work, different expertise. Bring optimists and pessimists together; pair risk-takers with risk-avoiders; balance genders. In other words, design a team around complementary but distinct attitudes and strengths.

However, you need a cohesive understanding of the team’s goals and processes. And the way to bring this diverse team together, she says, is to include every team member in any discussions where:

  • goals are stated explicitly
  • benchmarks are established, and
  • responsibilities of each team member are made clear.

Getting any team, no matter how well they get along, to work together isn’t easy, and many leaders skip over the basics of team building in a rush to accomplish goals. But it’s important to establish details as small as how to run meetings so no member of the team sees that you’re picking favorites or discounting their feelings.

  1. Let your team lead … sometimes

Generally, a manager guides and delegates, others report on progress. But the value of this organizational structure is questionable in today’s workplace, says Greer. The “flat” organizational structure with fewer levels of management and looser boundaries – the kind that Google has advocated since the company began – will empower your team so ideas will flow freely.

To impose this kind of flatness and freedom, you do three things:

  1. Use a ritual, like passing an object around, to give everyone a chance to talk.
  2. Adopt body language that indicates you’re no longer supervising – leaning back from the table, for instance.
  3. Share the data, says Greer. It’s critical for a leader to eliminate friction within the team. Everything the team is working on – and the systems you put in place – should be shared with everyone on the team, even new hires. “It’s not who’s been there the longest or who is loudest. If the currency is data, then anyone who has it will feel able to speak up.”

This shifting between flat and agile structures should be practiced regularly, as practice will make the transition more natural. “It’s hard to go back and forth, to have a voice one moment and then none the next; this can feel disempowering, disrespectful,” Greer says. “One of the worst things you can be as a leader is unpredictable, but if flipping back and forth like this is normalized, then it won’t be seen that way.”

  1. Learn to spot problems

Left alone, troubles fester. It’s important to spot and diagnose problems as they arise within a team. Years of observation have taught Greer a few key early indicators of discord.

If your answer is yes to the following questions, you may need to delve deeper into your team dynamics.

Ask yourself these three questions: “Are people on my team …

… fighting over trivial things?” Quibbling over things like where to order lunch from “are a big signal to me that there are problems on the team,” says Greer. It’s often an indication of bigger power struggles at play: One person resents being passed over for promotion, or not having certain responsibilities, and so lashes out in other situations. To defuse this, stop the meeting short and talk to that person, Greer says. Find what’s driving the conflict and resolve that issue.

… all giving me vastly different answers to the same question?” For Greer, this “screams halt.” Take time to reestablish the glue of a single, coherent vision.

… not speaking up in meetings?” You need to find out why. “The first answer people give may not be right,” Greer says. “So ask why upon why upon really why, and you should get an answer to this question.” Be proactive. Pay attention to small details, like where they (and others) sit in meetings and how this affects conversation, or how their responses to ideas influence whether people speak up.

Once you start to use these techniques, you’ll notice that there’s more collaboration and innovation within your team, leaving you more time to think strategically, inspire a vision and provide direction to your newly diverse and dynamic team.

(Adapted in part from “Three Ways to Lead More Effective Teams?” by Dylan Walsh at Stanford Business)

Recommended For You

  • Pay equity: Every woman in leadership needs to read thisPay equity: Every woman in leadership needs to read this
  • Worked for Her: ‘Seat Shuffle’ helped our employees connect as a teamWorked for Her: ‘Seat Shuffle’ helped our employees connect as a team
  • It’s International Women’s Day! Here’s how to shine a lightIt’s International Women’s Day! Here’s how to shine a light
  • Assess yourself: The essential CEO behaviors (based on a study of 17,000 leaders)Assess yourself: The essential CEO behaviors (based on a study of 17,000 leaders)
  • Will this be what it finally takes to get more women in senior-level positions?Will this be what it finally takes to get more women in senior-level positions?
  • Knowing When—and When NOT—to NegotiateKnowing When—and When NOT—to Negotiate
  • Best Women’s Business Books for 2017Best Women’s Business Books for 2017
  • New proof: ‘Nice’ girls finish last … in the hunt for a new jobNew proof: ‘Nice’ girls finish last … in the hunt for a new job

Filed Under: Featured Home, Women in the World Tagged With: coaching team, team building, woman, women, women leadership, women's leadership, womens

About Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh

“An important attribute of success is to be yourself. Never hide what makes you, you." -- Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo

As editor-in-chief of Woman’s Own and American Woman magazines, I have championed the personal and professional development of women for years. I started my career unsure of my own path and abilities, but I always had a natural curiosity and an interest in words and writing. When selected to launch American Woman as editor-in-chief, after a string of editorial jobs, I was thrilled—and terrified at being responsible for a brand new venture. All I could do was my best, based on my instincts and years of experience. American Woman was a success, offering me things I hadn’t achieved before—the confidence to do public speaking and a journalism award (Exceptional Merit Media award from the National Women’s Political Caucus & Radcliffe College). I hope my insights, now as an editor for Progressive Women’s Leadership, will help you on your own journey to career success.

Looking to Make a Difference?

Join thousands of other leading women who have made the commitment to change.

GET MORE INFORMATION

KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST

Updates, discounts and content from Progressive Women’s Leadership straight to your inbox. Your information will never be sold or distributed.

Negotiating Skills: How to Ask for – and Get – What You Want | Course | Starts November 2nd

Popular Posts

  • Why It Pays to Praise: 40 Ways to Say ‘Good Job’
  • Employees complaining about pay? How to respond – and keep morale high
  • 6 Tools for Handling Difficult Conversations
  • Use your head – literally! 4 head gestures every leader needs
  • How To Deal With Those Time-Wasting Employees
Progressive Women's Leadership

Training

  • Live Training
  • On-Demand Webinars
  • Custom Training

Blog Topics

  • Leadership
  • Communication
  • Community
  • Life Balance
  • Gender Partnerships
  • Women in the World

Leadership E-Guides


Free Resources

  • Free Leadership E-Guides
  • Podcasts

Copyright © 2022 · Progressive Women's Leadership · Privacy Policy

WELCOME BACK!

Enter your username and password below to log in

Forget Your Username or Password?

Reset Password

Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.

Log In