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Nick Kapp

MGMT 374

Professor Bartlett

6 December 2017

The Path to Creating and Managing a Successful Team

Teamwork is the ability to have individuals come together to work towards a collective

goal. The concept of teamwork is used in every workplace regardless of industry and is a

necessary component, for success, in the modern workplace. However, teams do not always

succeed and plenty of teams end of failing disastrously. The culture, alignment, dynamic, and

assessment of the team are all factors that contribute to its success. These factors are managed by

the leader of the group, team, or organization. Leadership is the ability to motivate others

towards a shared vision. The absence of an effective leader can prove to be detrimental to a team,

even if all members are skilled. Teamwork and leadership are essential skills that are required to

succeed in the workforce. Throughout this essay I will analyze and discuss the process of

building an effective team that achieves results, specifically how to assess, evolve, align, and

lead a team while identifying how leadership affects this process.

As a manager it is rare that one will enter into a position where it is necessary to build a

team from scratch. That is more common for the entrepreneurship track looking to create a start-

up, so generally a team is already established. Before jumping right into the path to a successful

team, it is important to avoid common mistakes leaders may make when first starting to manage

their team. Upon entry into a new management position, it can be easy to immediately notice the
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practices you wish to change and begin to criticize previous leadership. This is crucial to avoid

because it sheds a negative light on how you work with others and does not show forward

thinking and direction as a leader. It is appropriate to assess current practices, but in a way that is

respectable and supports future improvement (Watkins 167). Another practice you should avoid

is keeping your team too long. At first I thought this suggestion was a little harsh, but after

thinking about it further it all comes down to balance.

Letting people go can be difficult for any manager, but is a necessary component in

human resources. Completely wiping out a team too quickly can also be a major mistake. There

are some things managers can do to alleviate the difficulties of this situation that will be

discussed during the evolving stage of this essay. I also believe, if the employee has good

transferrable skills, that they should be kept and trained. Training and development is an

underutilized department in the business world. According to Huffington Post article titled Not

Investing in Employee Training is Risky Business, “Companies that offer comprehensive training

enjoy a 24% high profit margin than those who spend less on training.”(Rizkalla). I understand

that training is very costly, but it shows major return on investment. Training also improves

employee morale because they feel confident in what they are doing and it shows that as an

employer you took the time and money to help the employee learn which contributes to retention

in the company.

Assessing your team is the first main component of shaping the team and is one of the

most important and involved steps. It is important to first decide how you will assess the team.

Certain criteria that are common include: competence, focus, judgement, relationships, energy,

and trust (Watkins 171). These criteria are encompassing of all the skills required for any task

and are a solid set of characteristics used for assessment. They assess if an employee can do the
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basic job functions, can they prioritize, work with others, and other essential characteristics for a

good employee. A threshold must be created within these characteristics to assess what is

necessary versus what is preferred (Watkins 171). For example, if a firm is looking to assess a

current accountant, the most important criteria would be competence, judgement, trust, and

focus. Relationships and energy should not have as high of a threshold because it is a desk job

and requires little interaction with people. The characteristics are all important, but you must

prioritize and customize them to the job and type of employee you are looking for. As discussed

in class, everyone inherently has bias. In order to manage these bias we must first understand

they are there. Next, we must avoid fundamental attribution errors and look at situational factors.

First impressions can lead to pitchforks and halos which we must be aware of in order to

accurately assess the employee. Pitchfork meaning a negative association with a person which

we take with us in assessing all characteristics of that person and a halo which means a positive

outlook regardless of performance.

Continuing on with assessment of a team, the STARS mix plays a large factor in how you

should look at your team. The acronym STARS stands for – start-up, turnaround, accelerated-

growth, realignment, and sustaining-success situations (Watkins 174). The best example for

assessing different situations in the STARS mix is to compare turnaround and sustaining-success

situations. In a sustaining-success situation you may be good employees, who are not great but

can get the job done. If you had those same employees in a turnaround situation you may not

succeed. You need employees who are at the top of their game and who go above and beyond at

that moment. It all depends on the situation for what type of employee you need.

The evolving stage is centered on how to deal with each employee in the best way that

you can. There are six basic categories that employees can fall under when you are first trying to
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evolve your workforce, keep in place, keep and develop, move, replace (low priority), and

replace (high priority), and observe (Watkins 179).

Keep in place and keep in develop are pretty self-explanatory. These are for the high

performing employees and employees who may need a little help. The only note on this section

is that for development you must have the time, energy, and funds to do it. Like I said early, I

definitely support training and development and believe it is a worth-while investment. But, it is

just that, an investment. According to Forbes article titled Leadership and Teamwork: The Secret

Sauce to Business Success, it is additionally crucial to utilize staff members in their areas of

expertise (Henderson). If an employee is a strong performer, but has other strengths than what is

being utilized, that is when they should be moved to another position.

Replacement is for underperforming employees, low priority is not urgent, while high

priority is urgent. Also, simply observing the employees and giving them time before making a

decision can change your judgement on the employee and again assess where they could excel.

The Forbes article goes onto say, “The most effective leaders are always seeking information

from their front-line people who are doing the real work.” Managers may have a different

perspective about how the job should be done which can differ from the employee actually doing

the job. Communication is the key to alleviating a lot of those issues; however, it still takes effort

from the manager to observe and try to understand line employees.

Especially in a replace (low priority) situation, observing is the best option because it can

allow you to take time and perhaps they are just in the wrong position and need to be moved. The

recruitment process can be extremely costly as well, so definitely give it hard thought before

replacing an employee (Watkins 179).

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The final aspect of evolving your team is to treat people with respect. This may seem

obvious, but not everyone does. Even if people agree with the decision to replace someone, it

first must be well documented and second be done in a respectful way because your reputation

could be hurt if done otherwise (Watkins 181).

Now that your team is assessed and evolved we can begin to align the team and set them

up for success. This step involves breaking down the goals and how your employees work best to

achieve those goals. Motivating your team can be a challenge, but generally there are two ways

to categorize incentives in the workplace. The push method and the pull method are both used in

the team situations (Watkins 182). The push method is using tools such as goals, performance

measurement systems, and monetary incentives. The pull method uses tools such as an inspiring

vision and invoking people with excitement for the future (Watkins 182). To better understand

what these methods are think that the push method is using measurements/expectations to push

your employees to meet goals. While the pull method, is holding a vision in front of them to pull

them along.

In Kouzes and Posner’s book, The Student Leadership Challenge, these methods are

outlined similarly. They explain that people are motivated externally or intrinsically. Externally

is most similar to the push method which refers to motivating people with promotions and

bonuses. Intrinsic motivation is within a person and most like the pull method. People who are

intrinsically motivated are motivated because they love what they do or the vision and success

they see in the future (Kouzes and Posner 189). An interesting take on motivation, which I totally

agree with, is that intrinsic motivation is desired over external motivation, yet it is much more

difficult to obtain. When employees feel empowered, strong, and capable, is when they perform

the best. It is easy to give a bonus to the best performer, which may motivate some slightly, but it
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is harder to create a narrative where people want to succeed for the greater good of the

company’s mission.

Elaborating on this idea, Simon Sinek, a famous author and leadership guru explains in a

ted talk about the golden circle. He discusses the concept in relation to customers and selling a

product, but I believe it also applies just as well with employee motivation and empowerment.

He explains that most companies market themselves by what they sell, how they do it, and why

they do it. In order to create a vision and a mission people can get behind companies should

reverse that order. First, explain why they do it, then how, and lastly what they do. It creates

brand loyalty and allows people to see the greater vision of the company. The example he gives

is Apple. They market themselves as making everyday life easier for millions of people, they do

this by being innovative, and what they do is sell great computers, tablets, and phones.

Employees work for Apple so they can make life easier for millions of people, not because they

want to make sell computers. It is a subtle, yet crucial difference. I go on this tangent about

motivation because of the importance it plays in the role as a manager.

The final step into building a team is actually leading them. I discussed in depth about the

importance of motivation which is a key step in leading your team. The entire process discussed

thus far can fall under the category of leading. In order to lead a team you must assess, evolve,

and align your team continuously. The main topic I would like to discuss when it comes to

leading is decision making. In The First 90 Days, Watkins explains that there are two extremes

when it comes to decision making. On either end of the spectrum, a manager can either consult

and decide or build consensus. The consult and decide method reserves the right of the final

decision in the hands of the manager (Watkins 192). They gather information then evaluate and

make the closing decision. Building consensus is gathering information, but also asking for the
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group’s approval. It does not have to be a unanimous decision, but should be a sufficient enough

consensus (Watkins 192). These decisions are not going to be clear cut and you will not be able

to apply one method to specific situations. A variety of factors come into play, a main factor

being time. If you are in a time crunch, building consensus may not be an appropriate method

because it often takes time to have each team member express their opinion and then to come to

an agreement. The manager should assess the STARS mix when looking to make a decision as

well. In a turnaround, the consult and decide method may work best especially if in an urgent

situation. If you need to get support from the team then a consensus approach will be more

effective. In NY Times article, Why Some Teams Are Smarter Than Others, they conducted a

major team work experiment that led to three conclusions. The main conclusion I would like to

highlight is that the smartest teams were the ones whose members contributed more equally,

rather than having one to two members dominate the team (Woolley).

Virtual teams are discussed by both Watkins and the NY Times article. This is an

important topic especially in today’s workplace which is more mobile and remote than ever

before. Watkins outlines five things to consider when working in virtual teams. The first is to

bring the team together as early if at all possible (Watkins 195). This is one topic that I have

personal experience with. I had a remote marketing internship for a small tech company where I

managed their social media account, conducted industry research for white papers, and created

blog posts and even searched for potential clients via different online avenues. I did not meet my

immediate supervisor throughout the summer and she asked me to continue working into the fall.

To this date I have never met my supervisor in person and I do not feel as though it has

negatively affected my ability to do my job or our ability to work together as a team. On various

occasions we speak about the company culture which is a very communal, friendly, close-knit
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culture and there are offices all over the country and even globally. Group emails, social media,

skype, and phone calls are different avenues for communication that create a great company

culture. I do not believe that it is a necessity for a team to meet in person in order to be

successful or have a good culture. Although it is unique and different, that does not make it

inferior. Therefore, this is one topic that I disagree with. True teamwork can be obtained

virtually, contrary to what Watkins says.

The next piece of advice Watkins offers is to establish clear norms about communication.

I obviously agree with this statement and want to reiterate the importance of this particular point.

This point is necessary for all teams, but especially with virtual teams. This means outlining

which channels will be used and for what occasion. During my internship, my supervisor and I

quickly decided that email and phone calls will be utilized. Email was used for more day to day

communication and phone calls were used once a week to catch up and prioritize tasks. Clearly

defining team support roles is the next piece of advice given by Watkins. Virtual teams tend to

need to be more disciplined in sharing information and following up on commitments (Watkins

196). A specific outline of each person’s task can greatly impact the success of the team.

Next, is to create a rhythm for team interaction. Structure is super important when it

comes to virtual teams. Each phone call during my internship we would have the same format

which lead us to be very productive each call. We generally had the calls on the same day of the

week and at the same time also. This allowed us to speak about similar tasks and keep me on a

schedule which can be hard sometimes in remote work because of the flexibility it provides.

Lastly, Watkins tells us to not forget to celebrate success. In a virtual team it is easier for

team members to feel disconnected more than in-person teams (Watkins 196). One reason I
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believe that the company I worked for had such a great culture is because of this last point, so I

definitely agree with it. Each month a newsletter would go out which outlined successes of all of

the employees and mentioned each one by name. It helped that the company was fairly small

because each success was credited to a specific person and they would express that in the

newsletter and chains of emails would ensue congratulating major accomplishments. It allows

for employees to be recognized and appreciated which contributes to retention, culture, and

morale.

In the New York Time’s article, a study was done similar to the first one, except this time

half of the teams worked virtually and half were in-person teams. The conclusions showed that

regardless of being online or offline some teams performed consistently better than others

(Woolley). The results mimicked the first experiment and showed that teams who communicated

a lot, contributed equally, and had good emotion-reading skills were the ones who excelled. One

of the most interesting findings was that even when teams were not face to face, emotion-reading

skills mattered just as much online. The article points out that it is not just about reading facial

expressions, but “more of a general ability, known as ‘Theory of Mind’, to consider and keep

track of what other people feel, know and believe.” (Woolley). Hopefully, understanding the

themes necessary for success in a team can make them more manageable for leaders, both in-

person and virtually.

In the Forbes article author Theodore Henderson outlines six main topics relating to

leadership and teamwork. The first point that is discussed is appointing the leader. Appointing

the leader creates a team as opposed to a group of people with no framework (Henderson). I

agree with this statement; however, leadership is not defined by a position or title. There are

plenty of instances when the leader of the group does not have any title, yet they know how to
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motivate others towards a common goal. The article does a good job at distinguishing this point

and stating that leadership is allowed to change based on the task at hand. Team members are

allowed to take turns being leaders and especially when it is in their area of expertise it can be a

good thing (Henderson). It is just crucial to know who the leader is for each particular period,

otherwise it tends to be difficult to manage conflict and have one clear direction or goal.

Having a vision is the next topic Henderson discusses and is also talked about in Kouzes

and Posner’s book about leadership. Kouzes and Posner’s outlook on leadership has six steps.

One of these steps is inspiring a shared vision which is right in line with Henderson’s belief. The

future can be very uncertain, but if a leader can explain the end goal and why what they are

doing is beneficial then it can motivate a team (Kouzes and Posner 66). The example given by

Henderson is a custodian’s job at a sporting event. It is important to explain to the employee that

they are contributing to the fans experience and satisfaction which can contribute to customers

returning to different events (Henderson). This is an important role and it needs to be expressed

as such. Sharing the ultimate goal and the big picture is an effective way to motivate employees,

especially those at the entry level.

Similar to the previous point the next piece of advice for leadership and teamwork is

sharing the mission. Once that mission is created, how you explain it and inspire others is the key

to making it happen. Henderson explains that sharing a mission that is created by everybody is

the best method. I do not necessarily agree with this. I believe that the ability to convince your

team to support your mission is part of leadership. Obviously, you cannot make somebody agree

with a mission if they are overtly against it, but I think that it is important for a leader to have a

common goal and then inspire them to want to work towards it. It would certainly be easier for a
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leader to motivate and inspire the group to work towards a vision they helped create; however,

this is not always the reality and it is part of the leader’s job to motivate them anyways.

This can be done in a variety of ways as explained in a Fast Company article titled, 5

Techniques To Make Teamwork More Manageable which begins with leading by example

(Cole). This is crucial for people to follow you and want to work with you. Aligning your values

and beliefs with your actions is one of the most important things that can be done as a leader.

Next, in order to move collectively in one direction, the goal or mission should be clearly defined

(Cole). The goals should be open and available for everyone to see and perhaps set up a tracking

system to see tangible goals be accomplished. Promoting efficient team meetings is something

probably everyone wishes leaders would do. Unproductive meetings are too common and are

very frustrating for team members. Author, Samantha Cole, states that preparation can prevent

inefficient meetings from happening which I completely agree with (Cole). I would like to add,

however, that communication and transparency are also vital to the productiveness of a meeting.

I think that, again, outlining the goals of the specific meeting and allowing disagreements to

happen can tremendously help with the success of a meeting. People will feel as though their

voices are being heard and they will understand why decisions are being made. Similar to

celebrating success in a virtual team as I discussed earlier, making individual progress visible to

the whole team can greatly impact teamwork. This provides an overview of what each team

member is contributing and also gives motivation and incentives to other members on the team.

This is clearly important as I took a deep dive into the importance of motivation early in this

essay. The last and final piece of advice is to make it fun. It may seem corny, but it can really go

a long way if you make people want to work as a team and not as an obligation (Cole).
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Continuing on with our journey of leadership and teamwork with the Forbes article, the

next piece of content is that a leader should collect diverse information in order to make a team

successful (Henderson). As discussed earlier in the essay, two options for making decisions is to

collect and decide or form a consensus. The key to both of these options is that information is

being collected and talked through completely. Leaders should want a wide range of information

and assess it all before making a decision. Diversity is important because it can lead to

innovation. If you constantly work with like-minded people then not all problems would be

solved and people would not be able to look at situations differently.

The last piece of advice that Forbes gives us is to strive for excellence. Similar to setting

a positive mission, that goal should be a lofty one (Henderson). There is no team that wants to

follow a leader whose goal is average or too easily obtained. Challenge is a motivator and it

really helps to create a real vision. Building a positive environment is a general theme that is

important when it comes to leadership and teamwork.

Leadership and teamwork are skills that are required in the workforce and can constantly

be improved upon. As a leader it is important to start the team off right by reducing common

mistakes such as keeping a team too long and criticizing previous leadership. Assessment of the

current team is the first thing you should do as a leader to start building your team. Create

criteria that is relevant to the job and the business situation the company is in currently based on

the STARS mix. Determine a threshold for each component and set standards for the positions

and employees within your department. The next step that was discussed was to evolve your

team. This process is broken down into six different steps and allows movement of your team in

order to be the most efficient team possible. After the assessment and evolution phases of team

building comes the alignment phase. This step in the process can be the most involved and
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should be done on a regular basis to continue to check if you are meeting the standards of the

company and goals you wish to meet. Finally, the leading stage completes the process of

building and leading your team to be successful. The aspect of leadership comes with many

different items you have control over. Developing your vision and then conveying it to your team

is the main aspect of leadership. Virtual teams are a whole different kind of team that on a grand

scale requires most of the same general necessities, but may be different on how those necessities

are obtained. Building a team and managing it to be successful is a difficult task, but with the

right knowledge and motivation can be an extremely rewarding and obtainable practice.
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Works Cited

Anita Woolley, Thomas W. Malone and Christopher F. Chabris. “Opinion | Why Some Teams

Are Smarter Than Others.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Jan. 2015.

Cole, Samantha. “5 Techniques To Make Teamwork More Manageable.” Fast Company, Fast

Company, 25 Oct. 2014.

Henderson, Theordore. “Leadership And Teamwork: The Secret Sauce To Business Success.”

Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 8 Feb. 2017.

Kouzes, James M., and Barry Z Posner. The Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices For

Becoming an Exemplary Leader. The Leadership Challenge, 2014.

Rizkalla, Emad. “Not Investing in Employee Training Is Risky Business.” The Huffington Post,

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 June 2014.

Watkins, Michael. The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and

Smarter. Harvard Business Review Press, 2013.