Skills for Managing Teams

Together Everyone Achieves More Success. That is a fact. However, to make that possible you need to know how to build and sustain high performance TEAMS in the workplace. You can familiarise yourself with the relevant skills by attending workshops offered by a number of organisation.

The traditional organisation that is based on high degree of centralisation with tight command and control will not work today. To meet the challenges and opportunities, successful organisations are making TEAMS as their preferred choice in managing the activities. These organisations expect and encourage their TEAMS to self-manage the work processes. TEAM members perform a whole range of tasks, thus requiring multiple skills and competencies. This would mean supervisors and managers need to master the critical Team Building skills to sustain high performance at their workplace.

Teams generally outperform individuals. Teams are groups that interact closely to complete specific tasks. Team members are accountable to each other. Effective teams have certain common characteristics. These are:

- Team members share a common goal
- Team members have a clear understanding of the goal
- Level of trust is high
- High degree of commitment to achieve the goal
- Team members have the relevant skills

BUILDING EFFECTIVE TEAMS

Since everyone recognise the fact that “Together Everyone Achieves More Success”, organisations design their work activities and processes around teams.
However, it takes time to build a team. As a manager, you should know the process of building a team.

As a team leader you should:
- Assist the members to acquire relevant Abilities, Skills and Experiences
- Help the group to develop S.M.A.R.T. goals and remain focused to the goals.
- Demonstrate appropriate behaviour by being a role model.
- Align the team goals with organisational goals/mission/vision statement.


How can we master the skills for managing teams? Try the following links:
Team Basics

Fundamentals of Team Skills

Centre for Creative Thinking

EQ Skills

Since publication of daniel Coileman's book on EQ, the EQ concept has become one of the most frequently discussed topic among managers. All in a sudden business managers began to recognise the overwhelming power of EQ compared to IQ. The Emotional Intelligence(commonly known as EQ) is seen as critical. Individuals with EQ skills invariably do well, compared to people with poor EQ skills. The EQ skills covering personal areas and social areas can be mastered through focused effort and learning.

the EQ concept covering personal competence and social competence are seen as critical human skills for the success of business firms. Self awareness, self regulation and self motivation are the three main components of personal competence. The social awareness and social skills of the social competence covers the following areas:

- Persuasion and influencing skills
- Effective communication skills for managing groups
- Inspiring and managing people with appropriate leadership skills
- Managing conflicts at work
- Creating and sustaining network for collaboration and cooperative efforts

The following sites provide the required information on EQ:

Emotional Competence Framework

EQ Skills

Emotional Intelligence - Article References

Clustering competence in emotional intelligence: Insights from the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI)

The Economic Value of Emotional Intelligence Competencies and EIC-Based HR Programs

The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book