The Power of Teams: Dividing the Tasks and Multiplying the Successes

The Power of Teams: Dividing the Tasks and Multiplying the Successes


Two years ago, Chris Warner was nearing the summit of K2 in Pakistan. Ahead of his team was a group of Korean climbers, led by the highly experienced Nima Nurbu Sherpa, who had successfully scaled Mount Everest six times. Just 100 feet above Warner's team, as they approached the infamously dangerous Bottleneck, Nima slipped. As both teams watched, he slid off the South Face. Warner later commented on the tragedy and its implications, "Leadership is a sweet delusion: so fragile, so easily sabotaged. Whether on a mountain or at work, leading others can quickly become difficult and dangerous."

A few months later, Warner, who has summited five of the world's highest peaks, was climbing again, this time in the Andes. He met "management sage" Don Schmincke on that expedition, and the two began exploring the connection between corporate leadership and hazardous mountaineering experiences. That first conversation eventually led to a book, High Altitude Leadership, which studies the dangers that prevent executives from achieving true success.

"Economic growth is challenged when people don't have confidence in themselves, in each other, and in what they're doing."

Jeffrey Klein, Academic Director, Creating and Leading High Performance Teams; Director, Wharton Graduate Leadership Program

When Warner addresses participants in Creating and Leading High-Performing Teams, he stresses the first crucial undertaking for leaders of any team: creating and communicating a "compelling saga." What is your vision for your team? What are its goals, and how eager is the team to embrace them? Warner told one recent group of participants, "As a leader, you're either going to create the saga, or those around you will fill that hole with their own drama."
Combating a Crisis of Confidence

Jeff Klein, academic director of Creating and Leading High-Performing Teams, and director of the Wharton Graduate Leadership Program, agrees. "The saga, or the vision, is especially critical today. When your company is going through tough times, your team is expending energy dealing with hardships. That might be a reduced workforce, smaller margins, longer hours. As a leader, you need to transfer that energy into support of a common goal. Effectively communicating a compelling saga does that."

Klein explains further that leading with a shared vision also creates confidence. "Economic growth is challenged when people don't have confidence in themselves, in each other, and in what they're doing. Lack of a common vision can translate into lack of positive growth as an organization. To break down this obstacle, we need to create and communicate a clear vision. Then, each member needs to understand his or her role in achieving it.

"It's pretty simple: the financial crisis is really a crisis of confidence. When you lack trust, it paralyzes you. People need to feel confidence not only in you as a leader, but in their own part of the bigger picture. The economy turns around when people start working productively toward a positive goal."
The Five Principles of Team Building

But it takes more than a vision to create a strong team. In the Executive Education program, faculty present the principles present in every successful team.
Creating a vision and aligning your team around it.
Defining roles within a team: the potential of each member is unlocked when you allow individuals to exercise creativity in support of the goal.
Maintaining the group as a whole: preserving your team's identity, nurturing your team, and providing the necessary support.
Using the team to get the work done: fostering innovation, generating ideas, and elaborating on them; encouraging autonomy to breed further creativity.
Maximizing the effectiveness of your leadership style: do you lead from the front, middle, or behind?
Strong Team Foundations Yield Optimal Results

“Ideally,” notes Jeff Klein, “you build this team foundation before any crisis hits. Then you reap the benefits. Similar stories emerged after 9/11 involving Meg Whitman of eBay and Ken Chenault of American Express. Both were away from headquarters during the attacks, and both were subsequently grounded without the means to return to headquarters for days. As they waited in remote locations, Whitman and Chenault devised their strategies.

Whitman wanted her team to secure eBay’s computer servers, start an online auction to benefit victims of the attacks, and make sure her employees were all okay. Chenault also wanted his employees accounted for and his company’s workforce and records secured. In addition, he needed American Express to support its customers: travelers who, like him, wanted to get home.

In both cases, their top management teams took charge, making dozens of decisions and implementing plans that were virtually identical to what the CEO would have done had she or he been there to directly exercise their leadership.
The Principles in Action

Once participants of Creating and Leading High-Performing Teams understand the team concepts, they're put in challenging situations to learn them actively. On one day, they find themselves in a shell on the Schuykill River, experiencing first-hand the ultimate team sport: rowing. To get the shell to move, eight men and women must synchronize their movements precisely.

Klein explains, "Rowing is the perfect metaphor. The goal of the oarsmen is to achieve what's known as ‘swing.' It's the term for near-perfect coordination of movement that results in top speed and performance. That's what Whitman's and Chenault's teams displayed in their boardrooms. An aligned group knows its goal, and each member knows his or her role while being conscious of other members of the team.

Ultimately, whether you're rowing or leading a team through a successful merger, you're a part of something bigger than yourself. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.'"
What's at Stake

Klein again refers to the essential role of teams in the current economic environment. "When you're facing uncertainty, how do you and your team stay focused on achieving goals? The financial crisis has created so many distractions. If we give those distractions energy, we're helping to prolong the crisis. A highly focused team, one confidently rooted in their vision, is the best way out. The risk we run right now is to become consumed by the crisis and letting those emotions prevent us from driving economic growth."

A recent program participant remarked, "I was able to accomplish things I didn't think were possible because I felt the trust of the team. The goal and my part in it were so clear. I understood the value of what we were doing, and that gave me the confidence to get things done."

http://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/wharton-at-work/0909/power-of-teams-0909.cfm