Leading Disciplined Teams to High Performance

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Leading Well Disciplined Teams was the vision of Kathy Strand, a professor of Civilian Education at the Army Management Staff College.  She is a co-author of, Perspectives on Leadership.  Leading Well Disciplined Teams to Higher Performance represents a compilation of presentations by various experts in the field of building and managing effective teams. 

Your guide for the tour will be Kathy Strand.  Kathy will introduce you to each presenter, familiarize you with your surroundings, and ensure you have an enjoyable experience.  This book takes you on a journey to help you discover how leaders provide direction and build teams.  We will introduce you to several professionals who have spent years conducting research and exploring the material they are presenting here.  During the review, feel free to take a break whenever necessary, get snacks, and share what you’ve learned with others. 

Research of a topic begins with examining the fundamental qualities of individual objects.   When conducting research certain questions come to mind: What was that?  Where did it come from?  What did it do?  What is the impact to me?  These are some of the fundamental questions that must be answered to be able to define and explain the minimum essential characteristics of an object.  Answering these questions is just the beginning of development and understanding.  Every question leads to another question.  Every question is just the beginning of a journey.

The funny thing is even if we are looking at something as simple as throwing a ball, we don’t do it the exact same way every time.  Sure, to most people who are watching for the first time, the event looks the same, but, to the experienced athlete, the details tell the story.  The experienced athlete has developed the skill to be able to see beyond the basic elements of an event.  He or she can predict with a fair degree of accuracy what an individual is thinking, planning, how much time an individual has invested in training, how likely that same individual is to continue, and if the outcome of the event will be positive. 

The ability to predict outcomes is essential to leadership and development.  Team leaders who are able to make accurate predictions can eliminate hardships, see team weaknesses, successfully build teams and match team members.  This leader not only visualizes the end state.  He or she can anticipate the many routes available and select the one most likely to succeed.  To the new team member, this skill will appear seamless and effortless but is only acquired by studying and participating in many individual trials of an event.

Many leadership theories start their focus with the individual characteristics of a leader and also examine how that leader interacts with others.  Leadership theories focus on the individuals who comprise an organization and how they interact, set goals, motivate, direct, and support in order to negotiate an environment.  As researchers examine leaders, they look for answers to the questions: Who is the leader?  What makes them the leader?  How do they interact with others?  What are the essential elements of the organization?  And, what is happening behind the scenes?  In a horizontal, team-like structure leadership may change based upon position, knowledge, and charisma.  In teams with laterally distributed elements, leadership is dynamic.  The leader will emerge based upon the needs of the situation.

 A team is the smallest combined effort within an organization.  A team has a dual focus on performance and its individual members.  Because of the size of the team, it is essential team leaders have it right.  In a small organization, errors, skill deficiencies, and successes are magnified.  Authority, responsibility, and accountability within teams are easily tied to individual actions.  In teams, the need to focus on the individual, goals, training, and ethics of the team is critical.  Learning to apply these dynamics to a larger organization is essential to creating team spirit and encouraging optimal performance levels.

Many organizations get sidetracked by performance or “counting the beans.”  When organizations focus solely on performance at the expense of individuals, performance comes at a high cost to the individuals.  Alternatively, organizations focused solely on the individuals on the team get “happy” people at the expense of performance.  In order to keep the organization together and the people motivated, teams must focus on both individuals and performance.  The organization must strike a balance between these elements to achieve committed performers.

Throughout this book, we are going to look at how teams are lead and built through the eyes of the expert.  For this text, an expert is defined as someone who has invested years of resources into research and practice of the ideas they present.  Due to the educational nature of the material and the diverse experiences of the experts, there will be differing opinions.  In the world of experts, differing opinions validate and support one another.  After all, there are many ways to achieve the same outcome.

For example, some experts believe a leader is born, while others argue leaders can be made.  In the world of experts, this argument is valuable and necessary.  While it may appear contradictory, it is this argument that encourages discussion and adds depth to the position.  This debate places additional demands on each advocate, encourages creative and critical thought, and adds structure and meaning to the discipline of learning.  It is this debate that shows us how some traits are natural while others must be developed.  It is this open dialogue that reveals what is likely to happen and what is possible.

Pay attention; when dealing with experts, things happen quick.  It will appear seamless and effortless, like a game.  As with any educational effort, your personal investment will determine what you get out of it.   The information buried deep within the text may be easily understood if you’ve done the legwork.  If you have not done your research into teams, their vocabulary, their rules, and their history you are still welcome to watch and enjoy the game.

As we go through the book, we will take you on a journey with different experts.  The experts will cover topics related to leading and building teams.   The first chapters are devoted to Team Leadership.  This section will begin by exploring the Ethics of Effective Teams, Team Leadership, Mission Focused Teams, and Managing Unwritten Goals.  The next section will focus on Building Effective Teams.  The topics include Individual Differences, Training Teams, and 21st Century Ethics.  We will begin each chapter with a short introduction to the author. 

In chapter 1 of the Leadership section you will be introduced to Charles Koutras.  Mr. Koutras an attorney with the U.S. Army South Office of the Staff Judge Advocate.  Charles will address murder mayhem and the products of effective team leadership.  He begins by focusing on the importance of leader’s moral and legal judgment in the identification of common goals.  He follows his assertations with exploring good and evil leaders.  Finally he uses a study of The People’s Temple to show how individuals within a team can be lead to alter their beliefs by unethical leadership.

In chapter 2, you will be introduced to Kathy Strand.  She is a professor of Leadership at the Army Management Staff College.  In her chapter she will examine team leadership.  She begins the chapter by introducing shared and individual goals.  This discussion will include how teams combine individual visions, missions, and objectives into shared goals through the processes of identification, articulation, and execution.  Then, she will review shared goals and how they are supported or challenged by the goals of the team’s members.  Next she will address team development and what a team looks like.  Finally, when leading teams we will look at using a team charter to define the team and empower members to act.

In chapter 3, Mario Vittone will explore mission-focused teams.  Mr. Vittone is an accomplished writer with more than 18 years of military service.  In his chapter, Mario begins his examination with the requirements of the chain of command.  Then, he will look at the distinction between required and inspired action.  Afterwards, he will cover how leaders inspire.  He will close with the importance of constant reminders.

In chapter 4, the final chapter of the Leadership section you will meet, Tom Willett.  Tom is the Director for Management Development Programs with Cornell University.  Mr. Willett will address unwritten goals.  He starts off with the impact of unwritten goals on your organization.  Second he will look at the messes made by unwritten goals.  Afterwards he addresses communication and how to keep discussions focused on performance.  Finally he will explore communication, how to manage feedback and keep employees productive.

In chapter 5, the first chapter of the Teambuilding section you will meet, Michael R. Huffman.  Mr. Huffman is a retired command sergeant major with more 26 years of military experience.  In his chapter Michael, will address individual differences.  First, he starts with the impact of age on a team.  Second he will look at the differences between generations.  Then he will look at the Johari’s window model and what is known and unknown to team members. Afterwards he will explore how we develop team members.  Finally he covers the impact of Experience and how we integrate diverse teams.

In chapter 6 you will again meet, Kathy Strand.  She will explore team training.  Ms. Strand will address the benefits of teamwork in a training environment.  Second she will look at the impact of goal setting on productivity.  Then she will look at the factors influencing adaptability in the training environment.  Finally she will conclude with empowerment and address transferring power in the training environment.

In chapter 7, the final chapter of the teambuilding section you will meet, William Wallace, Jr.  Mr. Wallace is the Supervisory Academics Program Manager at the Army Management Staff College.  In his chapter William explores ethical salience and the return on investment.  William starts with identifying unethical and immoral conduct as he directs organizations to develop ethical reasoning skills.  He follows the identification of ethical misconduct with theories and views of ethics, morality and behavior.  Finally he concludes with ethics training and the impact of moral development on teams.

By the conclusion of the book you should be able to identify and define an effective team and an effective team leader.  Many individuals are thrown together and called a team because they have a goal and are many.  The experts here suggest that there are many more criteria to a team and that teams thrown together in this fashion may be destined for failure.  An effective team is a highly specialized group of individuals with a shared goal, identified roles, effective and open communication, empowered individuals, values the individual members and has a distinct performance oriented culture.