Chapter 6 - Putting it all Together: Knowing When to Focus on What in your Team

Question 1

What are the 6 ways a team leader can determine the right level of interdependence for their team?

Answer 1

1. Taking the time to learn the team’s capabilities (individuals and team as a whole)
2. Leaders must balance proactive intentions with reactive good sense. Meaning, your initial focus might be based on your most educated guess, but you may then start to pick up clues suggesting things need tweaking. When this happens, you have to be willing to change course
3. Pay attention to failures in aligning interdependence appropriately as much as the successes. If you can learn to quickly detect signals indicating that you are not focusing on the right dimension, you can switch your focus before things get even worse.
4. Avoid efficacy-performance spirals. (When a failure hurts a team’s confidence, leading to the likelihood of more subsequent failures.) Negative spirals tend to get stronger and harder to correct over time so it’s important to respond quickly.
5. Pay Attention to Clues; Consider how a mismatch of interdependence levels will affect the team with the specific task at hand.
6. You can measure the level of interdependence by using a survey

Question 2

*What happens when a team leader pushes team members to work together interdependently for a simple task?

Answer 2

When you push team members to work together interdependently for a simple task, you are asking them to make their task harder than it needs to be which will cause issues within the group. Leaders should Pay attention to specific clues or symptoms so they know to adjust their focus and start making the tasks more independently.

Question 3

*What are the 5 common signs (clues) to look for that a task may be better suited to an individual than a team?

Answer 3

1. Feelings and expressions of wasted time
2. frustration
3. withdrawal
4. excessive free-riding
5. slower production compared to other teams

Question 4

team members who are working on low interdependence arrangement (group-like) when they should be working in a higher interdependence arrangement have 5 different symptoms

Answer 4

1. Excessively quick meetings
2. Constant push to cancel regular meetings
3. Very low levels of task conflict and discussion regarding complex issues
4. Vague or ambiguous reports of past interactions with other members
5. Incoherent or hodgepodge products for key milestones

Question 5

*Once leaders recognize clues that a task may be better suited for an individual rather than a team, what 3 things can a leader do to help team members?

Answer 5

1. Leaders can use these clues to try to quickly pivot to an individual focus
2. Structure tasks that permits less interdependence work
3. Don’t switch focus out of the blue, be upfront of about why you are changing course with one-on-one coaching

Question 6

Whats are 3 tips (common problems) that leaders should keep in mind when wanting to shift focus in a dynamic settings

Answer 6

1. Team leaders need to realize that work and team design issues are dynamic, ongoing concerns that should be constantly reevaluated.
   - If they don’t, leaders never shift their teams interdependence arrangements, they end up continuing to act like a group even when their tasks become more complex and require more interdependence (and vice versa)
2. Leaders themselves must be able or willing to shift their focus onto the most appropriate dimension of a team.
   - Leaders who are either unable or unwilling to shift their focus onto the most appropriate dimension of a team go against the most important point of 3D leadership.
3. Make sure that the team doesn’t shift into different arrangements (groups, teams, subteams) that is not in an optimal manner
   - For example, even when facing a complex task that should require high levels of interdependence, members will decide to work independently on smaller parts of the task before piecing it together for the deadline. This happens because members don’t want to coordinate schedules, feel uncomfortable working together, or don’t feel the rewards for accomplishing team goals outweigh or are compatible with their own individual goals.
   When this happens, teams produce an unfocused set of ideas rather than viable, coherent solutions.

Question 7

Great leaders navigate the obstacles of shifting focus to maximize team performance in dynamic settings by understanding 3 key areas:

Answer 7

1. What their teams current task requirements are (low, high, mulitlayered interdependence)
2. Then , determining how an entity should operate (group, team, multisubteam system)
3. And then, focusing their leadership efforts on the correct entity

Question 8

Describe task-focused leader behaviors and team-member focused leader behaviors

Answer 8

• Task-Focused Leader Behavior: Transactional leaders. “Initiating Structure”. The “getting things done” behavior. These behaviors reflect the extent to which leaders define and organize their roles and followers’ roles. Push for goal achievement and create well defined levels of communication
• Team Member-Focused Leader Behavior: Transformational leaders. “Building effective relationships” behavior. Reflect on the extent to which leaders display concern and respect for employees, have employee’s welfare in mind, and show appreciation and support.

Question 9

Give examples of the task-focused leader behaviors and team-member focused leader behaviors aimed at the three dimensions of the 3D team leadership model

Answer 9

• Task-Focused Leader Behavior:
  
  1. Individuals: Make sure each individual has clear performance goals
  2. Teams: reviews relevant performance results with an entire team
  3. Subteams: clarifies task performance strategies with each of the subteams
• Team Member-Focused Leader Behavior:
  
  1. Individuals: Help individuals develop solutions to personal disagreements,
  2. Teams: display respect and concern for an entire team
  3. Subteams: ensures each subteam knows the leader trusts it to do its job

Question 10

What are the 2 leadership behaviors that leaders focus on associated with the 3D leadership model. Why is it important?

Answer 10

1. Task-Focused Leader Behavior: individuals, teams, and subteams
2. Team Member-Focused Leader Behavior: individuals, teams, and subteams
   * Leaders who demonstrate more “switching behaviors” (from individuals, teams, and subteams) have higher performing teams.