Tim Drewitt, Director of Balance Learning looks at what we should expect from team leaders.

Trainers who are looking to help others develop team-working skills, to maximise the effectiveness of teams, should realise that the requirement for team training goes much further than just discrete courses for team members. It extends into other areas such as customer service and project management.

It's all well and good an individual employee delivering excellent customer service, but if their team then lets them down, by not fulfilling their side of the bargain, all that good work quickly evaporates! Likewise, the best project management methodology can still fall apart if the team is not performing as one.

But if team-working training has to include customer service and project management aspects, how can it be delivered logistically to an audience of potentially hundreds, or even thousands, of suitable staff? The scale of the solution starts to present obstacles that many will find unpalatable.

The answer is to look again at the role of the team leader. This person is ideally placed to foster the correct spirit of team working.

This doesn’t necessarily mean they should deliver team working courses to their staff. Instead, they should train themselves in facilitative team leadership skills. By practicing these, a team leader will be able to identify the stage of development that their team has reached and the specific role that each member plays. They will be able to develop both the people and the team working processes to move the team along its development continuum and achieve the desired results.

To help, here are the top 15 facilitative team building behaviours that team leaders should be demonstrating*:

1. Listen dynamically - listen closely and question perceptively

2. Observe accurately - observe the group and empathise with it

3. Motivate effectively - understand what makes each individual tick

4. Give praise freely - assign credit where it’s due

5. Teach and coach - without instructing

6. Build consensus - work to build a consensus view consistently

7. Manage conflict - positively and without delay

8. Consult everyone - be interested in everyone’s view point

9. Share power and authority - appropriately, so that people get positive experiences

10. Encourage responsibility - in every team member for their own and the team’s success

11. Guide the team to goals - without taking over or giving up

12. Stand firm on goals - while being flexible about the process

13. Manage people, teams and tasks - matching the right people and tasks together

14. Solve problems - without taking over or giving up

15. Understand your own contribution - have good self-awareness and know your own limitations

In this way, team-working training will be delivered subliminally in the context of each team’s real business environment.