Most
leaders assume that they need to foster teamwork among the people whom directly
and indirectly report to them. Teaming is now seen as the workplace equivalent
of motherhood and apple pie — invariably good. The problem is when leaders try
to drive the wrong kind of collaboration on their particular teams. The result:
wasted time and unnecessary frustration.Consider
the example of Nicolas, a regional sales vice president at a medical devices
company. When promoted to his new role, he inherited a group of district sales
managers responsible for selling to hospital systems in their respective
geographies. Although his one-on-one meetings with these reports, which
involved progress reviews, motivation, and coaching, were highly productive,
his monthly team meetings weren’t. While the group liked getting together and
engaging in some joint activities — such as goal setting, best-practice
sharing, and talent development — people often wondered why they were in the
room.Catherine, a senior marketing director leading a
cross-functional product development team at the same company, provides a
contrasting case study. Although she sometimes needed to work with team members
individually, most productive work happened in weekly meetings, to which she
brought focused agendas and effectively facilitated discussions about key
issues. The participants rarely felt they were wasting their time.
Source: HBR 16 August, 2018
Click here to see the complete article
