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Chapter 10 –High-Performing Team Leadership
Teaching Notes
In this chapter, the students will learn to do the following:
• Establish an effective team.
• Implement the necessary team work processes.
The applications in this chapter call on students to look critically at any teams they are
part of to determine how well the team is managing team processes and to assess and
provide feedback to team members. In addition, students will work with scenarios to
establish the most appropriate ways to resolve team conflict and write an e-mail
suggesting an approach to managing a virtual team.
Application 10.1: Assessing Team Performance
This application depends on students working in a team for some period of time so that
they have enough contact with the team to have experienced the ups and downs of team
dynamics and created approaches to working together.
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Approaches to Teaching
Most student teams resist the kind of self-reflection and team process analysis called
for in this application; therefore, it is important for the instructor to ensure the teams
spend some time on the assignment, which may mean that the instructor will want to
An alternative to doing all of the assignment in class would be to have the students
complete the team assessment as homework but then meet in class to go over it. In
addition to ensuring the students spend adequate time on the assignment, having the
students meet in class will allow the instructor to observe the teams’ interactions. The
Example Responses to the Assignment
Student answers to Part 2 should resemble the following:
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Team tools
Actions we have taken
Actions we plan to take
Team objectives
– Established overall
objectives for team but
not specific ones for
assignments
– Review original objectives
– Create objectives specific to
team projects from now on
Team ground rules
– Formed ground rules,
but do not enforce all of
them
– Revisit ground rules to see
which are working
– Revise those that we are not
following or determine how
to ensure we follow them
Team tools
Actions we have taken
Actions we plan to take
Meeting agendas
– Talk in general at the
beginning of each
meeting about what we
plan to cover
– Create an agenda for each
meeting, rotating the
responsibility to each team
member
– Review agenda at beginning
of meeting
– Created list of actions
– Divide actions into phases
Responses to Application 10.1 (continued)
Team activities
What has worked
What needs to be improved
Meeting
productivity
– Ground rules to some
extent
– We tend to waste time and
always start meetings late
– Need better ground rules
– Need agendas for all
meetings
meetings
information and bad timing
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Application 10.2: Assessing Team Members and Providing Feedback
This application calls on students to perform peer evaluations on every member of their
team, including themselves. The evaluations are most effective if the team discusses them
openly; however, often students are not comfortable assessing their peers, and even more
are uncomfortable receiving feedback from peers. Therefore, the instructor needs to set
up this application so that it is as non-threatening as possible. One approach is to read the
instruction on giving and receiving feedback in Chapter 12, reinforce the “Approach to
Providing Constructive Team Member Feedback,” and make sure each team follows the
guidelines provided.
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Application 10.3: Managing Team Conflict
All five of the scenarios in the application were developed based on actual conflicts within
student and professional teams. There is not one “correct” approach to resolving any of
the scenarios; of course, the approach relies on the personalities of the individuals and the
team culture that has developed, and students may want to make some assumptions about
team members as they begin their discussion of the conflict scenarios.
Approaches to Teaching
Students should pre-read the applications and consider what approach they think is best;
allowing this time for independent work (either before class or in-session) will foster
individual thinking that can then be shared with team members. Responses will most
likely reflect the emotional intelligence of the team members, their aversion to, or
acceptance of conflict, and their personal approach to conflict resolution. When students
meet in teams, they should not only discuss their individual responses, but also examine
why their approaches differ and how (or if) that impacts their participation in their current
team.
Example Responses to the Scenarios
1. Scenario #1 seems at first as if it might be an analytical problem, but the team
member’s interpersonal style is really at the foundation of the conflict. She is
probably a very intelligent person who sees one clear answer to a problem.
Chapter 10 – High-Performing Team Leadership
2. Scenario #2 involves a number of problems with the team’s procedures and possible
cultural conflicts as well. First of all, the team needs to develop ground rules for their
meetings, or if they already exist, revisit them to establish guidelines on the use of cell
phones for calls and for text messages during meetings. Even though our phones are
ubiquitous and many of us depend on them almost too much, they can be extremely
disruptive in a meeting and their use should be limited or banned completely.
3. Scenario #3 is a classic task conflict, as the various members did not have a clear idea
of what work product was expected. The leader should raise his or her concerns with
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4. The task conflict in Scenario #4 is exacerbated by the fact that Gary did not
understand his part of the work. The team had agreed to check in with each other
every few days, but it appears as if they did not do this; otherwise, Gary’s problem
would have been discovered sooner. Their present concern is that Gary’s next
5. Scenario #5 most likely represents a personality or cultural conflict. Bashirah does
not seem concerned about arriving late and has even taken the time to stop for donuts
on the way. If students refer to the Myers-Briggs profile discussion in Chapter 8, they
may remember that “Perceivers” typically have a relaxed attitude toward time and
may often be late. However, Bashirah’s lateness could also suggest she comes from a
culture where time is viewed as flexible and relative.
Application 10.4: Launching a Virtual Team
This application calls on students to apply what they know about audience analysis as well
as their understanding of team dynamics, particularly when dealing with a virtual team.
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Approaches to Teaching
Example Response to the Assignment
Date: March 21, 2010
To: Sales Group Members (listed by name)
Joseph Hernandez, Director, Training & Development
Tony Padula, Director, Internal Communication
Subject: Team launch for Project Leapfrog
Dear Sales Group Members:
I want to provide a little background on this new team and project, called “Project
Leapfrog.” We selected the name to suggest that we aim to leap ahead of the
competition. We are going to achieve this goal by being the model of how companies
can increase productivity and performance by working in virtual teams. Senior
management feels that we need to improve how we as a company communicate across
distances, how we share and capture company information, and how we make use of
computer technology for client and team meetings. They want us to look closely at better
leveraging our technological capabilities and at how we could establish more
opportunities for telecommuting.
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These are some of questions I want our team to address. And, despite my questioning
meeting so often in person, I do want this first meeting to be an in-person meeting so
that we will have a chance to get to know more about each other as people and can
thus work more effectively in the virtual team mode, which will become our norm.
I have attached an agenda for the meeting (Attachment 1). Please come with ideas on
how best to accomplish our objectives. Our session will include creating a team
charter for our team, participating in open brainstorming to uncover the best
approaches to achieving our objectives, performing from/to analysis, and then
establishing an action plan for moving forward.
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Attachment 1 – Zarate Agenda
Agenda for Launching Zarate’s Leapfrog Project Team
Date: July 12 – 13, 2013
Location: Chicago 10th floor conference room
Meeting called by: Ravi Patel
Attendees: See distribution list
Facilitator: Maria Hernandez
Please read: Virtual team articles
Note taker: Tony Padula
Please bring: Lots of ideas
Calendars and lists of meetings and purposes for the
meetings over the last year.
Objectives
• Establish a team charter and communication protocol
Agenda – July 12, 2013
Time
Topic
Responsibility
8:00 – 9:00
9:00 – 9:30
9:30 – 10:00
Lunch
Maria Hernandez
• Continental breakfast and welcome
• Review of agenda and establishing of
meeting ground rules
• Creation of team charter
Ravi
Ravi
Ravi
Agenda – July 13, 2013
Time
Topic
Responsibility
8:00 – 9:00
9:00 – 9:30
9:30 – 10:30
• Continental breakfast
• Review of yesterday’s results
• Discuss obstacles and outline plan to
Ravi
Maria
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Attachment 2 – Some Best Practices for Working Virtually
1. Meet in person initially to launch team if possible. Build in some time for informal
conversations and activities.
4. Work out a team communication protocol, including when team meetings will occur.
5. Over-communicate, ensuring all members are included in communication.
6. Create an electronic workspace (virtual team room) with word processing, data
analysis, planning software, and chat and net meeting capabilities.
8. Finally, when meeting virtually (phone, video, or net conferences), use the following
ground rules:
• Send out an agenda ahead of time that includes exactly the information the team
will be discussing at the meeting
• Introduce yourself when you join the meeting