Leadership Communication
Summary Chapter 8
Building and leading high-performing teams


Chapter 8 describes the process to create and lead high-performing teams. The following steps are necessary;

· Building an effective team
· Establishing the necessary team work processes
· Managing the people side of teams
· Handling team issues and conflicts
· Helping virtual teams succeed

Katzenbach and Smith’s team basics framework provide a tool to help establish a team’s characteristics. According to their framework, performance results, personal growth, and collective work products represent the outcome of the work of the team.

Ground rules include leadership, communication, participation, preparation, conflict management, work products, and more.

Managing the people side of teams includes responsibilities, experiences, expectations, personality, and cultural differences

The chevron chart of five “A’s” is a memory device to help remember the steps to manage conflict; assess, acknowledge, adjust attitude, act, and analyze.

Virtual teams are challenged by distance, time, and geographical dispersion. Effective management of these factors helps these teams succeed.

I read this chapter with special interest since, throughout my career, I have formed many teams that have distinguished themselves for their high performance. For project teams high performance has been categorized as fully achieving the team’s purpose, within schedule, and under budget. In general, I have found that to achieve this level of performance, teams must have, as a minimum;

* Unity of purpose/ clear mission
* “What’s in it for me” reward (career advancement, tangible or intangible incentive)
* Sufficient resources (material, skills, experience)