Leading Change through Teams (Part I of II)

By Paul Breaux
Managing Partner, SBS Partners

(This is the first of a two-part series on effective leadership in organizations.)

Anyone who has been through an organizational planning process understands the time and effort required to put together a clear and compelling vision for the future.  However, completing the ground work alone is often not enough. Many organizations spend a great deal of time and resources to create a vision that never gets realized.

There are many reasons these visions are seldom fully actualized. Organizations often talk about the need to change in a broad context, but do not identify how “specific” changes will take place. If an organization wants to successfully change, the players need to understand how to lead the specific change initiatives that are most likely to turn their vision into reality.

I spend about half my time working with the Church and the other half working in the business arena.  In my experience (and regardless of the setting), there are three key factors that lead to the inability of teams and their leaders to effectively accomplish the change they desire:

1. Focus on Self: The Disease of Me
Individual members bring particular functional perspectives to every team they join.  Often, the individual and functional agendas of each team member can have more impact than what is best for the team and the organization. This can lead to fragmentation of the team, while also comprising the quality of the team’s performance. It often takes a spiritual formation experience to help team members overcome their individual and functional allegiances. 

2. Focus on Team: Leaders who need teams don’t know how to lead teams
It is possible to learn how to lead effective teams to drive change initiatives.  Many of us have never received training or education on how to manage a team. There are the many personalities and agendas to consider, as well as the varying skill levels brought to the table. Few team leaders have a systematic process or the tools and skills necessary to enable their teams to drive change efforts.

3. Focus on Results: Measuring performance is the new frontier of leadership which many have resisted
Few of us are able to articulate performance measures during the beginning of the change initiative process. Even fewer are able to demonstrate success through the achievement of these measures at the conclusion work.  Being able to articulate what success looks like and how success will be measured is a critical component of leading effective teams. Learning how to accomplish set measures and then use them is often a catalyst for many leaders that brings forth a new era of team leadership success.

Fundamentals of Leading Effective Teams

Leading change in Catholic communities does take effort.  However, proper awareness of the challenges we face coupled with an understanding of our collective commitments will give leaders the ability to overcome common pitfalls and significantly increase the chances of achieving the outcomes they desire.

There are seven fundamentals to leading effective teams that address the three common challenges mentioned above. These fundamentals help build a solid foundation for team leaders and members to achieve the change initiatives they are striving for:

Fundamental # 1:  Sponsor the Team
As an organizational leader, someone needs to own the change initiative, lead the team, and ultimately be accountable for its success.

Fundamental # 2: Charter the Team. 
While the sponsor of the change initiative team articulates the basic scope of the work, the initiative team “charters” itself to understand how it will be working with the sponsor and with each other. 

Fundamental # 3: Understand the Challenge
Based on the sponsor’s initial understanding of the initiative, the team develops a deeper understanding and appreciation of the challenge ahead. 

Fundamental # 4: Use Your Strengths
Team members have different personality preferences and points of view.  In addition, each Catholic community has a particular way of being Catholic (e.g., Franciscan, history of your parish community).  For teams to be successful, they must appreciate the variety of strengths that the community and team members have and utilize them aptly. 

Fundamental # 5: Build Team Ability and Willingness
In order to improve the performance of a team, all members must gradually build and balance its ability (capacity to get results) and willingness (internal desire to get those results). 

Fundamental # 6: Develop Team Skills
A specific set of skills will enable the team to increase its capacity to get the results it wants. Problem Solving, Meeting Management and Change Enablement are three skills essential for initiative teams to drive the needed change.

Fundamental # 7:  Measure for Success  
Setting performance measures during the beginning of the process will help the team know its destination and understand when it arrives. Outcome measures are the new frontier of leadership in every sector, including our Church. 

Part Two of this series will appear in July 2010 with more information on how the Seven Fundamentals can help teams be more effective in accomplishing the goals set before them.

Mr. Breaux is a Managing Partner of SBS Partners, a US-based management consulting company whose focus is on helping our clients use their strengths to create economic and social value for their companies and communities.  He has 17 years of business consulting and management experience serving organizations in the healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, IT, non-profit, and public sectors.
Additionally, he holds a bachelors degree from Louisiana State University in History and a Masters degree in Theology from Boston College. Questions? Contact him by phone: 985.307.0094 or via email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).