My next reading is Beck, J. & Yeager, N. (1994). Making teams work: An underused window of opportunity. In The leader's window: Mastering the four styles of leadership to build high-performing teams (pp. 183-206). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Teams fail to achieve their goals because of the fierce individualism in our culture. However, a high-performing team is one that has high involvement from the leader and everyone on the team adopted a can-do attitude. They also found ways to celebrate their successes and developed a team spirit.
A group is not the same as a team
A team has a clear mission, inter-related goals, clear roles and responsibilities, and strategies with contingency plans.
Stages of Group Development
stage 1- Forming, polite communication, needs boundaries.
stage 2- Focusing. Questioning, power struggles. Decision-making procedures need to be clarified, challenge boundaries.
stage 3- Performing, productivity, shared responsibility and a clear sense of purpose. acceptance of boundaries.
stage 4- Levelling. Starts to ignore boundaries.
Wasted Time
Asking a group to decide is a huge trap for leaders. It usually ends in pointless debates, frustration, and wasted time.
In relation to the operation of my group I think we are still in the first stage of development, although I am quite happy to just perform as a group member with a leader, and Beryl or James seem to be stepping up into that position. I certainly won't be entering into any sort of power struggle.
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