Team Management - Meaning, Importance, Techniques, Skills, Benefits and Examples

A company’s or an individual’s capability to manage and arrange a group of people to finish a task is known as team management.

It includes interaction, setting goals and objectives, appraisals based on performance, and teamwork. It is the ability to recognize issues and resolve disputes in a team.

Why is Team Management Important?
A cohesive leadership approach in an organization or team is encouraged by team management, especially when team building is adopted. Resolving problems becomes more manageable when critical thinking and negotiation are adopted.

Open interactions between members of a team and managers are promoted. It also stresses on active listening and communication abilities. Members of a team and managers working towards a clearly defined shared objective is ensured.

Elements of a Healthy and Successful Team
Shared Goal
• Team leaders need to lay shared goals for the complete team to achieve.
• With the help of this, an optimum effort will be put by the team members to achieve the goal.

Established Roles and Responsibilities
• Doubts about the roles and responsibilities of individual team members lead to minimal contribution from their end.
• Hence the team leader must lay down clear roles and responsibilities for all team members and make sure they work cohesively.

Lay Boundaries
• It is essential to lay down boundaries and maintain authority even though team members must be treated kindly and respectfully.

Successful communication
• Message can be conveyed promptly to the respective recipients with the help of a successful channel.
• With the help of this, the operations and decision-making of a team can be swift.

Team Management Techniques

Command and Control
• Military management concepts are the basis of this method of team management.
• Here, members of the team are punished if they do not adhere to instructions from their team leader about finishing tasks.

Engage and Create
• Since the "command and control" method is not effective and has restrictions, an alternative management method called "engage and control" was devised.
• The contribution and participation of the members of the team are encouraged in this approach.

Econ 101
• In this method, a fundamental assumption of monetary rewards as a successful encouragement to the team members is made by leaders.
• They assume that rewarding members monetarily for performance and punishing them for failures is an effective management technique.

Problems in Team Management

1. No Trust among Team members
In his book called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni says the absence of vulnerability-based trust is harmful to a team.
Vulnerability-based trust refers to members being okay with trusting each other with advice, asking for assistance, being vulnerable around each other, acknowledging mistakes, etc.

2. Fear of Disputes
This is when members are afraid of disagreements or arguments with other team members or the team leader.
Teams cannot be teams if members hesitate to share opinions due to the fear of disputes.
This will result in the ideas and contributions coming only from one person. Decisions are not arrived at through discussions.

3. Absence of Commitment
Disagreement or disapproval can be hinted at with the absence of input from a team member about a decision. This hinders the progress and activity of a team.
Sharing opinions is essential for generating new ideas. Hesitation to do so will affect the organization or the project.

4. Avoidance of Accountability
Members trying to avoid taking responsibility for their actions within a team is known as avoidance of accountability.
Team members will not want to take responsibility for the consequences of decisions when they are not committed to them.

Team Management Example –

LESSON 1. START WITH THE FOUNDATION
“When you give young people a chance, you not only create a longer life span for the team, you also create loyalty. They will always remember that you were the manager who gave them their first opportunity.” – Sir Alex Ferguson.

LESSON 2. DARE TO REBUILD YOUR TEAM
“The hardest thing is to let go of a player who has been a great guy — but all the evidence is on the field. If you see the change, the deterioration, you have to ask yourself what are things going to be like two years ahead.” – Sir Alex Ferguson.

LESSON 3. SET HIGH STANDARDS – & HOLD EVERYONE ACCOUNTABLE
“I constantly told my squad that working hard all your life is a talent. But I expected even more from the star players. I expected them to work even harder.” – Sir Alex Ferguson

This video is on Team Management and it has the following sub-topics.

Time Stamps

0:00 Introduction
0:16 Definition of Team Management
0:35 Why is Team Management Important?
1:02 Elements of a Healthy and Successful Team
1:51 Team Management Techniques
2:37 Team Management Skills
5:57 Problems in Team Management
4:10 Benefits of Team Management
4:26 Team Management Example