Leadership

Managing Team Dynamics

Written by Chukwuma Asala for Gaebler Ventures

What are the things that leaders of teams do to ensure their teams are healthy and growing? Learn tips about how to manage the team dynamics in your business.

Building an organization from scratch is no easy feat, but keeping an organization together is even harder.

To get started in business initially takes a lot of courage, mental toughness, perseverance, drive, ambition, a lot of which have nothing to do with other people. However to keep a business growing and thriving means you have to keep the people who are working in the company growing, thriving, and working well together, and that requires a whole new set of skills.

There are a few things you must make sure to do in order to have a company that is successful in working together:

Have relationships throughout the organization

One of the most important things you need to do as a leader of your organization is to build relationships with as many people as possible. Of course use the 80/20 rule for this as it is virtually impossible to have a great relationship with your entire team. Try and "invest" 80% of your time in 20% of the people who are producing 80% of the results, but make sure to "spend" time with everyone so they all feel valued. This helps to always keep you in the know and helps you to start to figure out the types of strengths you have in different parts of your team. You also get to know the truth of what is really going on when you go to the lower ranks of your team and build relationships. Sometimes the people directly under you can be misleading in their communication with you about what is going on beneath them. Having good relationships with the people below them will help reduce the risk of a cancer spreading before you catch it.

Edify the right example

Make sure you are consistent in your praise and recognition of others. Never praise someone just to praise them. There has to be a valid reason for edification of anyone in your team and that reason needs to be clear, communicated, and understood by everyone. Edification that is not justified will create disunity and the eventual breakdown in camaraderie. If you praise people who are not doing anything just so they can feel better about themselves you will frustrate the leaders and the producers in the organization. On the other hand if you only praise the leaders and producers you will demoralize the people who might not be producing as of yet.

Understand personality differences

Difference in personalities is a big reason why most people in teams do not get along. As a leader it is important you appreciate the differences in personality that the people in your team have. You can't treat every employee the same way. Each person is motivated by something different, connects differently, talks differently, etc. Just like every child is different even though they come from the same sets of parents, every employee is different even if they work for the same company. Most companies are less like well-oiled machines and more like dysfunctional families if you take a closer look. If you keep that in mind you will always have an environment where every type of person feels they have a voice and that will always facilitate growth.

Chukwuma Asala is an international student from Nigeria who is studying to earn an MBA from the State University of New York in Albany. He has analyzed more than 20 industry case studies throughout his education thus far, and hopes to bring some of his business knowledge to Gaebler.com.

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