“Building high-performing teams is a never-ending journey.” 

Great teams align for performance, perform well under pressure, are cohesive and perform well sustainably. But, like people – teams don’t start great. Just like we need to adjust our management style to the project and person we are leading, we need to adjust our style to match where our team is at today. Then, we can help that team perform at a sustainably high level.

This is where the situational leadership concepts of “directing” and “supporting” leadership styles come into play. Directing leadership tells the team why they exist and what is expected of them. Supporting leadership helps develop mutual respect and trust within the team. Supporting leadership gets everyone involved, praises their efforts and helps the team value each other’s differences.

The Blanchard group identifies four primary stages of team development followed by the fifth stage – termination. Termination is all about closing out a team’s project well – appreciating what was accomplished and making time to learn together. We’ll focus on the first four stages in this article.

Productivity and morale determine the team’s development stage. Productivity is the amount and quality of work produced by the team. Morale is the sense of pride and satisfaction that comes from belonging to the team and accomplishing the work.

Stage 1: Orientation

Orientation is the start of a team. Most team members come in excited and a little apprehensive. As expected, morale is high and productivity is low.

Teams at this stage need highly directive leadership to establish the roles, goals and expected outcomes of the team. The goal is to create structure. A great tool to create team structure and clarity is a “team charter.” The charter lays out what the team is together to accomplish, why it is important and how the team will work together to accomplish the results. The charter becomes the teams’ “North Star” – something they will continually refer back to as the team moves forward.

Once the charter is complete, roles and goals are established then the team is ready to move from planning to doing.

Stage 2: Dissatisfaction

Stage 2 is when reality hits the team. The team is figuring out the amount of work involved and how difficult it is to create a high-performing team. At this stage morale dips. Productivity starts to increase some but is hampered by morale issues. The goal is to get out of this stage as quickly as possible. We’d like to avoid it altogether but that is rarely possible. By anticipating the problems and planning for them, we can make the visit to stage 2 as brief as possible.

Stage 2 teams need help resolving the problems that will arise as the team works to move to higher levels of productivity. Morale dips so supportive leadership is needed. Direction is also needed as questions are answered and roles are confirmed.

Leaders must encourage the team that there are no failures, only learning opportunities and help the team resolve the challenges as they encounter them. Strong leadership is needed to confront the issues and create clarity.