6 TEAM SELF-LEADERSHIP Sharing the Journey When spiderwebs unite, they can tie up a lion. Lear ning —Ethiopian proverb distributeObjectives After studying this chapter, you If we were to end the book at this point, we would be short- should be able to do the following: changing you.1 You might decide to return the book to youror bookstore and ask for your money back. The good news is that 1. Explain why there is more to conquer. team members Up to this chapter, our discussion on self-leadership has accomplish more focused on you as an individual. We understand, however, that together than they much of the work you do on a daily basis is not done by you can as individuals. alone. We realize that to accomplish manypost, of your goals, you 2. Describe how team need to work with other people. A large majority of the work self-leadership is today in schools and businesses is done by teams of people as the application opposed to separate individuals. of mental and The use of teams—self-directed teams, self-managing behavioral self- teams, and high-performance teams—is a work design innova- leadership strategies tion that has swept across the country and the rest of the world at the team level. over the past few decades.copy, This fact of business life continues 3. Demonstrate to gain in popularity, as estimates suggest that 80 to 90 percent behavioral team of all North American organizations have at least some type of self-leadership self-managed teams.2 Thus, chances are good that right now not practices you are a member of a team—as a student in a university, as within a team, an employee in an organization, or even as part of a personal including team relationship (e.g., boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife). self-observation, The introduction of empowered work teams into the team self-goal- Doworkplace represents one of the most important new organi- setting, team cue zational developments since the Industrial Revolution. Teams modification, team have demonstrated their ability to make major contributions to self-reward and self- 125 Copyright ©2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. punishment, and organizations in a variety of industries. Increased productivity; team rehearsal. higher product and service quality; better quality of work life for employees; and reduced costs, turnover, and absenteeism 4. Employ mental are among the more salient payoffs. team self-leadership strategies within Usually members of teams, in comparison with individual a team, including workers, have increased amounts of responsibility and control. evaluating team Teams perform many tasks that previously were the respon- beliefs and sibility of management, such as conducting meetings, solving assumptions, team technical and personal problems, and making a wide range of self-talk, team decisions on many issues, including performance methods and mental imagery, assignment of tasks. Successful teams are those that possess and team thought the skills, equipment, and supplies they need to perform the patterns. work well. 5. Recognize the The best teams tend to have capable and committed importance of members who successfully combine their skills and knowledge balancing the for the good of the team. The challenge for teams is to accept “me” with the and appreciate the unique contributions that each member can “we” in a team make while effectively combining individualdistribute member contri- setting by applying butions for the good of the team. The key to team success is the teamthink concepts creation of synergy—the condition whereby team members and avoiding together accomplish significantlyor more than they could if they groupthink. acted on their own.3 (Team synergy might be expressed math- ematically as 1 + 1 + 1 = 5.) This definition fits well with the widely used acronym TEAM, for “together everyone achieves more.” An interesting recent study compared the individual performance of professional golfers on the PGA tour to their performance when playing in two team-based com- petitions: the Ryder Cup and President’spost, Cup golf tournaments. The findings showed synergy in the performance of the golfers playing in small groups relative to their play as individuals.4 Teams work best when their members have strong individual skills and strong group skills. How can a team obtain synergy? We argue that self-leadership plays an integral part in the answer to this question. copy, SELF-LEADERSHIP AND TEAMS You might be thinking, “Don’t the terms self-leadership and teams contradict or oppose eachnot other?” In other words, what does leading oneself have to do with working as a member of a team? Actually, the two concepts are quite closely related. Self- leadership is just as important when you are working in a team as when you are working alone. To reach your individual potential while working within a team, you still must lead Doyourself. In fact, only by effectively leading yourself as a team member can you help the team lead itself, reach its potential, and thus achieve synergy. The act of the team leading itself describes the concept of team self-leadership, which can be defined as follows: 126 SELF-LEADERSHIP Copyright ©2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. The application of mental and behavioral self-leadership strategies that enable team members to provide themselves with self-direction and self- motivation, and ultimately to become effective, personally empowered con- tributors to their team. According to this definition, team self-leadership is similar to individual self-leadership in that both involve the use of behavioral and mental strategies. Next we will examine some of these team-based self-leadership strategies.5 BEHAVIORAL ASPECTS OF TEAM SELF- LEADERSHIP Specific behavioral team self-leadership practices include team self-observation, team self-goal-setting, team cue modification, team self-reward/self-punishment, and team rehearsal (practice). distribute Team Self-Observation or At the team level, self-observation represents the team’s collective effort to purpose- fully observe (and record) team behavior and performance, as well as the team’s attempt to understand the antecedents and consequences associated with those actions. Self- observation should be done by the team. Thus, team self-observation encompasses group members working collectively to measure and understand the team’s behavior. An example is a group seeking the informationpost, needed to compare the group’s perfor- mance with its production goals. Team Self-Goal-Setting Individuals on a team can have personal goals that are coordinated with and necessary for achieving the team’scopy, goals, but the focus for the team is to achieve the shared goals of the team as a whole. Team self-goal-setting accordingly requires the group as a collec- tive (rather than an individual leader) to establish the goals. Goal-setting by the group thus represents an element of self-leadership for the team that encompasses, but is not defined by,not individual goals of team members or leaders. Team Cue Modification DoTeams can remove things that cue undesirable behavior and increase exposure to ele- ments that cue desirable behavior. When a team changes environmental conditions that affect behavior, team self-leadership occurs. Attempts to change the environment are collectively performed by the team and are not synonymous with individual attempts to Chapter 6 • TEAM SELF-LEADERSHIP 127 Copyright ©2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. modify antecedents that cue behavior. An example is a team deciding to alter the config- uration of its work space. Team Self-Reward and Self-Punishment Teams can reinforce their own desirable behaviors by providing rewards—to individual members and to the group as a whole—that strengthen or increase those behaviors. These rewards may be tangible or intangible. Tangible rewards might include mon- etary bonuses, time off, or the purchase of new equipment. Intangible rewards might include increased satisfaction, joy from working as a team, or a feeling of respect for the work accomplished by the team. Punishment involves applying negative consequences to reduce undesirable behaviors. An example of team self-punishment is a team deciding that all members must work late to make up for time spent in excessive socializing. For team self-influence to take place, the group must administer and receive rewards and sanctions collectively. It is important to note that as with individual self-leadership, team self-punishment is neither the preferred nor the most effective method for influencing a team’s behavior. distribute Team Rehearsal or As discussed, rehearsal or practice is another step associated with the self-lea dership process. Teams may conduct rehearsal either overtly or covertly. An example of rehearsal might be several team members practicing a presentation their team must make to the rest of the organization. To be considered team rehearsal, this practice must be initiated and directed by the team as a whole rather than by an individual team member. post, MENTAL ASPECTS OF TEAM SELF-LEADERSHIPcopy, An underlying assumption of the discussion of mental team self-leadership strategies involves the emergence of a group pattern of thinking, which is more than the sim- ple collection of the thinking of separate individual minds. This notion of a “group mind”not has been addressed by various researchers.6 For example, W. R. Bion asserted that a group’s mind-set exists beyond that of the individual group members in that the group’s mind-set connects group members through an unconscious implied agreement.7 Do Accordingly, the basic premise of mental team self-leadership is that, similar to self-leading individuals, teams can enhance their performance through the collective application of specific mental strategies that result in a team mode of thinking.