tional leadership role performed by front-
line supervisors.
Many leaders are not equipped to han-
dle the move to team leader. As one
prominent consultant noted, “Even the
most capable managers have trouble mak-
ing the transition because all the com-
mand-and-control type things they were
encouraged to do before are no longer
appropriate. There’s no reason to have any
skill or sense of this.”^69 This same con-
sultant estimated that “probably 15 per-
cent of managers are natural team leaders;
another 15 percent could never lead a
team because it runs counter to their per-
sonality. [They are unable to put aside
their dominating style for the good of the
team.] Then there’s that huge group in the
middle: team leadership doesn’t come nat-
urally to them, but they can learn it.”^70
Effective team leaders need to build
commitment and confidence, remove
obstacles, create opportunities, and be part
of the team.^71 They have to learn skills such as the patience to share information, the will-
ingness to trust others, the ability to give up authority, and an understanding of when
to intervene. New team leaders may try to retain too much control at a time when team
members need more autonomy, or they may abandon their teams at times when the
teams need support and help.^72
Roles of Team Leaders
A recent study of 20 organizations that reorganized themselves around teams found
certain common responsibilities that all leaders had to assume. These included coach-
ing, facilitating, handling disciplinary problems, reviewing team/individual performance,
training, and communicating.^73 Many of these responsibilities apply to managers in
general. A more meaningful way to describe the team leader’s job is to focus on two
priorities: managing the team’s relations with outsiders and facilitating the team process.^74
We have divided these priorities into four specific roles that team leaders play:
- Liaisons with outsiders.Outsiders include upper management, other internal
teams, customers, and suppliers. The leader represents the team to other con-
stituencies, secures needed resources, clarifies others’ expectations of the team,
gathers information from the outside, and shares this information with team
members. - Troubleshooters.When the team has problems and asks for assistance, team
leaders sit in on meetings and try to help resolve the problems. This rarely
relates to technical or operational issues because the team members typically
know more about the tasks being done than does the team leader. The leader
contributes by asking penetrating questions, by helping the team discuss
problems, and by getting needed resources from external constituencies. For
instance, when a team in an aerospace firm found itself short-handed, its team
leader took responsibility for getting more staff. He presented the team’s case
to upper management and got the approval through the company’s human
resource department.
Chapter 8Leadership 275After Hurricane Katrina devastated many areas of the southern United States, the
Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue Team sent a group of 46 men to help with evacua-
tions. The team is a self-contained unit that can bring all of its own supplies to a disaster
area, in addition to supplies to help out others. The team members were the first rescuers
to get to St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans. They received great praise for their team lead-
ership in helping Americans in a time of real need.