Team Building: Proven Strategies for Improving Team Performance, Fourth Edition

Chapter 4. Competencies: Developing Team Skills for High Performance

Once team context and team composition support team effectiveness, the next step is to develop team competencies. Such competencies are not solely the attributes of individual team members but are competencies that are developed and shared by members of the team. In this chapter we discuss the competencies of high-performing teams and provide an assessment tool to determine to what extent a team has those competencies. Before doing so, however, we will discuss how managers can develop important competencies in their teams over time. We have found that most managers, while believing that they and their subordinates function as a team, are really more interested in having their subordinates carry out orders and operate independently under their direct supervision. To move from this type of “staff” relationship to that of a “team” requires a series of developmental steps that will be largely the focus of this chapter. We conclude the chapter with the team competencies assessment instrument and a case study of General Growth Properties, which illustrates how one organization has developed team competencies that have made a significant impact on its bottom line.

Developing the Competencies of High-PerformingTeams

Most managers and supervisors have worked with their subordinates primarily in boss-staff (subordinate) relationships. Such relationships typically are based on the assumption that the boss should set direction ...