John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Effective Leadership

Idea 26: The individual and teams

As a leader you should be aware of and develop a clear understanding of the following areas:

1. Team properties:
   • Common background/history (or lack of it).
   • Participation patterns.
   • Communication.
   • Cohesiveness.
   • Atmosphere.
   • Standards.
   • Structure.
   • Organization.
   • Changes over time (forming, storming, norming and performing), both progressive and regressive.
   • How to change team properties if the evidence calls for change.
2. Team roles being defined, but with room left for individual personality.
3. Team member functions:
   • Distinction between content (what is said and done) and process (how it is said and done) in group functioning.
   • Difference between behaviour related to the task, behaviour related to maintenance of the team ...