Practical Coach: Management Skills for Everyday Life, The

Creating and Managing High-Performing Teams: the Bottom Line

Creating and managing high-performing teams is as much an art as it is a science. There is no magic formula that will guarantee team success, nor is there one best way to lead a team. Richard Hackman explains:

There is no one best way to accomplish [team effectiveness], nor, despite volumes of research on the topics, is there any one leadership style that is optimal for coaching and helping work teams....Coaching a group, like teaching a class, is done best when the leader exploits his or her own personality and style to get the lessons across. An active, energetic leader is likely to behave actively and energetically with his or her team, whereas a person who is generally soft-spoken ...