Cobbling together a loose group of employees into an effective team can pose a challenge for any administrative manager. But in today's hyper competitive economy, it's a virtual necessity for certain time-lined projects.
There's a classic scene in the movie "Stripes" where Bill Murray unites a team of Army misfits with this rousing speech: "We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans with a capital 'A'. That means our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! So we're all dogfaces, we're all very, very different, but there is one thing that we all have in common: we were all stupid enough to enlist in the Army. We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something seriously wrong with us--we're soldiers. But we're American soldiers! We've been kicking ass for 200 years! We're 10 and 1! Now we don't have to worry about whether or not we practiced. We don't have to worry about whether Captain Stillman wants to have us hung. All we have to do is to be the great American fighting soldier that's inside each one of us. Now do what I do, and say what I say. And make me proud!"
The first thing a manager needs to do is bring the players together. That means physically uniting the group for a single task and reminding them that they can't succeed as a team unless they work as one.
Once the team has built some level of cohesion in completing a project, managers must seize the moment to encourage an atmosphere of esprit de corps. This is best accomplished through accolades and awards for specific team members and for the team as a whole.
There will always be some on the team who prefer to work as "lone wolves." The people must be convinced that working together means less work for individual members. When people work individually, there's less communication and more duplication of effort. It's the job of the manager to be an effective team leader and enroll everyone one in the process.
One mistake made by some administrative mangers is the assumption that a weekend retreat or single seminar is all that's necessary to create an effective team. But team building is more than just an event. It's a disciplined process of uniting people of different backgrounds, attitudes and personalities into a functioning unit. This calls for a number of meetings in which team goals are placed ahead of personal differences.
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Alex A. Kecskes has written hundreds of published articles on health/fitness, "green" issues, TV/film entertainment, restaurant reviews and many other topics. As a former Andy/Belding/One Show ad agency copywriter, he also writes web content, ads, brochures, sales letters, mailers and scripts for national B2B and B2C clients.
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