BELBIN

Report on Effective Team Leadership Workshop

The aim of this report is to summarise issues arising[1][1] from the recent Team Leadership

Workshop at Ekstorm and recommend appropriate action.

Findings

The workshop began with an assessment[2][2] of how the Ekstrom team leaders understood

their roles. Perceptions[3][3] ranged from assigning and checking other people’s work to

motivating[4][4] others to do the work. This disparity[5][5] clearly showed that the team

leaders had different understandings of their roles and that Ekstrom therefore needed to

communicate its expectations more explicitly[6][6].

In order to do this, Ekstrom identified[7][7] key tasks and used WorkSet colours to illustrate

[8][8]the precise level of responsibility which could be allocated to each. A task such as

communicating with the team, for example, might be approached in a variety of ways:

● I give my staff instructions every morning. (Blue work)

● I let my staff decide on the best approach for themselves. (Yellow work)

● My team and I discuss how to do each job. (Orange work)

Having identified the different possible approaches to each key task, the company was able

to select which was most appropriate and communicate its expectations in terms of the skills

and behavior required.

Conclusions

It is clear that Ekstrom needs to ensure that its team leaders are capable of performing key

tasks in a manner compatible[9][9] with company expectations. However, whilst[10][10] the

appropriate skills can be developed through in-company training, changing behavioural

attributes[11][11] is much more difficult.

Recommendations

We strongly recommend, therefore, that Ekstrom sets up assessment centres where

existing team leaders and new applicants can be screened[12][12] to ensure that they have th

appropriate attributes for effective team leadership.

Barrie Watson

Belbin Associates, February 2000