Managing the Changing Face of Teams

The changing face of teams has been occurring for eons and managing them has sometimes come with the need for specific skills, talents, and knowledge. Even in the earliest stages of human development, when teamwork was the answer to survival itself, there were challenges. There was, no doubt, some maverick who knew a better way to slay dinner or speed up the hunt or handle the fruits of the hunters’ labor. The Roman army was an example of successful teamwork because of strong training and once again survival hinging on its success. In modern times survival and teams have taken on different meanings and faces. Who wears these faces and why is this important?

Women

While not the beginning of women entering the workforce, during World War II, women began taking on the jobs of men so the males could be available to fight on the fields of battle. The name “Rosie the Riveter” is now an icon representing that change in work teams. Discovering and embracing the ability to be productive, learn new skills, and contribute to the household budget, women, to this day, continue to enter the workforce. However, this new face has been a contributing factor to some challenges in managing teams. For example, sexual harassment issues, cultural changes, and creating new policies. The need for greater human sensitivity came into play but did not grow stronger until more teammate “faces” began appearing.

DEI

In 1948, an executive order by United States President Harry Truman began desegregating the armed forces. Banning discrimination on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin came with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Although the phrases Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Emotional Quotient (EQ) by Daniel Goleman did not come into play until around 1995, the need for (EQ) began to become apparent in many situations with more women in the workforce. Soon, a flood of new faces, of every origin and color began populating the workforce. Today, the LBGT community adds more diversity, more openly. These “new faces” make the need and skill for EQ even more in demand. Possessing EQ, and the ability to manage without bias are crucial to what every leader must possess to build high performance teams.    

Pandemonium

Pandemonium can rear its ugly head during most any crisis, such as a failing economy, strikes or other disruptions in shipping, trade, or transportation, but the pandemonium the pandemic continues to bring is stellar. While, at present, there are no new laws in the workplace surrounding Covid, managing teams around the impact of Covid involves having knowledge of OSHA and ADA. Tragically, death has taken many faces from teams due to Covid. This, in turn, calls for hiring new faces. Of course, by now, every team iss no doubt feeling the impact of the logistics working with both in person and virtual team members. Recently, the president of a business I work with made the comment that this has been the most challenging time of his career. 

People Can be the Face of the Problem and the Solution

Obviously, this article describes some of the major changes that teams sometimes experience. However, even in the best of times the faces of teams change because people wear these faces. People come and go. People change goals, ambitions, loyalties, directions, career paths, and their minds constantly.  This is more readily apparent when an employee has a long tenure with an organization. On the other hand, if your teams experience high turnover, the question to ask is, “What are we doing to drive expensive turnover?” It isn’t always the organization, and it isn’t always the people, but there is a reason and there is also a solution. That solution usually lies with people.

The face of your leadership people can be the solution when they lead with:

• No bias
• High EQ
• Inclusion and equality
• Understanding others
• Open communication

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