It is unfortunate that many managers want to stimulate the development of high-performance teams, but do not see themselves as active players in the process. Sometimes, this comes from a mistaken idea that a team should be self-contained and owned by the team members. In fact, teams should be owned by its members, but the manager or supervisor plays THE KEY ROLE in setting the climate for the development of teams.

We can’t overstate this point. If you want to encourage team functioning, it is very likely that you, yourself will have to change. If you don’t, any team approach is doomed to failure. If you look at teams in other contexts, you will quickly realize that leadership determines success. A sports team has a coach, a symphony orchestra has a conductor. These teams don’t spontaneously develop without effective leadership, but develop and grow with the help and guidance of a leader whose job is not to control, but to teach, encourage, and organize when necessary. A good way to describe the role of the manager is a catalyst, a force that causes things to happen for other people, and the team.

Delegating is an important tactic, not only to help you with your work load, but also or developing staff, and creating an atmosphere of employee empowerment. The critical component of delegating is to make sure each employee knows his/her degree of autonomy and authority.Organizational talent is the sum of skills and abilities available in your work unit. Effective use of organizational talent can save time and reduce frustration, while mis- use results in the opposite. Here are some tips.

Identify your own strengths and weaknesses. Try to be as objective as possible. When you undertake tasks in areas where your skills are not highly developed, you spend MORE time than would a person with more developed skills. By recognizing your own lack of expertise, you can avoid spending time unnecessarily.

What you describe is probably the norm in organizations that do strategic planning. It is rare that plans of any sort are made to “come alive”. To understand why this occurs is to take a step to altering the situation. Strategic planning can be one of the backbones of organizational functioning, serving to inform decision-making help staff determine both work unit and employee objectives inform the staff development and personnel functions form a basis for continuous improvement

One major reason for its failure is that it is often seen as an event, unlinked to anything else. One of the keys is to link it to the many other organizational functions through action, not just talk. If we consider strategic planning as long range planning, work units need to use it as a basis for their own shorter-term operational planning. If the larger department does it’s strategic plan once a year, each work unit should be using that plan as the foundation for setting it’s own goals and objectives for the upcoming fiscal year.