¶ … Group Cohesion Within an Organization
We often hear much about "miracle" sports teams such as the 1986 New York Mets, U.S. Hockey's Soviet Union defeating team, and even this year's curse-destroying Boston Red Sox. Long after the individual exploits of individual players are forgotten, the team effort and lore will remain. Sometimes, the team stories will even build over time. For instance, today baseball fans will remember the 1986 New York Mets as an underdog team that surmounted insurmountable odds to capture the World Series. In reality, the Mets were heavily favored that year, and had to be saved by the opposing Boston Red Sox's errant play.
Why is the concept of team so powerful in history? Because it means so much in the present. Specifically, the "chemistry" by which a team is brought together contributes to a team's success more than any other single factor. Group cohesion means more to a team than rigid performance expectations, technology investment or even star team members.
In fact, group cohesion is the most studied area of human resources management at the masters in business administration level. Professors and leading managers alike have come to realize that their time is best spent fostering a cohesive organizational environment. Rather than individually motivate everyone at the organization, strive to create an environment in which they motivate one another, and your job is done.
One of the key components to creating group cohesion is empathetic leadership. Ken Blanchard and Marc Muchnick, authors of "The Leadership Pill," note group cohesion as the leading quality to seek in the "Effective Leader." And the most effective way to foster group cohesion is through the power of affirmation.
Blanchard and Muchnick implore managers and human resources professionals to work together to bestow awards and recognition whenever possible. "Each of us has the power to recognize the goodness in others," they claim. "The Effective Leader's team found that there were endless opportunities to award 'Here's a Salute to You' certificate to deserving [employees]." (Blanchard & Muchnick, 91).
A group is motivated by salaries and bonuses, yes, but as humans, we desire to work together in an environment where we are recognized in more social ways for the work we have done well. A leader wants to foster a situation in which each member of a group understands that he or she will get the credit for a job well done, and that their leaders will not pilfer the recognition. This generosity of praise will crate an organization that feeds off its own internal energy, and that is the most desirable outcome.
What is trickier, Blanchard and Muchnick note, is to provide affirmation to members of an organization who are not performing up to par. "The Effective Leader knew that underperforming individuals were still capable of doing a good job. Instead of focusing his energy on their poor performance, he redirected their behaviors to get them back on track. To do this, he sat down with them to establish revised game plans, assigned them to projects where their talents could be better utilized, or enlisted their fellow team members to serve as mentors. The Effective Leader then affirmed these individuals with praise when their performance improved." (Blanchard & Muchnick, 91)
Let us look at each of these individual steps in fostering a group cohesion environment. First, sitting down with team members to establish revised game plans. The first step to fostering a positive team environment is realistic expectations. A leader cannot expect results that are completely unrealistic, and if such goals are set, and underperformance results, more often than not, the problem is the goal itself and not the results.
That is why the effective leader must revise his or her own game plan to foster group cohesion. A team is only as powerful as its weakest link, as we so often hear, so we must work hard to ensure that the weakest link is up to speed.
Once the leader sits down with the weakest link, she assigns them to tasks they can actually complete and complete well. That is a critical understanding in group cohesion. In order for a group to work together and succeed, each member must work efficiently, and in order to do that, each member must be tasked to something he or she can actually accomplish. Teams will strive when they are reassigned to roles that they all can fill properly and with gusto.
The main group cohesion observation comes in the next step in reassignment. The effective leader assigns mentors to the underperforming...
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