Leaders at all levels have been admonished to invest their efforts into raising an effective team in their private or public organisations, even in market places, or at any other levels of leadership, so as to achieve their set goals and objectives.

The senior pastor of Charis Family International Church, Pastor Tunde Jaiyebo, gave the charge on Friday, while speaking on the topic: ‘Raising Effective Team for Optimal Results,’ at the 2018 Charis Convention, with the theme: ‘Distinguished by Grace,’ at the church headquarters, Mokola, Ibadan.

He noted that raising a formidable team which is purpose-driven, and not just adopt a set of people, is the only way to ensure optimal results are achieved in any endeavour where human and material resources have been invested.

He taught on a series of means by which this can be achieved, defining critical terms in the topic, such as “raise,” “effective,” “a team,” “a leader,” and “optimal,” which he said leaders must take cognisance of in raising an effective team for optimal results. Excerpts:

Definitions of “Raise”

To raise means to set up, or put up, or bring up. It means also to develop, to train.
What it means is that a team is not automatically formed.
Our doing things together does not make us a team.
The fact that we are in the same department working with the same job description does not make us a team.
That I am the boss and employed 10 people does not mean that I have a team.
A team must be consciously raised.
If they post you to an organization and you met some people on ground, they are not your team.
If you take them to be your team, you are working on assumption.
A leader must consciously raise a team.
Anywhere you go to as a leader, you must work with the assumption that I must raise a team.
The people you have on ground have a general idea of how things must be done, but you need to raise them by building in them some specifics to handle.
You may have people working with you, but if they have not been built, you don’t have a team.
Now, with the aforesaid, as a leader, do you have a team?

Definition of “Effective”

Effective means to achieve a desired result.
If I’m going to raise a team to be effective, it means I’m raising a team to achieve a desired result.
Raising a team is a conscious exercise with a purpose in view.
When you are raising your team, it must be deliberate.
What do you have at the back of your mind?
If you are to raise an effective team, you must have an agenda.
You must have a why. Why am I raising a team?
What is your purpose? What are you bringing to the table?
You ask, why do I need a team?
You need to set a team up. It doesn’t happen automatically.
Purpose is an anticipated outcome; that is why a team must be set up deliberately.

Leaders General Agenda

A leader’s agenda is that the vision is executed.
It may interest you to know that everybody has his own agenda.

Definition of a “Team”

A team is a group of people with complementary skills to achieve a goal.
A team is not a club. It contains a people with different gifts, skills, expertise and competences.
All the potentials must not be contradictory, but complementary.
When raising a team, you go to people with varying skills, gifts, expertise and competences – to work together to create a synergy; each person is contributing something different to the team.
It is easier to have people like you, but that is not a team; don’t have a team of people who are just like you, that is a club.
It is like your body with different parts, but same purpose. Your body is a perfect team.
The eye cannot do the work of the mouth.
If the eye wants to taste the pepper soup the mouth eats everyday, what happens?
A team knows that we are different, but aiming towards the same direction.

Definition of a “Leader”

A leader’s is someone who influences people, affecting their views actions with the aim of achieving the set goals and objectives.
Amos 3:3 says, Can two work together except they agree?
You cannot work in a team except you agree; that simply means, if you ask your team members why are you in this team, their answers must be the same, if it is not the same, you must work on the team.

Definition of “Optimal”

Optimal means the best, most favorable, or the most desirable.

10 benefits of an effective team

We have leaders at different levels, as a father, manager, among friends, and so on.
– Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. Two people are better than one because they can help each other succeed…
1. Having a team is better than being alone.
2. An effective, proper team will boost your productivity.
3. It offers balance and security.
– This becomes more important as you grow in leadership ladder.
– There is a security with a team.
4. An effective team produces network and support.
– No human being is an embodiment of support.
5. An effective team produces a backup.
6. An effective team provides opportunities for individual to express what they have to offer.
– If you are a one man band, and you have people who have commonsense, they will not stay with you for long because you are not allowing them to express themselves.
– If you don’t give people expression, they will leave for other places, even they won’t mind where they will be under paid.
7. An effective team gives access to complementary gifts, skills, expertise and competence.
8. An effective team produces specialization.
– A team will produce experts in their core competence areas.
– Acts 6:1 – Don’t be a jack of all trades, master of none.
9. It gives longevity. Makes the people and organization to last longer.
– Exodus 18:13-24. Jethro’s warning to Moses to form a team.
– Understand your core competence; having effective team makes you last long.
10. An effective team eliminates weaknesses. Where one is weak, someone else is strong.
– It is like a couple in marriage; where one is weak, the other is strong.
– A proper team eliminates weaknesses.
– A proper team has no weakness.

Characteristics of an effective team

1. An effective team is a community; a group of people that share common interests or common characteristics.
– For a leader, the interest is achieving the corporate goal.
– A leader must have a vision of where he is taking us to.
– Everyone who has a brain have a reason for what he wants to do.
– But the reason must be why the organization is set up.
– If not, there will be division in the team – there will never be an agreement.
– If you work in an office, why are you there? Some may say to earn money.
– But you are there to get the job done.
– You are not in the office to make friends.
2. You must take ownership of the team.
– People must become stakeholder in the team.
– To God, everybody is important, but to you, not everyone is important.

How to select team members

1. You ask, is the person teachable and listens to instructions?
2. Is he loyal to you and the organization?
– Loyalty is proven in adversity.
– Loyalty is not sycophancy.
– A sycophant can’t be in your team.
– A loyal person will defend you.
.3. Is the person a team player.
– Is the person a loner; self centered; keeps things close to his chest? He can’t be in your team.
– Can he sacrifice personal interest for corporate goal?
4. Is there any chemistry, that is, a good way two individuals relate to each other.
5. Is he faithful? Thorough in the performance of his duty.
– Is he reliable.
– Some people are not reliable, once the boss leaves, they are also gone.
– When you get there on the appointment hour, he is not there. That is an unfaithful person.
– Proverbs 25:19. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.
6. Is the person qualified?
– Does the person have an entitlement mentality? This is when someone thinks he should do the job; at this time, don’t give the person the job.
– Every leader has the capacity to raise an effective team.
– Ephesians 4:11-12.
7. You must be skilled in communication.

What to communicate

1. Vision.
2. Instructions and directives.
3. Communicate at meetings.
– You don’t castigate a team member in front of others.
– You don’t kill the morale of the people you lead by the inhuman way you treat others.
4. You communicate for training purposes.
– Ideally, you spend more time with your team than other people.
– Never work on assumption; repeat information.
5. You communicate for dispute and conflict resolution.
– You don’t make judgement on one-sided information.
– The higher you go, the more your communication skill should grow.
– Communication error is very dangerous.

Components of effective communication

1. You must have an intended purpose – what exactly are you trying to pass across.
– Think before you talk. Don’t communicate when you are angry.
– A leader must be careful about his emotions.
– Have a note of your major points when you want to talk.
– Know how you want to pass across what you have in mind to your people; either by writing or in speech.
– Is it by memo or talking.
– Never document your anger. Don’t send text when you are angry; don’t record it either.
– Check for what is the best transmission method.

How to transmit information to your team

1. Always make your meeting official – hold in in the office or board room.
– If you want to open your office outlet somewhere in town, communicate it and make the floor open for contributions.
2. Know how your team receive information.
– Is it when they are given food, or in a more serious mood.

Collective responsibility

1. Once a decision is taken in the midst of all, it means everyone agrees. So, you create a sense of collective responsibility in your team members.
– Don’t shut them down, let everyone contribute.
– When something goes wrong, a leader should take responsibility and not blame the person that has done wrong.
–
Coordination

1. If there is no coordination, there will be confusion.
– There must be a blending of diverse giftings in the team.

How to coordinate a team

1. You must know each other’s strength.
– Know what someone is bringing to the table.
2. Each team member must know what he or she is bringing to the table, and know their level of competence.

Levels of competence

– Unconscious incompetence.
– Conscious incompetence.
– Unconscious competence.
– Conscious competence.

3. Each member must be placed in the right place.
4. You need to have structures; rules and regulations.
5. Ensure the corporate vision is always in view.
6. Have a review system.
– Have regular meetings with your team.
7. Creativity. The members must be able to express themselves.
8. Connectivity. There must be mutual trust among team members.

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