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What Role Do Supervisors Play on Self-Managed Teams?
Q: Is it normal for a self-managed team with a supervisor, in a production setting, to go directly to other managers (such as accounting, sales, engineering and even to the president of the company) with production problems? If so, is the supervisor needed? And what should his responsibilities be?
- Confused, organizational director, manufacturing, upstate New York
A: A self-managed team is designed to maximize the achievement of a business goal by giving a team the goal and leaving it up to team members to develop a solution. There are a number of benefits that emerge from organizations utilizing self-managed teams. The benefits include improved productivity, employee satisfaction, decision making, problem solving, learning, innovation and teamwork.
Working as a team, the members maintain a sense of autonomy, adaptability and flexibility to achieve the goal using all available resources.
Historically, supervisors do not play an active role within self-managed teams, because the key is to engage the team in creating their own solutions and not having solutions handed down. In this way, supervisors assume the role of a coach-skilled at facilitating dialogue to generate solutions that contribute to goal achievement.
The shifting paradigm from supervisor to coach can yield significant benefits for self-managed teams within a production setting as well as other organizational settings. The key responsibilities of the coach on a self-managed team include:
1. Mentor the team.
The coach should motivate and inspire the team to achieve the goal by guiding the team and assisting them in problem solving and decision making.
2. Keep management informed.
On a routine basis, the coach is responsible with providing management with updates and brainstorming with them on any matters that may be challenging or serve as barriers to goal achievement.
3. Foster innovation.
Working with the self-managed team, the coach can play a critical role by engaging team members to generate new ideas for product and service enhancements, leading to goal attainment.
4. Catalyze problem solving.
As the self-managed team progresses toward its goal, it is critical that coaches serve as a catalyst for discussing problems openly and collectively working with the team to transition toward goal achievement.
5. Set expectations.
During the early stages of forming the team, the coach can play an active role with detailing the expectations of people working together and providing continued insights for leveraging team interaction.
6. Provide rewards and recognition.
Coaches are uniquely positioned to provide rewards and recognition to the team throughout its project work as milestones are achieved.
7. Champion your best practices.
Each self-managed team will develop best practices, which contribute to achieving their goal and can serve as strategies useful for other teams, as communicated by the coach.
8. Demonstrate leadership fluidity.
The coach can ensure that different members of the team are encouraged to play the role of leader during various stages of their project and in relationship to their core skills.
9. Participate with team members.
Although usually the coach doesn't play an active role, there may be times when it will be important to be a team member, sharing perspective, thoughts and insights with other teammates.
10. Debrief and facilitate continuous improvement.
As the self-managed team achieves their goal and the project comes to a close, the coach can play an active role in debriefing the project and focusing the self-managed team on additional ways to improve.
[Source: Dana E. Jarvis, Avanti Consulting Group Inc., Pittsburgh, October 4, 2008.]
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