Session 2.1.2: Leading effective teams
Learning objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
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Describe the effect of leadership styles on team dynamics and effectiveness
Identify solutions to humanitarian team leadership and management challenges
Timing and methods
Method
1. Presentation and discussion
2. Small group work
3. Plenary discussion
4. Presentation and discussion
Content
Review of John Adair leadership model
Team leadership challenges
Report back from group work
Summary of good practices for team leaders
Time
25
30
25
10
Total
90
Resources needed
Files
PowerPoint 2.1.2 or flipcharts*
Workbook pages #4-9
Attachment 1 Team leadership challenges
Attachment 2 ALNAP key findings
Attachment 3 John Adair model
Equipment and supplies
Flipcharts
Cards with printed leadership challenges
Coloured marker pens
* Review and adapt the PowerPoint or prepare flipcharts with the essential content in advance of the session
Preparation
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Familiarise yourself with the John Adair model, the content covered in Workshop 1
on leading teams (e.g. session 1.3.2) as well as the ALNAP leadership study (2011).
Review the scenarios at Attachment 1. Select the most appropriate ones for the
context and print them on cards. Select at least five different scenarios and have
enough cards for each group to consider all five if they work fast (i.e. five cards for
each of five scenarios). Create new ones appropriate to the context if needed.
Be prepared to respond with advice and feedback about possible ways participants
could deal with those challenges in their context.
Key messages
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To build and lead effective teams, a leader must have overview of the task, the team
and the individual. There is no single leadership style that is appropriate to every
context, rather good leaders adapt their style to each situation.
A humanitarian leader defines task in terms of needs of the population, they connect
with staff at all levels, care about their well-being and build good communication.
The behaviours of the leader can impact team effectiveness positively or negatively.
Effective behaviours include: establishing clear goals and objectives; exercising
critical judgement and decision-making skills; using individual skills and talents of
Session Guide 2.1.2 Leading effective teams
1
team members; communicating and consulting; listening and observing; encouraging
and motivating; delegating tasks and investing in developing people.
Instructions
Activity 1: Presentation and discussion – Review of John Adair and leadership styles
25 mins
‘Bad
leader/good
leader’ exercise
5-10 mins
Open the session with the ‘bad leader/good leader’ exercise. This is a
powerful way of highlighting the impact a leader has on team
effectiveness.
Note that it can go on for a long time, as people get very excited by it.
Make sure you keep it fast and short - maximum 10 minutes.
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Ask participants to close their eyes and try to remember the
worst leader they ever had
Wait 30 seconds and then invite participants to call out one word
which describes that leader. Write the words on a flipchart
Next, ask participants to call out one word which describes how
that leader made them feel. Write those words on a flipchart
Next, ask participants to close their eyes again and remember
the best leader they ever had
Wait 30 seconds and then ask participants to call out one word
which describes that leader. Write the words on a flipchart
Finally ask participants to call out one word which describes how
that boss made them feel. Write those words on a flipchart
It is likely that participants will describe the demotivating and
demoralising effect of a bad leader, and the empowering and motivating
effect of a good leader.
Emphasise that the leadership styles and skills of the leader play a
crucial role in determining team effectiveness.
Link the
discussion back
to the
leadership
competencies
headings
2-5 mins
Note the
session
objectives
1 min
Highlight the following competency headings in relation to the points
which emerged about a good leader:
 Motivating and influencing
 Critical judgement
 Self-awareness
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
 Describe the effect of leadership styles on team dynamics and
effectiveness
 Identify solutions to humanitarian team leadership and
management challenges
Session Guide 2.1.2 Leading effective teams
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Build the link
between this
session and
Workshop 1
5 mins
Briefly remind
participants
about the John
Adair model
2 mins
Introduce the
concept of
adapting
leadership
styles
5 mins
Ask participants to recall what they learned about leading teams
from Workshop 1. Note: If you have video of the ‘sheep and the
shepherd’ activity from Workshop 1, play this now as a reminder.
The following questions might help:
 What did you learn in Workshop 1 about how to lead a team
effectively?
 How have you put what you learned in the ‘sheep and shepherd’
game into practice?
 What do you remember about the John Adair model of actioncentred learning?
Show Slide #2 (or a flipchart) with the John Adair ‘Task, Team and
Individual’ model and summarise the key points from Workshop 1:
 To build and lead effective teams, a leader must have overview
of the task, the team and the individual
 An effective leader will set the structure, tasks and expectations
about behaviour, and will then nurture the team and its members
to realise their full potential
Show Slide #3 and explain that:
 There is no single leadership style that is appropriate to every
context. It must be adapted to the situation. What is needed
depends on the complexity of the task, the skills of the team
members and the urgency of the situation
 A good leader in one situation is not necessarily a good leader in
another, but being able to adapt and apply different leadership
styles and approaches can make a leader more versatile and
more effective in different contexts
If time permits, briefly discuss different types of leadership styles and
how they might apply in different humanitarian contexts.
Activity 2: Small group work – team leadership challenges
30 mins
Small group
exercise ‘team leader
challenges’
30 mins
Ask participants to work in their buddy groups.
Give participants one scenario on a printed card (see attachment) to
focus on in depth for 20 minutes. Show Slide #4 and explain that:
 You will be working in small groups for the next 30 minutes to
review some management leadership challenges
 This is an emergency situation and you need to be able to deal
with many problems at once in a high-pressure environment
 Assume that you are the team leader - from the perspective of
the team leader, how will you deal with this scenario?
 Record your conclusions on a flipchart.
 Share any similar experiences that you have had
After 20 minutes, give them up to four more scenarios for them to deal
with at once, to give them a sense of dealing with team issues under
pressure.
Session Guide 2.1.2 Leading effective teams
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Remind groups to always use the humanitarian imperative,
humanitarian principles and agency mandates as guide for decisionmaking, as well as the ideas about balancing team, task and individual.
Activity 3: Plenary discussion – Report back from group work
25 mins
Report back to
plenary
25 mins
In plenary, ask each groups to report back on the one scenario they
focused on first. Ask:
 How did you consider the ‘team, task and individual’ needs?
 How did this affect your leadership decisions?
 How did pressure affect your decision-making?
Discuss any key themes emerging from the group reports about
challenges and solutions for leading teams under pressure.
Activity 5: Presentation and discussion – Summary of good practices for team leaders
20 mins
Discuss good
practices for
leading effective
teams
15 mins
Show Slide #5 or flipchart and refer to workbook page #8 to share the
good practices for leading effective teams described below.
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Clarify goals and roles
Use individual skills and talents
Communicate and consult
Listen and observe
Encourage and motivate
Review and learn lessons
Delegate tasks and develop people
Remember the importance of team meetings
Recognise and acknowledge what is being done well
Ask if there are any additional ideas we should add.
Highlight where these practices were important in the group work
scenarios and support points with any relevant examples from the
ALNAP study (Attachment 2). If participants are not already familiar with
ALNAP, explain the acronym – Active Learning Network for
Accountability and Performance in the humanitarian sector.
Optional, if time: Explain task vs.
relationship
behaviours
3 mins
Ask participants: How do you make time for these in humanitarian
response?
Explain that:
 There are two general kinds of team leader behaviours:
o Task behaviours (product) – these focus on goal
accomplishment and help group members achieve their
objectives
o Relationship (process) behaviours – focus on team
Session Guide 2.1.2 Leading effective teams
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
members feeling comfortable with themselves, each other
and the situation in which they find themselves
In an emergency, there is a tendency to focus on task
behaviours, but the leader needs to ensure they are giving
attention to task and relationship behaviours
Leaders need to determine which mix of the two behaviours will bring
out the best in the team. See workbook page #9 for more information.
Conclude with
key learning
points
2 mins
Refer back to the competency framework and reinforce the importance
of:
 being aware of one’s own leadership skills and qualities and the
impact that this will have on team effectiveness
 considering the needs of the task, team and individual
 adapting your leadership style accordingly.
Session Guide 2.1.2 Leading effective teams
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Attachments
Attachment 1: Small group work management and leadership scenarios
Scenario 1: There is no food available at a field site where your staff are working, so at the
beginning of the programme it was decided to give staff working there an allowance to buy
food in town before travelling to the field site (5km away). Now the project vehicles leave late
every morning because of the time it takes to organise buying lunch, and the number of staff
has increased, making the cost of lunch allowances unacceptably high. There is also now
food available at the field site, but your staff prefer the food from town. How do you as team
leader resolve this? How do you ensure people agree with your decision?
Scenario 2: You are an incoming manager for a cash-for-work programme. The project
proposal listed a number of types of activities that could be undertaken by communities for
CFW. You discover that the team implementing the project has misunderstood the proposal
and informed communities that they could only do CFW for one of the activities in the list.
You realise that communities could have suggested their own projects and were given no
choice. A proper consultation process was not undertaken. How would you resolve this with
your team and the community?
Scenario 3: An issue has arisen in your team about communications access. You are the
team leader. The organisation’s policy says that only key staff are issued with mobile phones
and credit. They sometimes use these to call family – but using their own credit. There have
been some comments (not yet complaints) from other staff. How is this managed so that
resentment does not build?
Scenario 4: In the project area where you work, local cultural norms do not allow mixed sex
households if the occupants are not family. Incoming staff arriving (a mixture of relocated
national and international staff) do not feel comfortable with single sex households for safety
reasons and prefer mixed housing. Local national staff members feel that mixed households
would not be appropriate. As team leader, how do you address this situation?
Scenario 5: You are leading a mobile medical team composed entirely of new arrivals to the
field location. You are the only one with any real experience and knowledge of what you are
doing; however, you need to have your team at full capacity very quickly. What style of
leadership do you use in this situation? How do you build up the others’ capacity?
Scenario 6: A new international staff member is due to arrive to work in your team. You
learn from a staff member that the current team is very unhappy at this news as several
have worked with this person before and there were ‘difficulties’. People feel so strongly
about this that you are told that they will refuse to work with this team member and will go on
strike. As team leader, what would you do to resolve this situation? What options are there?
Scenario 7: You are a team leader in an earthquake response. The plastic sheeting you had
ordered arrives after a 10-day delivery time. On arrival, it is found to be substandard.
Logisticians and lorry drivers are all shouting at you about this. What would you do? What
would affect your decision?
Scenario 8: You are deployed as a specialist to help to develop a programme. Strong
opinions as to the direction of the programme are expressed by the team, many of which you
agree with. The Country Manager disagrees but is unable to give – in your opinion –
coherent reasons for this disagreement. How does this make you feel? What would you do?
Session Guide 2.1.2 Leading effective teams
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Scenario 9: You are working for six weeks in the acute phase of an emergency. Within the
space of one week, your manager and all the other senior staff leave and fresh energetic
ones arrive. What would you expect the problems to be? How can you best ensure that the
inevitable changes to work practices are managed effectively?
Scenario 10: You are deployed to a humanitarian programme and the coordinator goes off
sick for several weeks. You have to take on the coordination role as well as your own job.
Apart from a bigger workload, this extra responsibility makes you feel anxious, as you are
now responsible for security and team welfare and you are concerned that some team
members are behaving in a way that could undermine your agency’s credibility.
How might your anxiety become obvious? What could you do?
Scenario 11: There has been some confusion about the budget in your project, and two of
your staff have each made different commitments to project participants on the assumption
there was a budget to cover it – however, there is not enough budget to cover both
commitments. How will you resolve this?
Attachment 2: ALNAP Leadership study key findings and examples from:
Leadership in Action: Leading effectively in humanitarian operations, Margie
Buchanan-Smith with Kim Scriven, ALNAP, 2011
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Good leaders translate humanitarian values into behaviours:
o ‘I put myself in the shoes of the affected population. Whenever I go into [a
situation like this] I try to see it from the lens of the survivor – what kind of
assistance do they want – and thinking ahead, so it’s not just bags of rice but
is it really working from their perspective of what’s needed? We need to have
a dialogue with them and listen.’
o In relation to Adair’s three circles model of leadership, this means defining
task needs clearly in terms of the affected population.
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The relationship between a leader and their staff is important:
o ‘If staff feel you care for them, they are willing to work for you’ was the clear
message from a number of interviewees. The human qualities of being able to
connect with staff of all levels, from the senior management team to drivers
and guards, so that they feel they have a personal relationship with the
‘leader’, and caring for their well-being were noted and cherished.
o This is the circle that relates to ‘individual needs’ in Adair’s model. The clear
message is that communication and relational skills are critical, to motivate
and inspire staff and peers, the ‘followers’, and to bring people with you. They
relate to two of the circles in Adair’s model of leadership: group maintenance
and individual needs.
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Good leaders actively work to build a strong team through choosing team members,
leading by example and mentoring:
o ‘Many leaders inherited rather than chose the team that they worked with and
that supported them at the outset. Over time, however, many of them were
able to choose and build the kind of team that they wanted. In the words of
one of our case study leaders: ‘if you haven’t got something, you have to build
a team. A good leader recognises where his or her gaps are and calls on
others to fill those gaps. No one person can be a humanitarian leader’.
Session Guide 2.1.2 Leading effective teams
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A good leader is also a good manager:
o ‘A common refrain is that effective leaders are rarely good managers.
Individuals who have visionary and strategic skills lack the skills to carry out
more detailed and routine management tasks; they enjoy the big picture but
get bored with the detail. More than half of our case study leaders
contradicted this view. They combined an eye for detail with the ability to
engage with the bigger picture’.
Attachment 3 John Adair Action-Centred Leadership model – recap of content from
Workshop 1
The three parts of Adair's Action-Centred Leadership model are commonly represented by
three overlapping circles, which is a trademark belonging to John Adair, and used here with
his permission. Adair's famous 'three circles' model is one of the most recognisable and
iconic symbols within management theory. When you refer to this diagram for teaching and
training purposes, please attribute it to John Adair, and help preserve the integrity and
origins of this excellent model.
When leading a team, you
should focus on:
 achieving the task
 managing the team or
group
 managing individuals
Your responsibilities as a manager for achieving the task are:
 identify aims and vision for the group, purpose, and direction - define the activity (the
task)
 identify resources, people, processes, systems and tools (inc. financials,
communications, IT)
 create the plan to achieve the task - deliverables, measures, timescales, strategy and
tactics
 establish responsibilities, objectives, accountabilities and measures, by agreement
and delegation
 set standards, quality, time and reporting parameters
 control and maintain activities against parameters
Session Guide 2.1.2 Leading effective teams
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monitor and maintain overall performance against plan
report on progress towards the group's aim
review, re-assess, adjust plan, methods and targets as necessary
Your responsibilities as a manager for the group are:
 establish, agree and communicate standards of performance and behaviour
 establish style, culture, approach of the group - soft skill elements
 monitor and maintain discipline, ethics, integrity and focus on objectives
 anticipate and resolve group conflict, struggles or disagreements
 assess and change as necessary the balance and composition of the group
 develop team-working, cooperation, morale and team-spirit
 develop the collective maturity and capability of the group - progressively increase
group freedom and authority
 encourage the team towards objectives and aims - motivate the group and provide a
collective sense of purpose
 identify, develop and agree team- and project-leadership roles within group
 enable, facilitate and ensure effective internal and external group communications
 identify and meet group training needs
 give feedback to the group on overall progress; consult with, and seek feedback and
input from the group
Your responsibilities as a manager for each individual are:
 understand the team members as individuals - personality, skills, strengths, needs,
aims and fears
 assist and support individuals - plans, problems, challenges, highs and lows
 identify and agree appropriate individual responsibilities and objectives
 give recognition and praise to individuals - acknowledge effort and good work
 where appropriate, reward individuals with extra responsibility, advancement and
status
 identify, develop and use each individual's capabilities and strengths
 train and develop individual team members
 develop individual freedom and authority
Importantly as well, Adair set out these core functions of leadership and says they are vital to
the Action-Centred Leadership model:
 Planning - seeking information, defining tasks, setting aims
 Initiating - briefing, task allocation, setting standards
 Controlling - maintaining standards, ensuring progress, ongoing decision-making
 Supporting - individuals' contributions, encouraging, team spirit, reconciling, morale
 Informing - clarifying tasks and plans, updating, receiving feedback and interpreting
 Evaluating - feasibility of ideas, performance, enabling self assessment
The Action-Centred Leadership model therefore does not stand alone; it must be part of an
integrated approach to managing and leading, and which should include a strong emphasis
on applying these principles through training.
More information available via John Adair's website: http://www.johnadair.co.uk/
Session Guide 2.1.2 Leading effective teams
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