Chapter 7 Getting Your Team to Act Like a Team (part 2) 

By Yue-er Luo, Erik Duerring & William Byham

Stage Four: Insist That Teams Develop a Charter

A team charter, driven by the leader with participation from all team members, will formalize the team’s:
• Purpose.
• Accountabilities.
• Goals.
• Ground rules.

Spending time up front discussing the charter will pay off later by reducing miscommunication and wasted time in meetings.

Possible Elements of a Team Charter
- What is the team’s purpose?
- What is the team’s final product?
- How will the team measure its success?
- Are there any deadlines, and if so, what are they?
- What types of decisions can team members make independently?
- What are the ground rules for interacting and collaborating with each other (e.g., following through on promises)?
- Are there any budgetary or other resource limitations?
- Are there restrictions on the team’s final recommendations or decisions? If so, what are they?
-What types of training or support will be provided to team members?
-How often will the team meet, and how will meetings be run? What preparations will be expected for team meetings (e.g., agenda, pre-reading materials, etc.)?

Stage Five: Teach Leaders to Collaborate Across Teams

A challenge in China is getting teams to work collectively. Team leaders must be encouraged to collaborate among themselves. And again, this must be done in the context of the strong leader–follower culture. Members of different teams will cooperate if they see their respective team leaders cooperating. This can be accomplished by tying rewards and credit to leaders’ inter-team collaboration. Credit given by a top leader is particularly valued in a face-oriented culture. And so senior managers—expatriate or otherwise—have an important role here. As senior managers, they need to consciously manage the sharing of credit among teams.

There is a subtle difference between credit and recognition. Recognition is similar to praise, which is good but not strong enough in the Chinese context. In Chinese thinking, credit refers to the leader’s recognition of the team’s efforts and results. Chinese want to know how they contributed to the leader’s success rather than simply being thanked for their efforts. The leader needs to share the credit—across teams and managers.

Managing Credit Among Team Leaders

Kent, the CEO of a transportation company in Southern China, knows that three core teams—sales, logistics, and public and government relations—must collaborate if the company is to meet its targets.

On the surface it appears that the sales department should get the most credit for the sales revenue. But Kent knows that without the logistics and public relations departments, the sales would not have been realized. The PR department plays an important role in maintaining good relations with the local government, which regulates the transportation industry. In addition, a great deal of business comes from the government sector. The logistics department is responsible for daily operations. So these two supporting functions make a significant, although less visible, contribution.

Kent knows that he must be careful to balance the credit among these three teams, each of which is headed by an experienced local manager. So, in meetings Kent lavishes credit on the logistics and PR groups, explaining how their hard work and contributions are essential to the company. As a result, these two supporting departments feel that in the eyes of their leader, they are not inferior to the sales department; in fact, they are respected as catalysts that drive the business. Kent knows this balancing act is important in China to keep these teams working hard and collaborating.

Take Action with Underachievers

Not all team members will be able to progress at the same speed. In fact, some may show little progress at all, so there is one aspect of Chinese leadership style that expatriate managers should not adapt: tolerating underachievers.

No matter how poor a team member’s performance, Chinese managers typically prefer not to drop anyone from their teams—particularly if the underachiever has proven to be a loyal follower. Such tolerance for poor performance is not appropriate for Western companies seeking to develop performance-driven operations in China.

Poor performers need to be handled delicately in China, but they should not be tolerated. Strategies to turn around their behavior or, if necessary, to arrange for their exit need to be developed. Chapter 10 delves more deeply into dealing with poor performers.

Yue-er Luo, Erik Duerring & William Byham, DDI World 

© Development Dimensions International, Inc., MMVIII. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Development Dimensions International, Inc.

This is the second and last part of Chapter 7 of the book Leadership Success in China: An Expatriate’s Guide. Last week we published the first part of the chapter. Leadership Success in China: An Expatriate’s Guide is written for expatriate leaders who want to jump-start their China career and quickly get up and running in their new environment. For more information about the book or to purchase it, click here.