SH 21-76 Ranger Handbook

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High Performance Teams

Maybe you think you are alone, fighting the one person fight that many leaders face. However, you would be wrong to assume that the head of a squad, platoon company, gang or other organziation, you arethe only one responsible for coming up with solutions. Leaders should not the only one with a vested interest in making an organziation better. So how does the supervisor or leader create a teaming environment or create a program where everyone works together?

Through High Performance Teams

High performance teams (HPT) are the most effective types of entities. Where groups form, storm and norm, HPTs go further to create a body more capable than any individual. They do this by agreeing to rules and primarily keeping in mind that throughout any process or problem, it’s not about the individual, it’s about the group. This allows the organization to benefit as a whole as each member sacrifices their individual desires. The members do not lose or give up the individuality that makes them unique. It does not stifle individual creativity. What each individual sacrifices are selfish desires and the need for self importance.

HPTs consists of a small number of people with complementary skills. Individual members of HPTs are committed to a common goal and hold themselves mutually accountable. This structure and assembly of individual core competencies, skills and capabilities create a superpower stronger than any one person could ever be.

 The charter defines the standards the HPT will perform under. It provides the purpose vision, norms, goals, expectations and procedures. The charter is the rudder that keeps the group focused and forms the basis for group discipline and accountability. For example, if someone arrives late or makes fun of another member’s contribution, corrections can be made by referring to the charter. Additionally, if the group loses focus, the members can refer to the vision and goals.

While the charter provides the fundamentals other dynamics provide the groups personality and incredible effectiveness. Typically, all groups go through a forming, storming, norming, and performing, but that’s where a group’s effectiveness ends. There is a distinct difference between groups and teams.

Teams build on the four stages by engaging collective performance, positive environment, holding individuals and the entire group accountable for charter guidelines and taking advantage of complementary skills. This again increases effectiveness and provides results associated with the capabilities of the HPT.

Anyone can form an HTP and especially so for highly effective formal and informal leader. Let’s for the sake of relativity, consider a small unit leader. In other words, how can an HPT help?

Start with the charter. A leader can form an HPT from all business units. Since the leader is responsible for welfare of the organization, they may either suggest or take the lead and form the group. Once in the group, the individuals begin to discuss the vision, norms and etc. Such topics to tackle might include policy, manning, training, emergency operations planning, and communication for starters. A multi organizational HPT can bring depth and breadth to a stagnant work project.

The difficulty for some leaders will be to sacrifice their will and turn over problems for a group to solve. That’s natural, but one of the benefits is that security is now part of the organization’s DNA and not just a “necessary evil”.  The effective group will have capabilities beyond just the one leader. The tradeoff is perfect and the results impressive.

Here are recommendations for forming an HPT

Engage-Invite interested parties-canvas your unit or sister organziations and determine who might be interested in joining this group. You may need to build security allies who might help you recruit effective individuals

Focus-Develop a game plan and respect other members time. You can increase effectiveness with a charter as described above

Accountability-Have meeting minutes and document your work and products. Be sure to capture all important decisions and who will act on them. When the group assigns responsibilities to individuals, they tend to come through

Followup-Let the group know you appreciate their efforts. Better yet, assign credit to your group members and ensure the executives and department heads (if they aren’t part of the group) understand who the members are and to buy in on decisions.

Have fun-This is a time to allow creativity. Work within the confines of governing regulations and corporate policy, but allow out of the box thinking.

Army Leadership

The foundations of Army leadership are firmly grounded in history, loyalty to our country’s laws, acountability to authority, and evolving Army doctrine. By applying this knowledge with confidence and

dedication, leaders develop into mature, competent, and multiskilled members of the Nation’s Army. While

Army leaders are responsible for being personally and professionally competent, they are also charged with

the responsibility of developing their subordinates.

To assist leaders to become competent at all levels of leadership, the Army identifies three categories of core leader competencies: lead, develop, and achieve. These competencies and their subsets represent the roles and functions of leaders.

THE FOUNDING DOCUMENTS OF OUR NATIONWhen we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.General George Washington

Seech to the New York Legislature, 1775

 

The Army and its leadership requirements are based on the Nation’s democratic foundations, defined

values, and standards of excellence. The Army recognizes the importance of preserving the time-proven

standards of competence that have distinguished leaders throughout history. Leadership doctrine

acknowledges that societal change, evolving security threats, and technological advances require an everincreasing degree of adaptability.

 

Although America’s history and cultural traditions derive from many parts of the civilized world,

common values, goals, and beliefs are solidly established in the Declaration of Independence and the

Constitution. These documents explain the purpose of our nationhood and detail our specific freedoms and

responsibilities. Every Army Soldier and leader should be familiar with these documents.

 

On 4 July 1776, the Declaration of Independence formally sealed America’s separation from British

rule and asserted her right as an equal participant in dealings with other sovereign nations. Adopted by

Congress in March of 1787, the U.S. Constitution formally established the basic functions of our

democratic government. It clearly explains the functions, as well as the checks and balances between the

three branches of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. The Constitution sets the

parameters for the creation of our national defense establishment, including the legal basis for our Army.

 

Amended to the Constitution in December 1791, the Federal Bill of Rights officially recognized specific

rights for every American citizen, including freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press. At the time of

publication of FM 6-22, there have been 27 amendments to the Constitution. The amendments illustrate the

adaptability of our form of government to societal changes.