Sustaining Leadership

In business, leading teams of people successfully is a critical skill. At the heart of every successful organization or group is the driving force of effective leadership. And while project managers can effectively harness a team’s energy to reach a particular goal, sustained leadership over time requires a much larger investment.

This article sheds light on possible leadership style combinations that might promote team harmony and success over time. The stages of team formation are outlined, followed by the bases of power and authority. A final note about the links of power to sustained leadership rounds out the discussion.

Team Development Stages

In the 1970s, Psychologist B.W. Tuckman introduced the stages of team development. Tuckman’s model suggests that the path to team performance passes by four development stages. These are: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing (Figure 1).

 Figure 1: Team development key stages.

Forming is the stage when team members meet and start to work together for the first time. On a construction project, a team is typically made up of various stakeholders, including the project sponsor, architects, engineers, general contractor, trade partners, authority having jurisdiction and, finally, a commissioning agent.

Storming is the stage when team members start to “compete&…