Strong willed members of a team can be a positive influence on the team although it will take a skilled leader to get the best of a strong willed member of the team. Every team leader should be looking at how to harness the best qualities of the individual members of the team for the benefit of the team.
There are strong willed members that can bulldoze their opinions into the scheme of things. This may not augur well for the team as a whole because if decisions are influenced by force of personality, wrong choices can be taken and it is the whole team that will pay the price. A good team should be such that even the most gentle of personalities should be able to make a contribution that will benefit everybody.
Setting Up A System of Contribution
The problem with having a strong willed member of the team is that others might be forced into going into their shells to the point where only his or her opinion would be heard. The strong willed has to be kept under a form of leash so that everyone would have a chance to shine. Alternatively, others can be made to realize that their opinions matter by setting up the team in such a way that the voice of the strong willed can only be one voice amongst many.
A lot depends on the team leader and the atmosphere he or she wants to nurture in the team so that the right spirit could be engendered. One system is to set up sub teams that will limit the initial influence of the strong willed member to the group he or she belongs. This would give an equal platform to contribute to members of the other group.
Place the strong willed in a group where he or she is the most junior in rank. This will give those in that group to feel compelled to have a voice by virtue of their official position in the team as a whole. He or she will still have his or her say but there would be some level of assurance that the others in the same group would not be bulldozed into accepting his or her opinion.
Give the Strong Willed Someone to Bring Up
The responsibility this would engender in the strong willed will add to keep be occupied as he or she looks to build up that member. This could be more effective if they are in a team of two. He or she will not have to bulldoze others and his or her primary care would be to look after and assist his ward. Making the strong willed a point man in a subtask that takes him or her away from the center will give others room to build up their own sense of self.
Your main goal as a leader is that the team achieves set goals. It is work with the tools at your disposal to bring this about. Making the strong willed to work for you and the team as a whole is something that is possible. The stress level of the team will be kept at a minimum especially in tense situations.
Make them Assistants to Sub-Leaders
Making them answer direct to others is another way to keep them effectively productive for the team. They will have to comply to the person ahead of them and only do that which has been given to them. Their charge is limited and extending themselves as a matter of self-will would be eliminated. As long as there are clear delineation of authority, the strong willed will have a limited space to allow his force of personality to make an issue go his or her way at the detriment of the larger goals of the team.
The makeup of every team is different. The onus lies on the team leader to identify the strength of each member and know how to deploy each to achieve set tasks that will contribute to the overall success of the team. They also have to identify the pitfalls associated with each personality and know how to manage them in such a way that the goals of the team are not jeopardized.
Infighting and anything that will breed it should be nipped at the bud. There should be a balance in group dynamics and this can be engineered by deploying each member not just in their positions of strength but in places where their individual personalities won’t get in each other way. Allowing this to happen could result in the failure of the team as it concerns achieving set goals.
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