In order to have a fully effective team it is very important to understand the stages of development of a team. The five stages of team development are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. The forming stage is the initial entry or the meet and greet of the team members. Some may also call this the “polite stage” because members seem to be very pleasant and want to make a good first impression. Members are interested in getting to know each other and discover what is considered acceptable behavior, and what role they will play on the team. In this stage you can really see the excitement and anticipation based on the fact that everything is new. The next stage is the storming stage which I feel is the most important of all the five stages. The honeymoon is over. In this stage emotions and tensions are high among the group members. People have revealed their true colors; who they really are and their worth to the team. Disagreements occur along with the formation of cliques or partners within the team that want to impose their preferences on the entire group. Coupled with demands of premature performance expectations and the before mentioned emotions a hostile environment can be created. It is very critical that management needs to do a lot of coaching to get people to work past their differences. The team has moved into the norming stage when the members really start to come together as a coordinated unit. The experiences that they have had during the storming stage have now led to them finding a balance and a sense of normalcy. There is an understanding of one another, and what is expected from each member of the group. This also can be a deceiving stage due to the fact that things are going so well the leader may feel that their team has fully matured. The team has fully matured when they are in the performing stage of team development. The structure is stable, and the members are motivated by team goals and are generally satisfied. The team can adapt and conquer conflict without the assistance of the team lead. The finally stage is the adjourning stage where the team can disband quickly to resume their regular roles, then come back together as needed without having to go back through the previous stages on their next assignment.

In our case study Christine did not have a full understanding of team development. If so she would have realized that when the group met for the first time they were in the forming stage and that one member, Mike showed signs of possibly being a hindrance to the success of the team. His comment when she suggested that the group meet every day before class was “I’ll miss my Happy Harry show on television” I really feel that Christine only faced one problem and that is how she handled Mike. Her team was clearly in the storming stage never able to move forward due to the lack of effort that Mike was putting forth. As we discussed in class if you encounter pushback as a leader you have to eliminate at in its very beginning stages. If not done in the beginning it will fester and grow into something that cannot be contained and stopped later on. By having a one on one with Mike letting him know from the very beginning the norms or her expectations of him as a group member it would have set the foundations for success. The one on one with Mike should have come after her expectation meeting with the team in the forming stage. This way everyone sees that they need to be accountable for their piece of the project. I remember when I first became a manager/leader I had a power point presentation with my team that outlined what our goals and expectations were as a team. I felt that by doing this it set the parameters for our team and how things would be handled. It is very crucial for the leader during the storming stage to be able to manage the emotions and perceptions of their team. Christine’s other team had no problems within the group in the storming stage. Christine in my opinion then feel short by allowing Mike to continue to hand her notes of things he wanted to say in the meetings that he consistently missed. By accepting his rough draft notes she was accepting his behavior. This could have been a bigger issue for her if she had other team members begin to realize that Mike is not carrying his load and question why should I. Christine’s final fault in being an effective leader is that she let too much time elapse by waiting until week five. As a leader you cannot let one individual jeopardize the common goal of the entire team. The rest of the team had their parts of the project completed but yet are possibly going to lose out on receiving a high grade because of the social loafing of Mike. That is unacceptable. In conclusion Christine could have used the option that was given to her earlier on by her professor which was that if she could not resolve an issue with a team member that she could escalate it to her. Sometimes as a leader pride gets in the way of sound judgment. There is nothing wrong with admitting I cannot resolve this problem on my own and have to go to a higher source for resolution. I think by doing this Mike would have been forced to corporate within the group or left to do the assignment all by himself depending on what the professor deems fit. The one thing that I have learned in leadership is that you are going to make mistakes. The good leaders learn from their mistakes and do not duplicate them. Christine hopefully will learn from this situation and move forward to improvement.