Relationships among team members and between different teams are crucial to good team performance and must be well managed by team leaders, who are responsible for fostering good relationships and addressing problematic ones within their teams. Getting along with others is much more important in team structures because team members can't get work done without the help of other teammates. For example, studies show that it's not the surgeon but the interactions between the surgeon and all operating room team members that determine surgical outcomes. However, at twenty hospitals, 60 percent of the operating room team members—nurses, technicians, and other doctors—agreed with the statement, “In the ORs here, it is difficult to speak up if I perceive a problem with patient care.”45 And when operating room team members don't speak up, serious mistakes can occur no matter how talented the surgeon. Consequently, surgeons are using “safety pauses” to better involve members of their surgical teams. The surgeon will pause, ask if anyone has concerns or comments, and address them if need be. Studies show that safety pauses reduce mistakes, such as operating on the wrong leg or beginning surgery with key surgical instruments missing.46
Team leaders are also responsible for managing external relationships. Team leaders act as the bridge or liaison between their teams and other teams, departments, and divisions in a company. For example, if a member of Team A complains about the quality of Team B's work, Team A's leader is responsible for solving the problem by initiating a meeting with Team B's leader. Together, these team leaders are responsible for getting members of both teams to work together to solve the problem. If it's done right, the problem is solved without involving company management or blaming members of the other team.47
So the team leader's job involves a different set of skills than traditional management jobs typically do. For example, a Hewlett-Packard ad for a team leader position says, “Job seeker must enjoy coaching, working with people, and bringing about improvement through hands-off guidance and leadership.”48 Team leaders who fail to understand how their roles are different from those of traditional managers often struggle in their jobs. A team leader at Texas Instruments said, “I didn't buy into teams, partly because there was no clear plan on what I was supposed to do…. I never let the operators [team members] do any scheduling or any ordering of parts because that was mine. I figured as long as I had that, I had a job.”49
You will learn more about teams in Chapter 10.