Leading and Managing Effective Teams with McKinsey & Company

This report discusses the importance of building and managing effective teams in an organization with a special focus on the models of team building and development, review and assessment of team capabilities, strategies and tools needed to manage multiple and virtual teams with added context of McKinsey & Company. It also highlights the role of ethics and values in business and the personal perspective of the author's approach to become a successful ethical and values-based manager and leader in the future.

Leading and Managing
Effective Teams

INTRODUCTION
In today's increasingly digital and ever changing business world, teamwork is a very
important factor in an organisation's success as workforce coordination is vital for maintaining
productivity and operational efficiency in a company. Managers and leaders in the organisational
hierarchy are responsible for not only managing teams but making sure the teams engage in
healthy competition and their working aligns with the vision of the company. McKinsey &
Company is one of the world's biggest management consultation firms founded in 1926 by
James O. McKinsey headquartered New York and over the years it has set numerous examples in
the field of people and team management (Al-Dhuhouri, and et.al., 2020).
This report will discuss the process of team management in detail with a special focus on
the models of team building and development, review and assessment of team capabilities
strategies and tools needed to manage multiple and virtual teams with added context of
McKinsey & Company. This report will also include personal reflection of the author on account
of becoming an ethical and successful team manager in the future.
MAIN BODY
Leading teams and individuals in an organization is one of the most crucial tasks of a
leader and manager as well coordinated teams and skilled individuals help a business innovate
faster, reach company targets efficiently and helps course correct the errors in operations much
more quicker. In order to manage a highly efficient team, the behaviours that make the team
tick must be analysed and inculcated and this is majorly done and also advised by managers at
McKinsey using the Belbin Team Roles which are specific behavioural attributes needed by
every team to attain success.
Belbin Team roles divide the roles needed in a team setting in 3 broad categories, first
one being action oriented roles containing the Sharper, Implementer and Completer Finisher.
Sharper is the focused drive behind the team. The sharper keeps the team driven and determined
and does not buckle under work pressure. This behaviour is concerned with achievement of
targets at all costs (Franck, and et.al., 2018). The Implementer role is needed in a team setup as
an implementer is primarily tasked with preparing the strategy of the team to aid in their goal
achievement. The ideas brought to the team are converted into plans of actions by the
implementer. Quality checks and final work polish is important for a well functioning team and

the Completer Finisher usually operates at the end of every task and scrutinizes the entire process
and final product for error removal and quality polishing.
The second category of Belbin is people oriented roles containing Coordinator, Team-
Worker and Resource Investigator. A Coordinator is responsible for setting and distributing the
overall workload to the remaining team members which best suit their skills and behaviours.
Managers have to be be careful of these individuals delegating most of the work to sit idle.
Team-Workers are the glue of the team, individual with this behaviour play completely by team
rules and perform every task keeping the team in mind (Li, 2018). Team workers however do
face problem making tough but often times, needed decisions regarding the team. Resource
Investigator is a trait associated with researching and finding ideas and information for a team to
execute the task at hand. A resource investigator is enthusiastic and an opportunity explorer.
The third and final category of Belbin is thought oriented roles. It defines the team roles
of Plant, Monitor Evaluator and Specialist. Plants are the brains behind the team's problem
finding and their problem solving system. They are creative and unconventional thinkers which
help managers in solving critical errors in the team's working. Monitor Evaluator behaviour is
associated with critical analysis of team member's and their workings under a non biased
mindset. Team members with this trait can be cold and too harsh sometimes but are needed to
take tough decisions to keep efficiency high. In order to achieve targets and goals, teams need
specialised knowledge in a variety of relevant domains. A specialist team role is concerned with
helping the team by supplying expertise in a particular area.
Apart from establishing team roles and needed behaviour with the Belbin 9 roles model,
managers and leaders also need to manage multiple teams at different locations, remote working
teams and even virtual teams which prove to be big challenges. However, there are many
strategies and approaches a manager can take to effectively manage multiple and virtual
teams such as establishing a strong and routine regulating presence across all team locations.
Managers at McKinsey keep employees on their toes and make sure to hold regular conferences
or physical visits to team locations for regular feedback (Mark, 2018). Multiple teams whether
they operate at the same or different locations each follow their own personalized procedures and
operation processes. Managers must strive to keep the operational basics between all teams the
same for ease of evaluation and promote efficiency. For virtual team management , managers
should make sure that the equipment provided to their teams for online work and

communication are top notch and not bound by errors. In the online world, physical channels of
work and communication do not work and as such managers should delegate the work properly.
McKinsey employs multiple social media and website related channels for online team
communication.
For the continued success and survival of an organization, simply managing teams aren't
enough and much is expected from managers and leaders of world class organizations like
McKinsey. An organization in today's time needs to develop and build their teams with a
futuristic outlook with a keen focus on developing team capabilities. When it comes to overall
team development, companies should focus on both providing teams with valuable experience
and industry exposure along with proper training to increase professional skills (Ni, Zheng and
Liang, 2021). Current team development and foundations for meeting future team-building
requirements is managed and analysed by many big firms like McKinsey using Tuckman's
Model of Group Development. Tuckman's model helps understand the dynamic of teamwork
and the entire process which every team goes through on the corporate ladder.
Tuckman's model of group development mainly lists 5 stages in the development and
evolution of teams, Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. The Forming
stage is the first and foremost stage of a team's formation and during this time, the team
members display excess positivity and team interaction is high as members get to know each
other (Scharding, 2018). Rule formation takes priority over actual team-work due to which
managers and leaders are to control the team members strictly with personal supervision.
The Storming stage is where most companies struggle as the teams undergo a series of
conflicts as the individual egos and working styles of members clash with each other. Teams do
not function properly at this stage and many teams stop working altogether. McKinsey's
management consultation advises not to skip this stage as conflicts occurring at later stages are
much more lethal.
The Norming Stage occurs when the members of the team develop respect for their
leaders and acquire new skills and strengths which makes quarrel solving much more easier.
Teams are much more productive at this stage and regression in team cycle is easily remedied by
better problem solving skills.

The Performing stage is the most productive and happy cycle of Tuckman's model as the
team members become self reliant and acquire the highest skills needed to perform the job in an
optimum way. The coordination, determination and efficiency of the team is all time high.
The Adjourning stage is the final evolutionary step in Tuckman's model as each team is
formed for completion of a specific goal and after that goal has been achieved, the team is
officially disbanded with a lingering sense of loss among the members. Using Tuckman's model
is very helpful in building current teams and fulfilling future team requirements as it helps
establish clear cut steps in team development cycle and enables managers and leaders to track
and analyse team development.
As a management consultation firm, McKinsey provides it's clients with a perfect
solution to strike a balance between the professional skills needed to execute jobs and the
experience needed to function in a team. An organization uses a variety of tools and techniques
to develop balanced teams with respect to skills and experiences such as treating the teams as an
ecosystem where personal relationships developed in off-site environment is prioritized. This
helps build teams with robust relationships and great communication skills both for the present
and the future (Shirey, White-Williams and Hites, 2019). Off-site meetings and communication
also changes the straight line thinking of employees and makes them become more innovative in
team setting.
In order to impart skills to the team members and make teams experienced, there are
variety of training tools available such as team building training which focuses on improving
employee bonds to promote healthy and positive work relationships and workplace culture team
training which is undertaken to provide work experience to the teams and to make them align
with the company's vision and values (Surdam, 2020). In McKinsey Soft skills team training
and technical team training are both conducted in equal balance to help teams develop
seamlessly smooth intercommunication and coordination while also equipping them with skills
necessary to execute operational tasks.
By using Tuckman's model and analysing the teams currently at the storming stage and
battling with inner conflicts, a company can find tricky business conflict case studies which can
then be used to conduct conflict resolution team training.

Important ethical core values are key to not only managing teams effectively in an
organization but also in all aspects of life. Ethical and values-based managers and leaders are not
just concerned with team management and target achieving but are responsible for the culture,
environment prevailing in the organization and set standards for how human resource personnel
in a business should be guided and nurtured. Ethical Leadership is paramount for effectively
leading teams and building a respectable climate in a company where everyone is treated fairly,
addressed in a non-biased manner and standards of personal integrity is a priority.
Ethical and values-based leader uses a variety of strategies and techniques to deliver on
desired results while setting standards of personal and organizational values based on a common
sense of doing things for the greater good. The style of leadership that the leaders personally
decide to follow in the company structure and the theory according to which they deal with the
people involved with and below them in the organizational hierarchy dictates the ethical and
value standard that they propagate in the company (Tu, and et.al., 2020). It is also important to
study team structure with respect to Tuckman's model and study behavioural traits with respect
to Belbin's roles.
The author seeks to become a manager and leader in the future who prioritizes personal
as well as business ethics and is values-based to his core. The author's personal ethical compass
as a leader will be determined by choosing the theories and styles of leadership which he thinks
best serve the purpose of leading and managing effective teams with a sense of good in mind,
both for people and the company. The author neither believes in the perceived notion of leaders
being born rather than being made nor does he believe that a certain key set of traits have to be
present for one to become a successful leader in a company as many people with traits of
leadership such as charisma and determination never pursue leadership roles. As such, great man
theories and trait theories of leadership do not form a basis for his style as in order to focus on
ethics and values, it is important for a leader to be humble. Instead the author will follow
Behavioural and Relationship theory of leadership as true leaders are not born but they are
made with proper guidance and experience in a company (Zhu, and et.al., 2019). Relationship
style is particularly effective in promoting and holding high ethical and moral values as it puts
emphasis on the equation shared between a leader and follower and focuses equally on team
satisfaction and fulfilment as much as achievement of goals which lines up with personal values
of the author. The author will also employ Democratic style of leadership as it's the best and

most effective form of leadership for focusing on ethics and values as it allows employee
participation and helps create a group approach where all individuals get to engage and exercise
power in a fair manner. The author also believes that his strong ethical and core values being
taught and inculcated in people under him with a Coaching style of leadership can also be
effective as it helps individual development in a company in direct supervision which also helps
build strong relations based on shared values and skills.
The author also aims to collect and nurture skills and approaches which will help him
manage teams without compromising on ethical and values based core. Studying Tuckman's
model to gain knowledge about the various stages that a team goes through to effectively manage
conflicts and shifts in leadership approaches and analysis behaviours of team members using
Belbin's 9 roles in order to gain insights of weaknesses and strengths of team components will
allow the author to set standards of required ethical behaviour without compromising the
organizational vision. Encouraging employee participation and exercises, setting work culture
and environment standards by analysing the internal environment of a company and making sure
the teams and their members have access to a robust system of performance based incentives will
be the priority of the author as a ethical and values-based manager in the future.
CONCLUSION
The above report discussed in detail about the importance of the building and team
management in an organization and the various strategies, tools and techniques used by
managers and leaders to effectively do the same with added context of McKinsey which is a
consultancy giant and deals with team related problems were also duly listed. Belbin's 9
behavioural roles was described to study the various traits that are found in teams and how to
lead and keep track of these behaviours individually and as a group. Tuckman's model of group
development was analysed to help study the various stages of Team Development for ease of
management. The role ethics and values play in business was highlighted along with the personal
perspective of the author's approach to become a successful ethical and values-based manager
and leader in the future . It was established that leadership theories and styles affect the moral
and ethical standards in a company highly and Democratic styles and theories putting people
before authority like Relationship and coaching are highly effective.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al-Dhuhouri, and et.al., 2020, October. Enhancing our understanding of the relationship
between leadership, team characteristics, emotional intelligence and their effect on team
performance: A Critical Review. In International Conference on Advanced Intelligent
Systems and Informatics (pp. 644-655). Springer, Cham.
Franck, and et.al., 2018. Team resource management and quality of care. In The Organizational
Context of Nursing Practice (pp. 217-237). Springer, Cham.
Li, P.Y., 2018. Top management team characteristics and firm internationalization: The
moderating role of the size of middle managers. International Business Review, 27(1),
pp.125-138.
Mark, A., 2018. Working in teams. In The Clinical Directorate (pp. 1-16). CRC Press.
Ni, D., Zheng, X. and Liang, L.H., 2021. Rethinking the role of team mindfulness in team
relationship conflict: A conflict management perspective. Journal of Organizational
Behavior.
Scharding, T., 2018. This is Business Ethics: An Introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Shirey, M.R., White-Williams, C. and Hites, L., 2019. Integration of authentic leadership lens
for building high performing interprofessional collaborative practice teams. Nursing
administration quarterly, 43(2), pp.101-112.
Surdam, D.G., 2020. Business Ethics from the 19th Century to Today. Springer Books.
Tu, and et.al., 2020. Differentiating two facets of trust in colleagues: How ethical leadership
influences cross-team knowledge sharing. Leadership & Organization Development
Journal.
Zhu, and et.al., 2019. Ethical leadership with both “moral person” and “moral manager” aspects:
Scale development and cross-cultural validation. Journal of Business Ethics, 158(2),
pp.547-565.