As a leader, it is incumbent upon me to manage my team in every way. The word team has lots of different meanings for people. Some definitions require a team to be a temporary, project based group. Others do not make the distinction. I do not think it matters. In my mind, a team is a group of people who work together regularly for a common goal, and is not limited by time, space, or organizational boundary.

There are the five phases of development that teams go through, whether it is a short term assignment or a long term functional group. Those phases are Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.  Any change to that team “resets” the status quo, and sends the team through those phases again to some degree. This could be due to staff changes, a reorganization, attrition, major shifts in work assignments, or a host of other reasons. It is my job to guide my team through those phases of team development, and emerge on the other side as a better, stronger team.

Staffing changes are one of the most devastating changes to the team balance. Losing someone the team depends on in any way upsets the balance, changing the work and the way it is done for each individual member. Adding new players to the mix changes the political landscape, and a grab for power is only natural. A newly forming department is a chance to move up the organizational ladder. The team will be storming until a steady state is achieved.

Shifts in leadership give the team an entirely new tone, and this is driven not only by those at the top, but the relationships he or she fosters around him. How does the leader treat their team members? How well do they get along with partners outside the team? Does the leader delegate all phases of work, or are they in the trenches with their team, achieving their goals together? All this affects what people think about when commuting to the workplace.

Changes to the type and volume of work also disrupt team balance. A large project is a chance to prove yourself. New technologies are an opportunity to distinguish yourself apart from other developers. When too much work is assigned, team members struggle to balance out the overload evenly to minimize their personal stress levels.

My job is to manage each person on the team through these inflection points. Are there things that interest them that they are assigned to do? Are they challenged in their position enough, but not too much? Is there a planned career path? Are there defined ways for them to show success, and allowed to fail (with the ability to recover) for personal improvement? Do they enjoy coming into work every day?

Sometimes it is not managing the work in front of someone that is important, but the things around them. Are they finding ways to improve performance of themselves and those around them? How well does the team work with other teams? Are they disconnected, does the output of one team become the input of another, or is the process shared? Are meetings limited to the boundaries of your team? Are the successes shared across teams? Are the areas for improvement owned across teams as well? Are we measuring our work so that we can show success, improvement, and areas to work on next? Do you define your team as people only in your department, or has the definition of your “team” been broadened to include other teams you work with regularly?

These are the things that occupy my mind lately. Projects will constantly come and go. It is the team, it’s members, and how they work together that will make the work and it’s results better.

There are a lot of takeaways that I have brought back to the US with me after such a great trip to see Accenture in Bangalore, India:

So it seems that I forgot to post a link to the photos I took of the first part of my week in Bangalore, India. You can follow that link and see India, or you can go to my flickr account and see all of my photo tags from the last two years. Leave some feedback and let me know what you think.

Rahgu came out to the hotel for Sunday bunch with Laurent and me. He brought his beautiful wife and cute kids. We talked about work, and vacations, and next steps. It was a nice send-off to a very productive and action-packed week.

The flights home went smoothly. I sorted through my photos, and worked on a lessons learned and next steps PowerPoint deck. I also watched a whole bunch of movies to help pass the time. I decided to try to stay up the whole flight like I did on the way to India. I thought I would adjust to the time difference easier. It worked. The only problem is that I caught Laurent’s cold, so I have the sniffles now.

I have posted some of the better photos of the Mysore trip onto flickr. There are a lot of them, but that is because it was a long day, and we saw a lot of great things. I like flickr. Itis very easy to use, and the pro account has unlimited space. I also like the slideshow feature. Take a look at the photos, and leave me some feedbackwith what you think.

The drive to Mysore was a bit longer than expected. We were told that it would take anywhere from two to four hours, the most common answer being two and a half hours. It took us about three and a half. One thing I did notice is that the space between cities is more urbanized than I expected. We did encounter some more rural areas, such as rice fields, but much less than I expected. India is growing very quickly.

Our first destination in Mysore was the Sri Chamundeshwari Temple. We parked the car and hiked up a huge stone staircase. We walked through a few side streets liked with simple houses, and watched the “free range monkeys” climb all over the rooftops. We turned a corner, and all of a sudden there was this huge temple in front of us. It was very impressive. We took a number of photos, decided we did not want to wait the hour to get inside, and went into a smaller side temple. The Hindu religion is not one that I know very much about. Laurent recommended a number of books that would be good for me to read.

Next stop was a brief photo opportunity at the Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel. Our driver said that this used to be the home of one of the Princes, and that now it has been turned into a hotel. We took a couple of snapshots, admired the beautiful sunflowers, and moved on to the zoo.

It had been a long time since I have been to a zoo. I have been to the drive-through safari with my nephew earlier in the year, but walking through a zoo is much different. It seems much more personal, and allows you to connect to the local residents a bit more. Laurent and his wife have been visiting zoos wherever they travel, and find that it is a fun thing to do and an opportunity to get away from more touristy location. The Mysore Zoo was very nice. They had lots of local animals, particularly birds and snakes. They did have African elephants, white tigers, gorillas, giraffes, rhinos, leopards, and king cobras. The short walk through the zoo was 3 kilometers. It was a bit hot, and at the end I was ready for lunch and a cold soda.

Lunch was at a very nice hotel within the town proper. It seems that hotels have the safest restaurants for foreigners’ delicate stomachs. They had an international menu, and the food was good. The coke was cold, and the seat was comfortable. It gave us time to rest and rejuvenate, and prepare for the trip through Mysore Palace.

As we approached the center of town, we turned a corner, and Mysore Palace was on our right. It was an impressive sight. Our driver parked by the side entrance, and let us out. He had coordinated for someone to give us a tour. We took photos of the palace exterior, then had to check our cameras and our shoes, as they were not allowed on the inside. The tour inside took about an hour and a half. The guide was very knowledgeable. He told us all about the paintings, the hand carved mahogany and teak doors, and the history of the maharajahs that lived there. The most impressive room was the audience hall, with its gorgeous view of the palace, its colorful painted ceiling, and the overall architecture of the room. Other interests were the pure gold thrones that the maharajahs use atop elephants, and the pure silver doors that are used as entrances to their private audience hall.

After the tour, we made our way to one of the temples on the palace grounds. On the way to the temple, we came across the elephants and their riders preparing for the parade that evening. One of them reached out his trunk and smelled my hand! This is considered good luck, as elephants are associated with the god Shiva. The only problem with that is that the elephant must have been sniffing around some mud or dirty water, as my hand and pants got covered in brown mud. But that’s okay, I think I need the luck.

After the temple, we collected our shoes and our camera, and went shopping. We went to a local silk shop. Laurent wanted to see if he could find something for his children. The first place we went sold mostly bulk silk, not clothes. We moved on to a Cauvery store, the only company that can sell sandalwood. I bought white wood statues for Nick and John, and a small sandalwood statue of Shiva for myself. The driver took us to another silk clothing store for Laurent, and he was much more successful. He found something for both of his kids there. As we got into the car, the rain started. We were afraid it would ruin our plans to get photos of the palace all lit up at night.

We finished up our shopping at 6pm, so we had some time to kill until the lighting and the parade at 7:30pm. We headed back over to the hotel where we had lunch, and spent some time at the bar. The beer was very cold, and very refreshing after a long day. Laurent and I passed the time with some interesting conversation. We did not want to spend a lot of time at the palace again, just enough time to get some photos. We made our way back to the car, and the driver fought the gridlock and the rain to get us to the palace. We hopped out, took a few quick snapshots of the main gate and the palace, saw the tail end (don’t mind the pun) of the elephant parade, and hopped back in the car to head back to the hotel after another long day.

With all the rain we got, it took us four hours to get back to the hotel. The roads throughout Bangalore flooded. This is an example of the need for improved infrastructure. I know this is the monsoon season, but the three times we got rain this week all flooded the streets to the point of real danger. This is different than the gaps of power from the electric companies. A man died during the first rainstorm. Cars were washed away during the second storm. I was afraid that we would have problems getting to the airport the next day. Bangalore is expanding very fast. I hope the infrastructure catches up soon. I really like this town.