Team Development, Emotional Intelligence, and Coaching

Tuckman's Five Stages of Team Development

The primary challenges of organizational teams stem from the need for individuals with different roles and tasks to come together, communicate effectively, collaborate, and essentially work as one unit toward a common goal. The main challenges involve leadership, empathy, and commitment. Tuckman's five stages of team development address these challenges by focusing the team systematically on fulfilling the demands of each phase, from beginning to end. The five stages are: (a) forming, (b) storming, (c) norming, (d) performing, and (e) adjourning (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977).

The first stage—forming—focuses on the moment when the group comes together for the first time. Typically, each member will have worries and concerns. The forming stage is the period during which these anxieties should be stated: every member should be allowed to communicate them. The goal of this stage is for team members to focus on one another rather than on the work itself, and to show empathy toward one another. This builds positive relationships, trust, and security.

The second stage—storming—is where the team's leaders emerge. The third stage—norming—is where the group begins to come together as a single unit, with all members feeling comfortable about their roles and what is expected of them. The fourth stage—performing—is where the team begins executing at a high level; the goal of this stage is for the team to start achieving its goals and objectives. The fifth stage—adjourning—is where the team has finished its task and the work is done. Before disbanding, however, team members thank one another for their hard work and support so that everyone leaves on a positive note and feels good about the experience of teamwork, in case they are called back together again in the future.

Emotional Intelligence and Team Effectiveness

Emotional intelligence (EI) is critical to a team's success. Individual members must develop their EI in order to be better teammates and to understand the needs of others. An EI model guides a member's progression from independent worker to team player by providing a framework for developing this necessary skill. Salovey and Mayer (1990) developed an EI model in which EI was defined as "the capacity to reason about emotions, and of emotions, to enhance thinking," including the "abilities to accurately perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth" (p. 197). Their ability-based model shows how emotions can function as sources of information that a member can use to obtain a better understanding of what another team member is saying or needing. The EI model empowers the individual to become more of a team player by being more responsive to others' needs through the application of EI skills.

The EI competency most important to this process is understanding emotions—one of the four main abilities in the ability-based model by Salovey and Mayer (1990). This competency indicates that in order to be an effective communicator and team player, one must understand emotions: where they come from, what they mean, and how they can be used effectively. Without a comprehensive understanding of emotions and the life of emotions, one will not make a good team member, and will come across as unsympathetic or uncaring. Implicit in this competency is the idea of self-awareness—another important competency that helps one understand one's own emotions as well.