Module 2- Developing an Idea- Part 3

Tasks need to be delegated and entrusted to individuals with the best skills in order for the team to work to their true potential.

Teams can be organised in different ways. Teams can work as a hierarchy where there are different levels within the team or organisation or they can work as a democracy where everyone has the same level of power but different responsibilities.

In MyBnk programmes we encourage teams to work as democracies where there is allocation of roles by skills but everyone has an equal say in what happens in the team. Inevitably, there has to be someone who takes on a project manager role but every team member has responsibility for the success of the business.

EXAMPLE- In The Apprentice, there is a Project Manager but Sir Alan Sugar fires anyone in the team who does not contribute to the task. Watch the last 5 minutes of this video to see how Alan Sugar decides to fire more than one team member.

Motivating a Team

MyBnk trainers have to motivate enterprise teams but can also encourage teams to motivate themselves. Young people are their own bosses in enterprise programmes.

Motivation is about encouraging everyone to give their best. Motivated team members care about the success of the business and work better together.

A motivated team is likely to put in extra effort which will lead to increased output and improved quality as team takes greater pride in their work and team members are willing to work harder for longer to help the business succeed.

Financial methods

Teams can be motivated by monetary factors e.g. if team works harder, there will be more sales and larger profit to be split between everyone

Most MyBnk teams opt for profit sharing- where every team member receives a part of any profits made by the business. This is normally done on an equal basis (like a salary) but teams could split the money based on performance or targets e.g. who has sold the most or met their marketing target

Teams could just as easily decide to split profits by how many hours each team member works (flat-rate), rewarding overtime. Or they could introduce pay linked to productivity level where team receive a cut of the profits per item they make (piece rate)

Teams could operate a commission system where staff are rewarded for the number of items they sell. There may even be fringe benefits to motivate the team that could be offered by the trainer e.g. rewards for the team with the highest profit or best teamwork,

However, all motivation methods have advantages and disadvantages e.g. piece rate motivation method may lead to someone reducing the quality of their work so that they can make more pieces in a day

Non-financial methods

Other ways of motivating a MyBnk enterprise teams could be through incentives that have nothing to do with pay.

These methods could include:

Job rotation: team members are switched between different tasks to reduce monotony.

Job enlargement: team members are given more tasks to do of similar difficulty.

Job enrichment: team members are given more interesting and challenging tasks.

Empowerment: team members are given the authority to make decisions about how they do their job.

Putting groups of workers in a team who are responsible together for completing a certain task.

Praise: team members are thanked and recognised for their effort and achievement.

Teams can think about what best motivates them- it may be a combination of different things e.g. making a profit and making a difference. Different team members may need different types of motivation.

Types of Leadership

Leadership is the process of influencing people so that they will perform a variety of tasks in an effective manner.

It is, therefore, crucial to have a strong leader who can inspire and motivate the team.

A leader is different to a manager, since a manager is often appointed to a position of power, whereas a leader may often emerge the best to cope in a given situation. In MyBnk teams, there may be one young person who becomes the leader or it may rotate depending on the situation e.g. someone may be an excellent leader during the production process but someone else may be the leader at the marketplace.

EXAMPLE- TED Talk on everyday leadership and how anyone can be a leader

Young people can make a decision about the type of leader they would like to be and they can find their own style of leadership.

EXAMPLE- David Brent on how not to be a leader.....and how not to motivate others...

Examples of leadership

Autocratic/authoritarian- this means that the people at the top of the team make all the decisions and delegate very little responsibility to everyone else. This method can cause resentment and frustration so we encourage young people away from this approach and intervene if this situation develops.

Democratic- this involves every team member being involved in decision-making. It leads to increased levels of morale and motivation amongst the workforce, but it can also result in far more time being taken to achieve the results since many people are involved in discussing the decision. We encourage MyBnk teams to be democratic but there are teams when individuals have to set up as leaders.

Laissez-faire- this involves every team member having set objectives and they decide how best to achieve them. This method of leadership can result in high levels of enthusiasm for the task in-hand, but it can at times rely too much on the skills of the workforce

Types of Communication

Every team will have to decide how they are going to communicate with one another over their enterprise journey.

Teams may decide to set up formal communication through set meetings or progress reports. This is quite unusual but older participants and/or those with a background in business e.g. Peter Jones Academy students may decide that this will be helpful.

It is more likely that teams will use informal communication where messages about the businesses are communicated through the ‘grapevine’ or through chatting about the task.

The team will need to decide how they communicate with one another, particularly when they are not in the face-to-face environments of the MyBnk workshops. They may consider setting up their own meetings, a WhatsApp group, texting, group email or a combination of all these methods.

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