Challenges In Managing A Big Size Team

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To be a part of a team is always a very nice feeling for any employee as it is created to accomplish goals and objectives of your organization. The challenge arises when it comes to managing it, that too a big one. A team contribute to the overall success of its organization. People work with their colleagues to produce results and or new product. Even though each one has a specific profile and belong to a specific department, all the members are unified with one another to accomplish the overall objectives and to serve the bigger picture.

Challenges to manage a big team

Here are some challenges in managing a big team.

  1. Unaware of ground realities: In case of large teams, it is difficult for a manager to know the actual issues faced by the junior members of the team. They generally rely on the updates provided by the senior members and team leaders.
  2. Team’s opinion on critical decisions: It is difficult for a manager to take the opinion and ideas from the team members individually, instead he ask the team leaders to come up with suggestions and ideas from the team for further discussion. In such cases the actual heroes are left un-awarded as the entire credit is taken by the one who is putting that idea on the table.
  3. Work delegated to other members: You have a star performer and you know he is best in particular task so you assign him that task, but due to lack of time he delegate it further to his subordinate, thus your expectation of excellence in certain module is ruined.
  4. Chances of neglecting actual performers:  In big size team often the actual performers goes unnoticed by the senior management, leading to dissatisfaction and demotivation within the team.
  5. Incorrect opinion regarding team members- It is human tendency that we tend to remember the times a person messed up rather than the time he did well. In case any team member did something wrong only once in his entire tenure, he incorrect image continues and his manager would always ask his team leaders not to rely on this person.
  6. There are leaders who are always willing to take the credit but always reluctant to take responsibility for the consequences.
  7. Uneven work distribution:  People who love to work continue getting more and more work and people who prefer to transfer their task to others continue doing so resulting in opposite of resource levelling.

Possible Solutions or suggestions

  1. Conduct regular skip level meetings
  2. Create a common folder and ask each individual to provide his/her suggestion there, go through all the suggestions so that you can decide better.
  3. Mention explicitly the names of the team members with the justification as to why you have chosen them for the same.
  4. Ask 2-3 questions related to the task from your team leaders, check their confidence, if they fail to answer immediately, ask them to call the person who did it, this way you would know the actual performers

For last 3 challenges you actually cannot do much, the only thing you can do is improve your observation power.

If your team grow from 10 to 15 people, you need at least one team leader or manager who can focus on coordination of who does what. If your team grow more than 40, you need another level of management and to manage multi-level delegation and communication effectively. In case of 50 to 60 plus, you become large enough to have multiple managers under one senior manager.

You must ensure effective team building exercises to know your team better. Convey the objective of these team building exercises to each and every team member and ensure they do not confuse it with having just a fun time. The intent of team work is not only building an effective, focused work team but to increase cohesiveness among the team members and to know your team better.  A manager can manage the team smartly by using his management and interpersonal skills.

About Aditi Malhotra

Aditi Malhotra is the Content Marketing Manager at Whizlabs. Having a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, she helps businesses stop playing around with Content Marketing and start seeing tangible ROI. A writer by day and a reader by night, she is a fine blend of both reality and fantasy. Apart from her professional commitments, she is also endearing to publish a book authored by her very soon.

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