Leadership Skills

John Adair's Model of Team Building

John Adair developed his Action-Centred Leadership model during the 1960s and 1970s while lecturing at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. His model combines organizational needs with human needs. There are three elements in the model: the task, the team, and the individual. Three things must be accomplished:

1. The task must be achieved.
2. The team must be managed.
3. Individuals must be managed.

To achieve the task means:

• Defining the activity
• Developing a plan
• Identifying resources
• Assigning responsibilities
• Monitoring performance
• Adjusting the plan, as necessary

To manage the team requires:

• Establishing appropriate standards of behavior
• Understanding group strengths and weaknesses
• Developing morale
• Maintaining discipline
• Motivating the group
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Monitoring the group
• Identifying group training needs
• Resolving conflicts

To manage an individual requires:

• Understand individual strengths, skills, personalities, and weaknesses
• Supporting each person
• Identifying individual responsibility
• Acknowledging good work
• Identifying individual training needs

Adair also developed a "50:50 rule" for situations with two means of influence. This rule stated that 50% of the motivation comes from the individual, and 50% comes from external factors, such as leadership. Applied to teambuilding, 50% of the success comes from the team, and 50% comes from the facilitator.