R&D Team Management: Authority, Autonomy, Emotion, and Defense

The role of emotion in team projects is often overlooked, especially its positive aspects such as passion, empathy, and striving for excellence. The ubiquitous presence of authority and autonomy themes can and should be kept in mind in order to enhance team performance. Leaders may uses these concepts to facilitate their teams'' development: (1) Keep purpose meaningful and relevant. (2) Build commitment and self-confidence (3) Strengthen the mix of skills in the team (4) Manage relations with outsiders and help to remove external obstacles (5) Create opportunities for others. (6) Do real work!