21 Questions That Will Make Teamwork Work!

To assist and evaluate team building efforts, here are 21 key questions you need to answer to make teamwork work.

You can work through the questions, either alone or with your team, and answer “yes” or “no”, jot down some notes about why you answered that way and what you can do to improve in that area. 

1. Are you involving your team members in hiring decisions?
   You live with a bad hiring decision for, on average, 18 months. And yet, what management considers a good hiring decision, and what team members consider a good hiring decision, may be dramatically different. Let team members meet potential new hires before an offer is made. Factor their feedback into the decision.
2. Do you know who your team “slayers” are and have you taken steps to deal with the problem?
   Have you identified team “slayers” – those individuals whose behaviour detracts from team performance – and have you spent time with them diagnosing the reason and what to do about it?
3. Do team members understand the team’s vision, mission, goals, values and expectations?
   These are the blueprint for the team’s success, so team members must have a crystal clear understanding of these important components.
4. Are team members committed to the team’s success?
   This is a situation where simply asking isn’t enough. Look for an outward manifestation of commitment. More likely, it will be easier to spot a lack of commitment. Excessive questioning of why people are being asked to do what they do is one sign. Complaining, lack of performance, low morale – all of those would suggest that the commitment to vision, mission, values, goals and expectations may be lacking.
5. Have team members been trained in teamwork skills?
   Is your teambuilding curriculum in place? Training should be ongoing, and whenever possible, team members should attend sessions as a group.
6. Have team leaders been trained for their role?
   There are natural born leaders, but there aren’t enough of them for most organisations. Leadership skills must be developed. In addition to basic team skills, make sure team leaders get special skills training in areas like group facilitation and mediation.
7. Have you started relationship building with future team members?
   Some day you’re going to lose team members. They’re going to quit, move away, or go to another team within the organisation. When you receive notice that they’re leaving, you’ll need to have potential replacements identified and, if possible, already thinking about joining the team. Relationship building with potential team members needs to be done well in advance.
8. Are you holding regular team meetings that participants find worthwhile?
   Regularly ask team members to assess the effectiveness of team meetings. If they feel that team meetings are wasting their time, you’re either meeting too frequently or preparing inadequately. If they feel that they need more information to feel informed, you may not be meeting enough.
9. Do team meetings include both information and motivation?
   You’ve got to have both. Use the analogy of the cherry flavoured cough syrup. When you buy cherry flavoured cough syrup your primary motivation is for the medicinal value – you want to suppress the cough. Because if you really just wanted cherry flavour, you’d buy a pop drink. So why do they put cherry flavour in cough syrup? To help the medicine go down more easily.
   You should make meetings interesting, entertaining and motivational to help the information presented go down more easily. Team members need both “how-to” and “want-to”.
10. Is interpersonal communication effective?
    Team communication should provide information that members can use: news rather than gossip, and feedback rather than criticism. Do team members share useful information with each other in an open, honest environment?
11. Do team members feel well informed about news of the larger organisation?
    It’s important that teams don’t operate in a vacuum, but that they understand how they fit into the big picture and how they impact the organisation’s performance. Top managers and others outside the team should be utilised as resources.
12. What efforts has your team or entire organisation taken to create interdepartmental teamwork?
    There is something harder than getting people on the same team to work together, and that is getting people on different teams to work together. Have you made some active attempts to teambuild with other departments within your organisation?
13. Is your team facing some of the same problems today that they were 60 days ago, and if so, why?
    Ignoring significant problems won’t help. After two months, problems that are unsolved are either insignificant or overdue for attention. Deal with problems before they become a source of perpetual frustration for team members.
14. What feedback has your team given to management and how has management responded?
    A team leader once told me that one of his greatest frustrations was that his boss was a “yes man” but that he didn’t represent the needs of their team to management. Does your team or team leader communicate ideas and needs to management? If so, has management responded appropriately and convinced your team that their opinions are valued?
15. Has the team leader taken time to understand the values, likes, dislikes and needs of every team member?
    Because different people are motivated differently, if the team leader hasn’t done their homework in understanding what motivates different team members, they aren’t as far along in team building as they could be.
16. Does the team deal openly and effectively with conflict?
    Have team members learned to use all available approaches to conflict resolution and has the team agreed on a system that allows you to deal with the problems that inevitably arise? The team vision should be the primary agenda being pursued, even in difficult times.
17. Are all team members open to feedback?
    Or is feedback only accepted from the team leader? When a team member has an idea that will help another team member improve their performance, do they offer it?
18. Can you point to specific innovations that your team has made in the past quarter?
    Are you innovating or simply doing things the way you’ve always been doing them and maintaining the status quo? Make sure to reward any attempts at innovation, even if the outcome isn’t successful. Challenge team members to try new things.
19. Are you operating with a team calendar year?
    Teams must be accountable for producing results in time. Have you identified top team goals for the current calendar year and do team members know what those goals are? Use action planning at every team session to translate ideas into results.
20. Do team members feel there is linkage between individual success and team success?
    Do you reward people and recognise them, not just for what they accomplish, but for their contribution in helping the team accomplish its goals? This linkage is critical and must be present if team work is going to work.
21. What celebrations, formal and informal, have you undertaken to demonstrate appreciation and create camaraderie?
    Evaluate results periodically. Regularly and creatively celebrate the team’s efforts and victories. If you’re lucky, you’ll receive accolades from others, but you can’t really control that. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to celebrate your own success.

Guest Author

Mark Sanborn CSP CPAE is an acclaimed speaker, bestselling author and president of Sanborn & Associates Inc., an idea studio for leadership development. For more information, visit www.MarkSanborn.com, http://www.FredFactor.com and http://www.YouDontNeedaTitle.com

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Managing Organisational Performance

There cannot be a CEO or a Divisional Manager anywhere who doesn’t believe that the performance of their organisation could not be enhanced, if only their employees displayed a greater sense of teamwork and motivation.

Yet having accepted that it is they who need to take the initiative to bring this about, any initial enthusiasm quickly wanes, as they grapple with other issues and the management of the business itself. Developing greater teamwork is perceived as a ‘nice to have’ issue not a ‘must have’.

Most managers regard teamwork and its development as a separate issue to business management. They do this because when they think of teamwork, the things that come most immediately to mind are the interpersonal factors that characterise teams and team members – high levels of motivation, respect for and trust in one another, constructive conflict, innovation etc. And so the logic goes, that to develop such characteristics requires a separate program to be run in parallel with the ‘normal’ program of running the business. Consultants are hired, programs are devised, large sums of money are spent – but with what result?

At best, such team building programs lead to the establishment of pseudo teams – workgroups that display the appearance of teams but not the substance. And in the final analysis, it’s the substance – improved organisational performance – that is the only worthwhile result.

The fundamental flaw in the management logic is that teams and teamwork can be created and once established, uplift in organisational performance will result. This is not the case.

The three things that lead to the development of teamwork and the establishment of real teams have nothing directly to do with the team characteristics referred to above – but everything to do with the achievement of the organisational objectives.

For workgroups to develop into teams, they need a:

• Common purpose
• Common goal
• Common approach

Let’s take each of these factors in turn.

The workgroup’s common purpose should be expressed not only in the context of the workgroup but also in the context of the organisation as a whole.

The above common purpose is an activity and as such cannot be measured. Therefore, the common purpose has to be expressed in terms of a common goal. The common goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, a result and time related (SMART).

Note that achievement of the common goal involves every member of the workgroup, is related to the common purpose of the workgroup and of the company as a whole, and is a goal to which workgroup members may relate and over which they have control.

The workgroup’s common approach covers such issues as who does what, meeting schedules and agreeing on subsidiary objectives or milestones.

Since the purpose, goal and approach is one shared by all members of the workgroup, mutual accountability is a rational consequence and mutual accountability leads naturally to the development of trust, motivation and commitment – those characteristics that turn workgroups into real teams of substance.

Adopting this strategy over the more traditional approach that treats the development of teams and teamwork as a discrete program has enormous advantages.

• Management’s focus remains on the management of the business. Managers are not being asked to do anything extra – they are being asked to work smarter by realising the potential of their staff.
• By developing a common purpose and a common goal for each workgroup in the manner suggested above, organisational alignment will be much improved.
• Insisting that each workgroup have a common purpose, goal and approach will lead to a very significant rise in workgroup effectiveness.
• United by the above three factors, there is a much greater likelihood that workgroup members will develop teamwork, and display the characteristics of real teams.
• Resources are not diverted to a separate program of ‘team development‘.

There is just one missing component to the above and that’s the need to measure. You cannot manage what you cannot measure.

There is a fair degree of cynicism surrounding the traditional ‘team/teamwork development program’, which is justified. Such programs are expensive, time-consuming to administer, based on false logic and ineffective in the long term. Yet no one would disagree that a small group of people working together can accomplish more than a similar number working as individuals.

So the message is simple. Successful organisations and successful workgroups have an enduring focus on performance and, in the process of setting and achieving performance goals, teamwork develops as a consequence. But like so many management concepts, it’s the implementation that’s complex.

Guest Author

Graham Haines is principal consultant of Plans To Reality. Graham has a Joint Honours Degree in Law and Economics from Durham University and a Grad. Dip. Ed from Melbourne University. He is both a Certified Management Consultant and a Certified Practicing Marketer. In addition to his consulting activities, Graham has taught marketing and management at a tertiary level and written over 150 articles for specialist press and his own web site. He can be contacted via Email: ghaines@planstoreality.com.au or Visit: http://www.planstoreality.com.au

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Are Performance Reviews Dead?

Performance reviews are essential to increase employee engagement and staff performance, but they do need to be structured in a way that fosters engagement. How can an organisation achieve that?

Performance reviews can be a high stress situation for employees as sometimes pay, promotions and benefits can rely on the outcome. In high-stress situations we are rarely at our best and we may close down our conversational capabilities and be hesitant about speaking up if we don’t agree with feedback from a manager.

Annual performance reviews under these conditions are not sufficient to ensure true personal growth of an employee. Clear communication is needed from both parties in order for a review to be a catalyst for change in an employee’s behaviour.

The two most common mistakes made when conducting a performance review are:

1. Managerial attitude – The mistake managers often make is to see performance reviews purely as a process or a ‘tick the box’ exercise. To make performance reviews effective and valued, managers need to invest time in developing a relationship with the employee that is built on trust. To do this, managers need to be able to conduct effective workplace conversations by listening with interest and engaging in regular dialogue with staff. Managers need to wholeheartedly believe in both the relationship with the employee and the performance review outcomes in order for them to be effective.
2. Regularity – Annual performance reviews as a stand-alone method are not enough. Managers should provide feedback as often as is required, highlighting areas for improvement as development opportunities. It can be a quick two minute conversation to let an employee know they are doing a good job, or a scheduled meeting to discuss how an employee could do a task more efficiently the next time around. A once a year conversation is not enough to engage employees and make them feel valued.

Now that you know what’s wrong with performance reviews, what are some habits and tools to use to increase effectiveness?

Enhance conversation skills

There are a number of tips to keep in mind to increase conversation skills, such as:

• Set clear expectations
• Ensure there is agreement on those expectations
• Seek clarification as necessary
• Don’t avoid conflict, as it may then become a bigger problem later on
• Think before you speak
• Always remember to listen

Conversations are at the base of everything we do, but not every organisation sets expectations around effective conversations between managers and employees.

Relationship, relationship, relationship

The quality of the relationship is the strongest factor in the effectiveness of a performance review. A good relationship provides the foundation for giving feedback which empowers and motivates employees and accelerates the learning process.

Individualise reviews

No two employees are the same, and while you may have hired them for the same, or similar, roles, each person will have a different skill set which adds value to the organisation. This should be recognised and taken into account when assessing someone’s suitability to a role. Individual skill sets should be embraced by managers and discussed regularly. The performance review process is an opportunity to work through all factors to a point where both employee and manager are happy that all the variables have been taken into consideration.

Foster a learning environment

A workplace conducive to fostering learning outcomes is one where ideas from everyone – from the junior to the CEO – are respected and employees have access to resources and training to allow them to increase their capabilities. Leaders with strong coaching skills can aid the encouragement of a learning environment in the workplace, leading to greater engagement and staff motivation.

Performance reviews can increase positive business outcomes and support growth within an organisation if they are prepared strategically, keeping the above tips in mind.

Guest Author

Julie Parkinson, Director, The Institute of Executive Coaching. The Institute of Executive Coaching works with organisations to provide innovative leadership and coaching support to improve the performance of individuals, teams and organisations. Since 1999 the Institute has trained more than 2,500 coaches and become known as one of the region’s most respected executive coaching, coach training and leadership development organisations. All of the Institute’s services are designed on the key principles of the Institute’s mission to empower people to fulfil their potential and develop the leaders of tomorrow. http://www.iecoaching.com/

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Bye, Bye Boomers: Planning For The Inevitable

Your leaders are leaving soon and you may have gaps within the ranks, both in qualified people and the necessary competencies. While this is potentially alarming information, now is not the time to panic.

Many companies have been stripping out layers of management to gain operating and cost efficiencies. But in the process of paring down, these ‘lean’ organisations cut out many developmental opportunities for next-generation leaders. So there are fewer and fewer candidates ready to step into crucial management roles as older managers retire.

Replacing capable and seasoned employees, while developing a new cadre of managers, certainly takes considerable time and investment. It is time to focus efforts on creating a leadership development strategy to meet this challenge, and then rigorously execute this strategy to maintain – and drive – business both during and after this flux.

The key is to get ahead of other companies by taking action now, with six critical steps designed to competitively position your organisation during and after this dramatic workforce transition:

1. Map the exiting skills and expertise – Determine who is retirement-eligible and when retirement is likely. Have frank discussions with your senior management team on their future plans and determine if they have made any efforts regarding succession planning. Know what skills the company will lose and what functions, locations and roles will be impacted the most.
2. Accelerate knowledge transfer – Start with a preliminary meeting with potential retirees to understand the gap between the knowledge only known by the individual(s) versus that which is documented as part of your company’s process or knowledge management.Once you have a general sense of the information that needs to be captured, you can then decide how to do it. If you use a technology system, be sure to think through how the successor will employ it, in order to balance a system with a lot of “bells and whistles” with a practical one.Also, keep in mind how the knowledge transfer process might change for different positions, and whether a third party will do the gathering or if it will be left to the retiree. The higher the impact of the retirement on the organisation, the more tailored this process needs to be in order to capture all relevant information.

   The process may need to involve speaking with direct reports and job shadowing, particularly for senior management. For departments where there will be a larger number of retirements, a process can be designed for department heads to distribute knowledge transfer plans in a more time efficient manner.

3. Assess talent supply and demand – both internally and externally – Once you have identified the impending skill gaps, the next obvious step is to fill them. First look internally, and use the information you have gathered from retirees and other managers to determine whether the skill sets exist within your organisation. The goal is to identify successors.Where no successors exist, look externally to see if the type of skill you need is available in the market. If talent is available, begin building a pipeline. If it looks like a tough market, use a three-pronged approach: build a pipeline, keep looking internally for potential successors and work to retain Boomers past retirement.

4. Accelerate development – Now that you have identified the successors, they need to start moving towards the goal of stepping into the retiree’s position. This will require creating a plan that develops the required skills within the necessary time frame.This is often a difficult process to balance that only gets tougher the longer companies wait to prepare for retiring Boomers. The plans ideally should include on-the-job activities, formal training and knowledge building.
5. Maintain focus – The first four steps require a methodological approach that is best carried out by one project management office or one team leader depending on company size. Nominate a person or group to centrally coordinate and lead workforce planning. Ensure that the leader(s) also keeps an eye on your employee brand in terms of how retirees are treated as they exit and how the company is portrayed to external candidates during this crunch process.

6. Learn from others – Now that you are aware of your problem areas, keep an eye out for ideas. Consider ways to retain Baby Boomers past their retirement date with alternative arrangements such as part-time retirement.

Many companies have already addressed the Baby Boomer issue. While this is further reason to get started if you have yet to begin, there is also the chance to learn from others who have gone down this path.

Guest Author

Norman Schippers, Capital H Group. Capital H Group is a consulting firm that takes a value-based approach to helping companies manage, and invest in, their human capital. Partnering with our clients, we focus on creating value through their people. For further information, visit web site: http://www.capitalHgroup.com

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your inbox. Register NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com/subscribe/

Recognising The Traits Of Outstanding Employees

Great employees are reliable, dependable, proactive, diligent, great leaders and great followers … they possess a wide range of easily-defined – but hard to find – qualities. A few hit the next level and are remarkable, possessing qualities that may not appear on performance appraisals, but nonetheless make a major impact on performance. Forget good to great – what makes a great employee, remarkable?

Here are eight qualities of remarkable employees:

1. They ignore job descriptions – The smaller the company, the more important it is that employees can think on their feet, adapt quickly to shifting priorities, and do whatever it takes, regardless of role or position, to get things done.When a key customer’s project is in jeopardy, remarkable employees know without being told there’s a problem and jump in without being asked – even if it’s not their job.
2. They’re eccentric – The best employees are often a little different: quirky, sometimes irreverent, even delighted to be unusual. They seem slightly odd, but in a really good way. Unusual personalities shake things up, make work more fun, and transform a plain-vanilla group into a team with flair and flavour. People who aren’t afraid to be different naturally stretch boundaries and challenge the status quo, and they often come up with the best ideas.
3. But they know when to dial it back – An unusual personality is a lot of fun … until it isn’t. When a major challenge pops up or a situation gets stressful, the best employees stop expressing their individuality and fit seamlessly into the team. Remarkable employees know when to play and when to be serious; when to be irreverent and when to conform; and when to challenge and when to back off. It’s a tough balance to strike, but a rare few can walk that fine line with ease.
4. They publicly praise – Praise from a boss feels good. Praise from a peer feels awesome, especially when you look up to that person. Remarkable employees recognise the contributions of others, especially in group settings where the impact of their words is even greater.
5. And they complain privately – We all want employees to bring issues forward, but some problems are better handled in private. Great employees often get more latitude to bring up controversial subjects in a group setting because their performance allows greater freedom.Remarkable employees come to you before or after a meeting to discuss a sensitive issue, knowing that bringing it up in a group setting could set off a firestorm.
6. They speak when others won’t – Some employees are hesitant to speak up in meetings. Some are even hesitant to speak up privately.An employee once asked me a question about potential layoffs. After the meeting I said to him, “Why did you ask about that? You already know what’s going on”. He said, “I do, but a lot of other people don’t, and they’re afraid to ask. I thought it would help if they heard the answer from you”. Remarkable employees have an innate feel for the issues and concerns of those around them, and step up to ask questions or raise important issues when others hesitate.
7. They like to prove others wrong – Self-motivation often springs from a desire to show that doubters are wrong. The kid without a college degree or the woman who was told she didn’t have leadership potential often possess a burning desire to prove other people wrong.Education, intelligence, talent, and skill are important – but drive is critical. Remarkable employees are driven by something deeper and more personal than just the desire to do a good job.
8. They’re always fiddling – Some people are rarely satisfied (I mean that in a good way) and are constantly tinkering with something: Reworking a timeline, adjusting a process, tweaking a workflow.Great employees follow processes. Remarkable employees find ways to make those processes even better, not only because they are expected to … but because they just can’t help it.

Guest Author

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. Visit http://www.blackbirdinc.com

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Building On The Strengths Of Your Team

Outstanding managers spend more time developing the strengths of individual team members than they do in correcting weaknesses. They encourage team members to continue to learn and grow rather than just settle for mediocrity. So how can you build on the strengths in your team?

Firstly, consider how you can give them variety in their work. The longer people keep doing the same thing, the less satisfied and engaged they become at work. But here it is important to give them new experiences that they want to experience.

Most people will respond well to new experiences that are consistent with their strengths and interests. Look out for strengths in your team members and ask them about what parts of their work they most enjoy or would like to develop. Sure, with some problem staff, you may need to look very hard to find their strengths, but I assure you they are there. It is just that their strengths are being used in an evil way.

Some people also respond well to challenge, where they are stretching themselves. The research says that about 40% of people generally would like more challenge in their work, but it needs to be challenges they want to take on. How do you find out? You simply ask them. Great managers regularly have discussions with their staff about how they are going at work, strengths and interests they would like to develop, and challenges they would like.

Mentoring is also a great way to help team members to develop. In every team, there are star performers and experienced staff who would be more than happy to mentor others. This not only gives them the feel-goods in helping others but also variety in their work. There are also some advantages to using mentors outside your workplace.

Training programs can also help to build on the strengths in your team. Team members will always benefit more from training in areas they themselves have identified as a need. So consider asking your team what they would like to learn or what challenges they are having that could be addressed in a training program.

So that’s it. Start talking with your team members – offer them variety, encourage their strengths and interests, give them a challenge, and offer mentoring and training opportunities.

Ultimately, your team is only as good as the time and investment you put into them.

Guest Author:

Ken Warren is Australia’s leading speaker on Dealing with Demanding, Aggressive and Unmotivated People. With his engaging, interactive and positive approach, Ken has shown thousands how to turn difficult people around and bring out their best.

 

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Leadership Strategies To Address Common Team Building Problems

Many CEOs are good business strategists; yet when it comes to integrating team approaches in the organisation, there’s no real strategy.

With multiple teams operating within large organisations, team success is often based on the capability of their respective team leaders. Each leader needs some basic skills, strategy and support to help his or her team succeed.

With teams that are floundering, a common reaction is to resort to some kind of team building exercise. After all, many leaders find it difficult to point a finger at themselves when teams aren’t working well.

Despite best team building efforts, many organisations are still operating on low power when it comes to producing desired results. They’ve invested time and dollars in events that supposedly help team members bond and function coherently, yet results are short term at best.

So what’s the problem? Every situation is unique, but here are a few possibilities:

• Some or all members don’t want to function as a team. They’ve become accustomed to operating independently and don’t see the value of operating as a whole. This can be especially common at senior executive levels where egos get in the way. 
• Team building isn’t linked to business results. Instead the team experienced artificial feel good exercises. Although the team has learned about each other’s behavioral styles, motivational profiles, individual strengths, etc., they have failed to connect their efforts to desired business outcomes. 
• There’s no follow-up beyond a one-time event. A successful team building process should be approached strategically, not as a one-time event hoping for the best. It should result in actionable ideas to help the team and organisation achieve their goals. Continued learning, action and reinforcement are critical.

Of all of the potential issues that can negatively affect team building, here are some of the most common impediments to team success in my experience and ways to overcome them.

Team building impediment #1: Fuzzy focus

In this situation, the team doesn’t really know how to function. Either the team has lost focus on results or members have never been clear of their goals in the first place. Instead, they’ve become too internally fixated on other team members – judging what they’re doing, making assumptions, speculating, back stabbing, finger pointing, etc. Without a clear focus, team members frequently react to events in their immediate environment. They become distracted by other team members or simply respond to whatever issue lands in their lap. There’s no strategic team focus or energy to move forward.

Leadership suggestion:

As the leader, you must step in and clarify big picture goals and expectations. In order to complete this task effectively, you must communicate the goals in a number of ways that appeal to a variety of team members. Some may need a visual representation (e.g., a roadmap); others may need to know the “why” behind the goals to buy in. Check for clarity. Ask the team to articulate their understanding of the overall goals in their own words. Then clarify or correct as needed.

Team building impediment #2: Lack of leadership

Leadership is critical to help the team succeed. Without it, team members will resort to their own methods. Some will run as far and fast as they can to prove themselves, pushing boundaries and taking on too much risk. Others will sit idle for as long as they can, performing as little as possible, yet complaining about how much work needs to get done. Some leaders are too busy concentrating on their own political or career agenda. Other leaders just don’t understand their role or possess good leadership skills.

Leadership suggestion:

Conduct regular strategic focus sessions. Strong leaders will help the team focus on the goal (the what) and key strategies (the how). Hold consistent informal one-on-one development meetings with direct reports to gain feedback, uncover trouble spots and leverage opportunities. If you need to build leadership skills yourself, make that a priority. If you value your career, find a coach or mentor to help you. Remember, in order to develop others – you must first develop yourself.

Team building impediment #3: Stuck in sameness

The team is stuck in practices that may have been established years ago. They’ve gotten lazy or stopped trying new approaches. New team members may be frustrated by the apparent lack of openness to new ideas or ways of operating. Experienced team members defend the way things have always been done.

Leadership suggestion:

Identify one aspect of the team that you would be excited to see change come about. Talk with your team to make sure everyone agrees it would be worth it to affect change in that area. Determine what the best possible outcome could be if the team made the change, adopted a new procedure, tried a new approach or do whatever it is you’re suggesting. Then call for ideas from the team on how to make it happen. Generating excitement about new possibilities makes it easier for the team to get unstuck.

The most effective teams can maintain best practices while adapting to new environments or organisational changes. They are not content with sameness or status quo. Their best practices include constantly seeking new and better ways to perform their job. They are not content with going through the motions or frivolous exercises that may help increase awareness, but stop there.

Final thoughts

Self awareness is critical at the CEO level, the executive team level as well as other levels within the organisation. However, if individuals can’t connect self awareness to business results, you’re not maximising productivity. Team members may find it interesting to learn more about team members, but be sure to help translate learning into results.

Great team leaders spend time clarifying goals, cultivating their own leadership skills and identifying new ways to achieve great results. Not to be confused with micromanaging, an effective leader will check in from time to time to make sure the organisation’s goals and strategies remain clear. At the same time, they help build capability of individual team members versus taking on the work of the team themselves.

Simply opening productive and constructive communication to a greater degree will help leaders increase their effectiveness and their teams function most effectively. Leaders often feel unnecessary pressure to tell everyone on the team what to do. Focus on influencing versus doing.

Team building is a means to an end, not an end in itself. What do you want your team to achieve?

Guest Author:

Gayle Lantz, President of WorkMatters, has helped hundreds of companies and organisations just like yours improve performance and drive real results.

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How Good Managers Can Be Great At Retaining Staff

There are two main areas of influence it is essential to get right to retain employees and keep them engaged and happy.

Employees will stay with you because of two major influences:

1. Policies of the organisation: learning and development, remuneration, performance management and reviews, promotions, and so on
2. What their manager does and doesn’t do, says and doesn’t say … every day

So while businesses will often focus on this first area – and it is essential to spend the time getting it right – policy is only half the story. It cannot work without its twin, which comes from real-life experience, what actually happens in reality with their manager.

And by manager, we’re not looking at hierarchy. We’re talking about people managers – anyone who manages someone else.

Without a doubt, the manager has the single greatest influence over the employee’s decision to perform, to stay, or in fact … to quit. In a nutshell, managers make people stay – and manager’s make people leave.

Good managers who want to be great managers and truly engage their team may feel they need to learn more and reach for a large ‘how-to’ book on being a great manager. They read up, they study. However, there is no article or book in the world which is going to tell you how to retain your specific team of individual people.

The solution is so much easier – you simply need to ask the people who work for you.

Spend time with your people and find out what they need more of, less of, what gets them up in the morning, what really motivates them, what they want from you as a manager. If you ask in the right way, they’ll tell you. Then it’s up to you to follow through. That is the way to be the best manager you can be – for each individual on your team.

As a starting point, here are eight manager secrets when aiming for greatness:

1. Be approachable – visible, friendly and helpful
2. Communicate effectively, regularly and use many channels. Remember sometimes we need to hear the message more than once to absorb it
3. Meet as a team regularly
4. Allow employees to make mistakes and learn
5. Look for opportunities to recognise effort and results
6. Be flexible about work/life demands
7. Give credit where credit is due
8. Be knowledgeable – and share your knowledge

If you have concerns about employee retention, getting the policy side of things right is essential. But don’t leave it at that. Spend as much time on your people managers and what they are saying and doing with their people as you can. Train them with staff retention skills. Encourage them to create engagement plans and have engagement discussions with their team. Give them support and systems to be the best manager they can be.

Creative ideas to practice

Managers can contribute to their teams in so many ways – mentoring, finding opportunities to introduce variety, instilling and encouraging passion, giving enough space, giving enough support … just to name a few.

Here are some practical ideas for managers to start doing today. These small things can make a big impact.

Five creative ideas for reward and recognition which helps managers 

Look for opportunities to recognise effort and results.

1. Personalise your pay slips 

   If geography permits, consider asking managers to hand out/email a personal note with the pay slips, so managers can say ‘thank you’ or recognise a contribution in that time period.

2. Wall of fame 

   If you are in a service environment and an email or letter of thanks comes in from a client, frame it and put it on the wall. This often means a lot to the person or team more so than anything else. Plus, visitors love to read the letters too.

3. Get out of the chair 

   Every day remember to give thanks and recognition to your team. Get up out of your chair and spend time with someone on your team, even just for a few minutes. Phone them if they are in a different location. Ask them about their day, if they need additional help, what they are working on.

4. Encourage bright ideas 

   Try giving out a lightbulb filled with candy to anyone who comes up with a bright idea. It generates excitement and encourages ideas to keep coming in. You could also do something like Karma currency instead – where the organisation makes a donation but the person chooses which charity to support.

5. Treasure box 

   Have a small treasure chest of goodies, such as movie tickets, gift vouchers, book vouchers, etc. Choose someone to recognise every fortnight or so and let them choose something out of the treasure box. May seem a little contrived, but you’d be surprised how well it works.

Four creative ideas for work/life balance

Help managers ‘be flexible about work/life demands’

1. Set the example

   Model balance and share with your team what you do to achieve balance in your life. Do not support workaholism.

2. Put it on the agenda 

   Hold a ‘balance’ discussion at a team meeting, or one-to-one with each team member. Don’t discuss anything else except balance, so they know it is important to you.

3. Ask them 

   Ask your team members what else they have going on in their lives and what matters most to them. Get to know their non-work interests.

4. Show your support 

   Support your employees in achieving balance. Some examples: encourage them to go to their child’s school plays or for a golf lesson or encourage the organisation to support a charity drive for their cause.

Guest Author:

 

Lisa Halloran is the Director of Retention Partners. Lisa’s background includes 4 years in political market research and 14 years experience in HR management and consulting roles in television, maritime, retail, manufacturing and insurance.

 

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your inbox every week. Register NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com.au/subscribe/

How To Bridge The Skills Gap

The best way to combat the skills gap is through skills development. By carefully researching your options, you can make the choices that will result in higher satisfaction for individuals, increased effectiveness for teams and, most importantly, significant productivity gains for your organisation.

In the not-too-distant past, jobs could be neatly compartmentalised – each worker fit into a defined, if static, position. Those positions have been washed away in a tsunami of change that characterises the new global economy.

Employees are becoming less dependent on the company; the company and its employees are now interdependent. The situation has been compared to that of a sports team. The company is creating a new team and offering employees a try-out. How the team performs and its future depends now on the players as much as the leaders. The only real security employees have is the chance to work together to achieve their goals and create a future.

To “make the cut” on this team, individuals need the right skills. The elimination of so many middle management jobs means that senior management must surrender responsibility and independence to non-supervisory staff.

Tremendous demands are being placed upon workers who previously just had to concentrate on following the direction of a supervisor. Not everyone is equipped with the skills to take on the new responsibilities. The result is a skills gap that threatens the future of many companies.

The key to tackling the skills gap is to develop your company’s most valuable resources – its people.

1. Focus training on the areas that require skill development You must be able to identify a job-relevant skill deficiency for the individual or team. This often means measuring current skill levels, determining where skill gaps exist and prescribing the training solution.
2. Focus training on individuals and teams Teamwork is here to stay in today’s interdependent workplace. There’s no point in developing the skills of individuals if they are unable to apply these skills in a team situation.
3. Clearly state the objectives of training and relate it to competent job performance Research shows that learning improves when there are objectives stating what the employees will be able to do as a result of the training. Learners must know how their performance will be evaluated and what success will look like.
4. Measure the results of the training If you can’t see evidence of the effectiveness of the training, can you justify the investment? As the saying goes, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Make sure you can evaluate the effectiveness of training and the ongoing development of individuals and teams.

Guest Author:

Priority Management is an international training organisation which provides techniques, tools and training to enhance productivity. There are more than 100 offices worldwide, with branches in all capital cities in Australia.

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your email inbox every week. REGISTER NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com.au/subscribe/

Five Factors That Disconnect Your Team

Dealing with these will improve synergy and stability within your company, freeing up your staff’s energy to move the business ahead.

“What’s wrong with my team? Why don’t they co-operate more? Where’s their team spirit? Why do they seem surly so much of the time? Why don’t they speak up at staff meetings? Why do we have such a high turnover of staff? Why do people seem to operate in their own little world and not care about the ‘Big Picture’?”

Often we fail to get the best from our staff simply because we haven’t yet made ways for each member of the team to actually live in a healthy relational connection with the rest of the team. In fact the word team is a misnomer for many workplaces which are staffing a bunch of individuals doing their own thing in ways that merely keep them employed.

Is your workplace a place where people compete for resources rather than collaborating toward outcomes? Where self-protective behaviour prevents innovation and synergy?

While your staff can quote the mission statement, do their daily activities actually seem to work against it?

If you’ve answered YES to any of these questions, perhaps some of the following disconnecting factors are affecting your team.

1. Napoleonic wars 

   There are some individuals who – while occupying “small” positions in context with the wider organisation – pursue their own grandiose dreams with a super-sized passion. Effectively they wage a war of attrition on your resources, your time, the morale of the team, even your relationship with your customers. At the very least, they annoy and distract some of your most talented and loyal people.At the same time, there is an upside to this Napoleonic lust for conquest and expansion. You may have in your midst some true mover and shakers, pioneering go-getters. If treated correctly, these people can be an asset rather than a pain in the assets – a force for the up-turn rather than the stagnation of your business.Rather than blocking and crushing them, negotiate with them to find the way in which their “vision” can serve your vision. Debrief and rebrief them regularly. Make them go through management to access resources so that they don’t play people off against each other. Keep them on a tight (not necessarily short) leash through clear direction and consistent accountability. Empower them fully to the limit that you set. Remind them constantly of their place in the team.

2. No relational space
   
   When there are no rhythms that place us across the lunch-table or pool-table from each other, then misunderstandings and offences can take root and fester far more easily. When there are no shared spaces where team-mates can laugh, debate and commiserate, workplace relations can be colourless and superficial. You don’t need to program relationships; it’s our default setting. We just need the opportunity.Make a physical space which invites your team to chat, to spend time together without a productivity-focus. Create traditions where your team can “break bread”. Give your staff the chance to do life together, to ask “What’s up?” or “Have I done something to offend you?”, to dig through their differences and find common ground.
3. Faddish cycles of change
   
   Personality profiling tells us that up to 70% of the general population actually dislike and resist change. If that’s true, then when you are initiating change in the workplace, you better make sure it’s worth the hard work of helping these people adopt it.If your workplace has a proven track-record of adopting the latest business or marketing idea, it’s possible it also has a track-record of alienating over half its staffers in the process. While this might contribute to those staffers banding together to form passive-aggressive resistance movements, I think you’d agree that’s not the kind of teamworkyou’re looking for. You now have a disconnect between management and staff.Long-term team-members watch the fashionable initiatives come and go, slowly losing their passion and commitment, finding their own ruts to stay in, regardless of what the latest memo says. Change for change’s sake can be easily justified with flashy charts and jingoistic phrases, but its nature is unhealthy and unhelpful.When considering any major change to the organisation’s environment, methodology or other systems, think long and hard about old adages like “If it ain’t broke…” and “reinventing the wheel”!
4. Fear
   
   Nothing causes people to hunker down and keep to themselves like this “f”-word!Where staffers seem reticent to share their thoughts, where they avoid contact with management, where they lash out in completely irrational ways – these may be indications that these people are scared.Spend some time discerning what could be causing the fear. Is there an air of uncertainty in the air? Are disciplinary issues dealt with harshly?I love the story I heard about an Australian CEO and one of his new admin staff. When it turned out the young lady had made an enormous error in regards to printing promotional material – an error which would cost the organisation over $16000 – she reported it to the senior manager.

   She ended her confession with: “I suppose that’s the end for me?” The CEO replied “Why would I sack you? I’ve just spent $16000 training you.” While she was left in no doubt as to the seriousness of her mistake, the grace that was shown this young woman resulted in her fast-paced professional development and deep loyalty toward her employer.

   It also worked wonders for the morale of other team members.

   What can you do about anxiety and uncertainty in your company?

5. The Talk Monopoly
   
   Who holds the floor in the staff meeting? Can you pick the small group of individuals who do most of the talking, who freeze out others’ contributions opinions and ideas?Try finding ways to acknowledge the monopolisers while giving other team members equal time. (“Ralph, thanks for that perspective. I’m really interested in what Betty sees as the issue here.”)Remember that some people won’t speak without being asked, yet they could hold the very idea your group needs. Others need help focussing their thoughts so you will have to ask them a specific question to elicit a response (“Graham, what would you do in my position?” rather than “Graham, what do you think?”).

Guest Author:

Peter Aldin is founder of Great Circle Life Coaching. In a complex world, instinct and habit often drive us off course rather than steering us toward success and satisfaction. Great Circle is about re-learning and re-thinking our approach to family and business dynamics and relationships.

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered FREE to your email inbox every week. REGISTER NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com.au/subscribe/