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Showing posts with label Team Building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Team Building. Show all posts
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Thursday, December 13, 2012
How to engage your employees for more successful results
When trying to engage employees, avoid the following:
Don't assume that, because someone has one good quality, the person is great at everything. This prevents managers from seeing the opportunities for improvement.
Don't speak negatively about other team members, their peers or senior management and leaders.
Don't withhold feedback because you assume your employees already know where they need to improve or will "figure it out" on their own.
Don't avoid regular communication, the best tool is to set up ongoing one-on-one conversations to build trusting, more productive relationships with your employees.
Don't assume your team knows what is expected from them, remind them in a positive way on a regular basis what your expectations are and how successful results look like.
Don't assume people understand your reasoning behind decisions. By the same token, don't blame any decisions on "upper management," "the HR department" or anyone else. Employees see right through that.
Don't forget that praise is about them, not you. Praise every day if possible, for a good presentation, they way a conference call was conducted, the way a customer complain was handle, this only takes 20 seconds.....example: John when you addressed that customer complain this morning in such a professional way, you contribute to the image or our company, thank you for that.
That's it, short and simple.
Don't discipline or demean in front of others, provide improvement feedback in private. Learn to provide feedback both positive an negative
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Quote on leadership
"The crucial role of language in human evolution was not the ability to exchange ideas, but the increase ability to cooperate"
Fritjof Capra
What should you do when........One team member has bullied the rest of the team into accepting his viewpoint on a decision. Now the rest of the member
Don’t allow the team to gang up on any individual—even one who bullies.
A team must compromise and accept the decision the team makes. In this situation you do not want to interfere; however, you might want to speak up and encourage the team as a group to find some common ground or new possibilities.
A team must compromise and accept the decision the team makes. In this situation you do not want to interfere; however, you might want to speak up and encourage the team as a group to find some common ground or new possibilities.
What should you do when......a good debate is happening in your weekly team meeting. Then you notice that not everyone seems to be participating.
Stop the flow of conversation and ask if anyone else wants to contribute or is feeling left out.
When you structure time for everyone to participate, the team benefits from each member’s opinion.
When you structure time for everyone to participate, the team benefits from each member’s opinion.
How to promote team identity
Use inclusive pronouns, such as "we," "us," and "our," to show that you identify with the team.
Refer often to team goals and mutual interests.
Don’t interrupt members who have less power than you.
Ask members to rephrase statements you don’t understand instead of putting them down.
Refer often to team goals and mutual interests.
Don’t interrupt members who have less power than you.
Ask members to rephrase statements you don’t understand instead of putting them down.
How to keep Virtual Teams Focused
Don’t establish virtual teams until you’ve proven that you can successfully manage conventional ones.
Bring the team together—physically, in real time—at least at the beginning of the assignment.
Make doubly and triply sure that you’ve established clear objectives and procedures for the team—you don’t have the luxury of running into team members during the course of the day to clarify issues.
Megacommunicate—contact virtual team members every day.
If some team members work on more than one team at a time, forge alliances with their other managers.
Be extremely alert to potential conflicts when you check the team’s e-mail archive and when having telephone conversations with team members.
Bring the team together—physically, in real time—at least at the beginning of the assignment.
Make doubly and triply sure that you’ve established clear objectives and procedures for the team—you don’t have the luxury of running into team members during the course of the day to clarify issues.
Megacommunicate—contact virtual team members every day.
If some team members work on more than one team at a time, forge alliances with their other managers.
Be extremely alert to potential conflicts when you check the team’s e-mail archive and when having telephone conversations with team members.
How to evaluate your team
Measure more than just goals—assess group processes as well.
Members are juggling many tasks to reach the team’s goals. How you achieve those goals can be just as important as the end result, especially if the team must work together on an ongoing basis.
Observe how the team communicates, how it deals with adversity, how it resolves conflicts, and what other methods it uses to reach its goals. A useful question to ask yourself is whether the team has created a capability as well as a result.
Solicit outside opinions—for example, customer satisfaction surveys may provide useful insight into how well a team is functioning.
Get to know your team’s weaknesses.
For example, examine your team’s problem-solving methods. Does it spend its time arguing or coming up with solutions? Does it follow its agenda during problem-solving sessions or are its meetings disorganized?
Perhaps your team’s shortcoming is in the area of goal setting or follow-through. Whatever the weaknesses are, you need to pinpoint them before you can address them.
Set up evaluation milestones.
Make sure you provide feedback at regular intervals throughout the project. When a project is over, it may be too late or very difficult to correct past problems.
Help team members evaluate each other.
The most constructive criticism will come from other members, because team members are most familiar with each other’s work. But proceed gently here: some team members may feel uncomfortable evaluating their peers.
To get started, try having everyone share his opinion of how effective the team has been and what it needs to do to improve.
If there is a general consensus about these issues, move on to feedback about individual members—have each person begin with a self-assessment.
Be prepared to handle conflict, anger, or hurt feelings when members start evaluating each other.
Balance individual performance with team performance.
An individual’s performance should judged on his contributions as well as how the team’s work has progressed.
Members are juggling many tasks to reach the team’s goals. How you achieve those goals can be just as important as the end result, especially if the team must work together on an ongoing basis.
Observe how the team communicates, how it deals with adversity, how it resolves conflicts, and what other methods it uses to reach its goals. A useful question to ask yourself is whether the team has created a capability as well as a result.
Solicit outside opinions—for example, customer satisfaction surveys may provide useful insight into how well a team is functioning.
Get to know your team’s weaknesses.
For example, examine your team’s problem-solving methods. Does it spend its time arguing or coming up with solutions? Does it follow its agenda during problem-solving sessions or are its meetings disorganized?
Perhaps your team’s shortcoming is in the area of goal setting or follow-through. Whatever the weaknesses are, you need to pinpoint them before you can address them.
Set up evaluation milestones.
Make sure you provide feedback at regular intervals throughout the project. When a project is over, it may be too late or very difficult to correct past problems.
Help team members evaluate each other.
The most constructive criticism will come from other members, because team members are most familiar with each other’s work. But proceed gently here: some team members may feel uncomfortable evaluating their peers.
To get started, try having everyone share his opinion of how effective the team has been and what it needs to do to improve.
If there is a general consensus about these issues, move on to feedback about individual members—have each person begin with a self-assessment.
Be prepared to handle conflict, anger, or hurt feelings when members start evaluating each other.
Balance individual performance with team performance.
An individual’s performance should judged on his contributions as well as how the team’s work has progressed.
Tips for Reinvigorating Commitment within a team
Maintain a "learned optimism": take five minutes at the beginning of each meeting to highlight what has already been accomplished.
Remind members of the various individual benefits that will result from successful team performance.
Couple your positive attitude with friendly assessments of what the team can be doing better.
Especially when the team seems overwhelmed, identify "small wins," simple tasks that can help a team regain its confidence and morale.
Remind members of the various individual benefits that will result from successful team performance.
Couple your positive attitude with friendly assessments of what the team can be doing better.
Especially when the team seems overwhelmed, identify "small wins," simple tasks that can help a team regain its confidence and morale.
How to resolve conflicts within a team
Diagnose the root cause of the conflict, then search for possible solutions.
Listen to what the parties are saying. Is the cause a particular behavior, a clash of personalities, or a situation? What seems to be really at stake for the members in conflict?
Find the right tone and setting for conflict resolution. Don’t take sides—moderate the discussion. Consider scripting what you plan to say, and anticipating how others will respond.
Allow the disagreeing parties to voice their feelings, and ask questions about why they feel as they do.
Encourage members to manage their emotions and to talk rationally about what can be done to solve the problem.
Work with the disagreeing parties or the entire team to identify and evaluate alternative solutions to the problem.
Think twice before replacing a member who is not a "team player."
Before removing a difficult team member, make him aware of his actions and how he negatively affects the team.
Set up an appointment with the difficult person to explain the problem.
Give him a chance to change his actions—set specific goals and deadlines for this behavior change.
If no changes are made, consider bringing the matter up for a group discussion. Do not be confrontational. Instead, allow the member to give his or her side of the story before the other team members contribute their feelings. Stay focused on the issues—don’t allow personality conflicts to take center stage.
Only if the negative behavior persists after all these interventions should you consider removing the difficult person from the team.
Discourage cliques from forming.
Teamwork calls for the collaboration of the entire team, not just a few select people. If you see cliques developing, try to break them up, if possible, by shuffling assignments, so that members who don’t know each other as well can work together.
Encourage members to forgive each other.
Encourage forgiveness by practicing forgiveness yourself. Don’t hold a grudge. Don’t harbor ill will after a conflict has been resolved. And remember to apologize when you’ve done something wrong.
Listen to what the parties are saying. Is the cause a particular behavior, a clash of personalities, or a situation? What seems to be really at stake for the members in conflict?
Find the right tone and setting for conflict resolution. Don’t take sides—moderate the discussion. Consider scripting what you plan to say, and anticipating how others will respond.
Allow the disagreeing parties to voice their feelings, and ask questions about why they feel as they do.
Encourage members to manage their emotions and to talk rationally about what can be done to solve the problem.
Work with the disagreeing parties or the entire team to identify and evaluate alternative solutions to the problem.
Think twice before replacing a member who is not a "team player."
Before removing a difficult team member, make him aware of his actions and how he negatively affects the team.
Set up an appointment with the difficult person to explain the problem.
Give him a chance to change his actions—set specific goals and deadlines for this behavior change.
If no changes are made, consider bringing the matter up for a group discussion. Do not be confrontational. Instead, allow the member to give his or her side of the story before the other team members contribute their feelings. Stay focused on the issues—don’t allow personality conflicts to take center stage.
Only if the negative behavior persists after all these interventions should you consider removing the difficult person from the team.
Discourage cliques from forming.
Teamwork calls for the collaboration of the entire team, not just a few select people. If you see cliques developing, try to break them up, if possible, by shuffling assignments, so that members who don’t know each other as well can work together.
Encourage members to forgive each other.
Encourage forgiveness by practicing forgiveness yourself. Don’t hold a grudge. Don’t harbor ill will after a conflict has been resolved. And remember to apologize when you’ve done something wrong.
How to keep a meeting right on track?
1. Follow a predetermined agenda.
If each participant knows ahead of time what will be discussed, everyone will be more likely to stick to the topics at hand.
2.Make sure that the agenda is realistic, and that the most important items are included.
3.Leave time at the end of each meeting for new business or unscheduled items.
4.Let members know they can freely contribute to discussions without fear of retribution.
5.Encourage quiet, less assertive team members to get involved.
If each participant knows ahead of time what will be discussed, everyone will be more likely to stick to the topics at hand.
2.Make sure that the agenda is realistic, and that the most important items are included.
Conflicts can start to simmer when agendas provide too little time to address issues fully, or when important subjects are left off the agenda.
3.Leave time at the end of each meeting for new business or unscheduled items.
4.Let members know they can freely contribute to discussions without fear of retribution.
All opinions, suggestions, and constructive criticism need to be welcome. Of course, this is easier said than done. You need to show support for the expression of views with which you may disagree. Tell members that no one will be censured for an unpopular opinion, as long as they’re trying to accomplish the team’s goals. Try to encourage others to explore such opinions instead of dismissing them out of hand.
5.Encourage quiet, less assertive team members to get involved.
- When you draw up the meeting’s agenda, allow time for all members to participate.
- Go around the table and ask each member to offer ideas.
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