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"Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success."
- Henry Ford
"Teamwork
is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon
results.”
- Andrew Carnegie
Performance
Solutions for Organizational
and
Management Effectiveness
GrowingCoaches.com
"Leadership is the ability to get extraordinary achievement from ordinary people."
- Brian Tracy
Some previous enotes
"Help
Coach-Managers Refuse the Monkey"
5
Steps to Leadership Renewal
Top
10 Tips for Managers to Coach Effectively
(read more)
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Take
a close look at teams and you'll see that some function well, some
just function, while others fail. How is your team doing ? Below,
you'll see 4 Failure Factors that challenge teams.
Also, don't miss our next
Excel enote,
The
7 Habits of Collaborative Coaches by Chuck Reynolds, our
Chief Performance Officer
Best Regards,
Heidi
Excel Group Client Services
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Team
Effectiveness
and
Teambuilding by
Chuck Reynolds
4
Failure Factors Challenging Team Effectiveness
Frequently,
organizations contact us to ask…”Do you do anything for
Teambuilding?”
What
they’re referring to is, although they already have a team
(recently formed or otherwise), the team is often not
performing as effectively as it could. In some cases it may be
downright “failing” with increasing negative impact on
performance. Have you ever experienced this? So, while people may
ask for help “creating or building the team” they really need
help to “build team effectiveness” within a pre-existing group.
4
Failure Factors that
Challenge Team Effectiveness
Failure
Factor #1 – Lack of
clarity of unified purpose.
Are all people on the same page
with respect to goal and role clarity? If
you were to ask each person to email you the top 3 priorities of
the team, how congruent would they be? Team effectiveness
requires group and individual clarity. My friend Brian
Tracy says that with respect to goals (team or individual)
there are 3 steps for the starting point: Clarity, Clarity and
Clarity. Ensure clarity of purpose to enhance engagement. Think
end result and metrics.
Failure
Factor # 2 – Non
productive conflict.
The
healthy expression of different viewpoints is important for team
productivity and innovative output. Too often, however, the
challenge a team faces is conflict arising from different
behavioral styles or interests (often referred to as personality
clashes) and the lack
of understanding of how to optimize style differences as team
strengths. Realizing
this common failure, many experienced
managers/team leaders engage the group in using a
pyscometric survey as part of a “team communication process”.
As
part of this process each team member will complete a behavioral style survey,
and
will receive an individual
personal profile. The
group will then get together off site for a half day or a day to
process the results collectively, to
enhance team understanding and participate in some team exercises.
Often this has more sustainable impact than just "fun team
exercises” - including the outdoor experiential type.
Failure
Factor # 3 –
Lack of
follow up or regular communication.
For
some teams, the lack of a follow up structure is very problematic.
While some people demonstrate a strong capacity to remain focused
on their own without follow up and regular communication,
initial levels of commitment can be undermined over time. This is often the
case when the team is geographically dispersed, and may be
exacerbated when some work in very remote areas without
colleagues, or even work from home. When team projects are
underway, effective teams build in regular checkpoints for
accountability. Having team members in different locations use
technology such as web meetings and team
webinars can be very productive.
Failure
Factor # 4- Lack of Trust
Though
most agree that this is significant in a team, they often have a
challenge describing it and the associated behaviors that build
and reduce trust. The importance of Trust is often more
significant, and can also be more complex, than it appears. Studies
indicate that the higher the level of trust in a team or
organizational culture, the more open communication as well as
innovation. When the trust level is low, communication, open
sharing and innovation is diminished. What are some trust builders? According to Stephen Covey, trust is built up or diminished over
time. You may be aware that he refers to the emotional bank
account concept. He further indicates that it’s the small
consistent behaviors that one engages in that can build or destroy
trust. Do you listen fully without interrupting?
Do you keep promises (big and small)? Are you punctual?
Do you say what you really think? For successful entrepreneurs,
Covey says this is crucial to teamwork.
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Want
to Achieve
More this year?
I
trust this note finds you well. How has the first
month of your new year been? (If
celebrating the Chinese New Year - Gung
Hey Fat Choy)
I
don’t know about you, but I’ve often disliked the
sluggish feeling after the holiday celebration. With a
demanding schedule of travel, and corporate lunches/parties,
this year I made a decision to do things a little
differently. I determined in November that I wanted to
challenge myself and regain a higher fitness and energy
level for 2006, possibly training for another marathon. In
December I was careful not to overeat and when I traveled, I
ensured that all my hotels had good gyms for workouts. This year
on New Years morning I was to go out for a run with a partner, but since
the weather wasn’t the greatest, she decided to join me at
my gym
(thanks, Dunfield Club!) since hers opened later. We arrived at
7:45am
and were able to get in (though it
didn’t open until 8). The place was so dead, we had all 4
floors to ourselves along with 3 other people. A week later,
I missed one
morning workout and went in the evening. As in every January
and February it was way too busy with all the resolution
folks!
How
has your year started ? By
maintaining my start to the year, I’ve been able to bring
a superior energy to various goals we have ahead of us as
well as handling some urgent personal goals. We’re off to
a great start with new innovations to be launched, but the
bad news is….I need some new clothes as I’ve dropped
some inches off my waist again. When leading others, we
lead ourselves first. May the rest of the year be a great
one for you personally and professionally. May
you make take time to build your physical health/energy to
support your achievement in all the other important areas of
your life.
As I often
like to ask... On a scale of 1
to 5, how are you doing in these areas? 1)
Regular exercise (walk, swim, run, bike, etc.) 2)
Healthy Diet ("you become what you eat"), and 3)
Rest and Rejuvenation (Stephen Covey's Sharpening the Saw
concept). If you will commit to addressing these areas in the
next 21 days, you will be amazed at your increased energy
levels. What will you commit to doing to enhance
your energy level? Your team depends on it. Go for it.
email
me
In the
Spirit of Growth
...Chuck
Chuck Reynolds is a Principal and
Chief Performance Officer with Excel
Group Development, a Performance Solutions firm that assists
organizations in enhancing management and team effectiveness. He can be reached
indirectly by emailing our
admin group. Insert 'ATTN Chuck' in the subject area. Visit them at www.GrowingCoaches.com
© Rights Reserved 2006
Excel Group Development Services Inc. Feel free to forward this article
in its entirety to any colleagues or associates as you wish. Any third party links from
our web
pages are not endorsed by Excel Group, and are simply provided for information and research
purposes.
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