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How Teams Can Work Better Together

Working in teams can be both beneficial and challenging at the same time. Sharing work can be less than ideal if the team members don’t work well together. In most team settings, you’ll have a leader and one or two other people who share the workload for the entire team. This can lead to pent-up feelings of resentment on the part of the worker bees, and sometimes the other team members can feel left out. Teams that work well together can greatly increase workplace productivity and creates a more cohesive company culture. Here are some tips that will help your company’s teams work well together.

Communicate Openly

When communication channels in a team are properly established and information flows easily between teammates, then that increases the ability of staff members to interact, Team members learn how to interact more efficiently with each other to perform their job duties, and they are better able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each teammate. Encourage team members to ask questions and listen to one another. This helps to build better team dynamics and stronger relationships.

Eliminate Ambiguity by Defining Roles

Have you ever experienced complete frustration at work due to unclear roles and responsibilities?
These types of problems occur when employees are unclear about their roles and responsibilities. It becomes particularly difficult when a supervisor does not “give up” the tasks she assigned to her subordinate. In some cases, it is difficult for supervisors to let go.They can be easily solved with a one to one conversation in a meeting entitled “clarifying roles and responsibilities.” This conversation should be used to discuss the specific roles of each employee and clarify who is to do what task. This usually solves the problem, but there are times when it does not.Communication will not solve the problem when a person stubbornly holds onto a role that belongs to another. It also fails to solve the problem if two people disagree about who should perform the specific role.At this point, a third party must enter the conversation to provide clarification and expectations about each employee’s assignments.

Respect individuality

Individualism promotes creativity and innovation — the lifeblood of most corporations — but it’s not terribly popular. Instead, many companies look for employees who embrace the organization’s culture and play well with others. This all-for-one-and-one-for-all structure may feel secure to those who live within it, but it stifles individualism and could cost the company its edge over competitors. When a group of people with all different skills and personalities are put together to accomplish a certain task, understanding what each team member brings to the table is critical. Each team member needs to contribute his or her strengths in order for the team to function as one.

Trust-building exercises

Trust building exercises help a team increase team trust levels.Team-building activities can be a powerful way to unite a group, develop strengths, and address weaknesses – but only if the exercises are planned and carried out strategically. In other words, there has to be a real purpose behind your decision to do the exercise – for example, improving the team’s problem-solving or creativity skills as opposed to because you felt like giving your people a nice day out of the office.

Elite Performers is a team of experts specializing in Consulting, Employee Engagement, Business and Life coaching for teams and individuals as well as Leadership training and development.

We help organizations get their people strategy right and achieve their objectives.

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Has Leadership Been Redefined?

Leadership used to be about telling people what to do. We saw the manager as “hero.” Managers were needed to solve problems, needed for their technical expertise and their know-how. They were needed to keep the ship running in tiptop shape!

All our old leadership models came from the military, where people took their command from a few people at the top. These models don’t work in today’s world. As the industrial age models rust, the power has shifted from the people who sell, to the people who buy.

Today’s business leader needs to a master juggler, and a compassionate listener. She needs to be savvy and intuitive and sharp as a tack in business matters. Most of all today’s leader needs to be able to mobilize HUMAN energy, align it and direct it towards a single goal – creating more value for the customer. This, in turn creates a more profitable company. Companies that have high levels of customer happiness and employee happiness outperform those who don’t.

Creative thinker – Einstein said, “The world we have created is a product of our way of thinking” Nothing will change in the future without fundamentally new ways of thinking.

If we want to create a new world we have to first change our thinking and thinking patterns. 80% of the population thinks reactively. They take action to make something go away (usually a problem.) The other 20% are creative thinkers – they take action to make something come into being (the creation.)

Creative thinkers thrive on the question “What’s Possible?” Reactive thinkers ask, “What’s wrong?” or “Who’s to blame?” Reactive thinkers live in reaction and response to circumstances. Creative thinkers go beyond circumstances.

The next quality of tomorrow’s leader is “Change readiness.” The Change-ready individual embraces change. They understand the process of change and how it affects most people, and is skilled at enrolling people in it with a minimum amount of fear.

Most people do resist change – that’s because it forces us right out of our comfort zones. A leader knows how to move people out of their comfort zones with dignity and respect. He helps people share a “common understanding” of the past and why they need to change it and then provides them with a positive image of their future along with actions they can all agree will move them in the right direction.

A leader is a landscape architect. It’s her primary job to build a living environment– called culture. Culture is the soul of the enterprise. Today’s leader is a master “culture-crafter.” He or she sculpts and crafts an environment that stimulates, excites and invites people to be the best they can be.

The architect leader knows that the ability to create a nourishing and challenging environment for people to grow in is more important than any technical skill she can possess.

Continuous Improvement – The leader of tomorrow will regularly challenge old beliefs and be passionate about learning and about applying that learning in the real world. She will often ask my favorite question “Who is doing something differently then I am and what can I learn from them?”

The new leader is authentic. How and who you are is just as important as what you know! Hold yourself to the highest standards – don’t talk the talk unless you are prepared to walk the walk. Don’t expect of others what you don’t expect from your self. Be real, tell the truth. The leaders that are the most revered are those that let the light of who they are shine through in all they do. They are honest, forthright and clear.

Our new leader is a visionary. It’s clearly documented that visionary leaders are successful at mobilizing human potential. A vision provides focus. It’s a tool for aligning energy. Clear vision and purpose provide people with a framework from which to make decisions, it organizes action and effort.

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What they not telling you to be effective

You’ve probably heard people talking about coaching in the workplace. You might have even received some coaching in the past, or you might have used coaching to improve a person’s performance, even if you didn’t actually describe it as “coaching” at the time.

But what actually is coaching, and how do you use it? And what skills do you need to be an effective coach?
In this article, we’ll look at the basics of coaching in the workplace. We’ll clarify what it involves, and review the key approaches that you can use to be a successful coach. We’ll also review some situations where coaching can be useful, and look at some examples of coaching questions.

Coaching is a deliberate process utilizing focused conversations to create an environment for individual growth, purposeful action, and sustained improvement. It is designed to help people focus on what they need to do more and less of to achieve their goals.
In addition, coaching is a one-to-one process and a relationship between an individual and a coach, usually via telephone, with specific objectives and goals focused on developing potential, improving relationships, and enhancing performance. Coaching uses a formal yet personalized approach that integrates proven techniques for change with behavioral knowledge and hands-on practice. Coaching breaks down barriers to help achieve greater levels of accomplishment. It is a process of self-leadership that enables people to gain clarity about who they are, what they are doing, why they are doing it, and where they want to go.
Coaching is a useful way of developing people’s skills and abilities, and of boosting performance. It can also help deal with issues and challenges before they become major problems.
A coaching session will typically take place as a conversation between the coach and the coachee (person being coached), and it focuses on helping the coachee discover answers for themselves. After all, people are much more likely to engage with solutions that they have come up with themselves, rather than those that are forced upon them!
In some organizations, coaching is still seen as a corrective tool, used only when things have gone wrong. But in many companies, coaching is considered to be a positive and proven approach for helping others explore their goals and ambitions, and then achieve them.
Coaches in the workplace are not counselors, psychotherapists, gurus, teachers, trainers, or consultants – although they may use some of the same skills and tools.
Most formal, professional coaching is carried out by qualified people who work with clients to improve their effectiveness and performance, and help them achieve their full potential. Coaches can be hired by coachees, or by their organizations. Coaching on this basis works best when everyone clearly understands the reason for hiring a coach, and when they jointly set the expectations for what they want to achieve through coaching.
However, managers and leaders in the organization can be just as effective as externally hired coaches. Managers don’t have to be trained formally as coaches. As long as they stay within the scope of their skill set, and maintain a structured approach, they can add value, and help develop their people’s skills and abilities

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How to get Employees Engaged

So far we have discussed the evolution and definition of employee engagement, the factors that affect it and importance of employee engagement explaining how it is linked to business performance. Now, at this stage any
inquisitive reader may ask a question: So what? Employee engagement strategies listed below answer this question. In order to have engaged employees in any organization, managers need to look at the following ten strategies

1. Start it on day one: Most organizations do have clear new talent acquisition strategies. However, they lack employee retention strategies. Effective recruitment and orientation programs are the first building
blocks to be laid on the first day of the new employee. Managers should be careful in pooling out the potential talent of the new employee through effective recruitment. The newly hired employee should be given both general orientation which is related to the company mission, vision, values, policies and
procedures and job-specific orientation such as his/her job duties, and responsibilities, goals and current priorities of the department to which the employee belongs in order to enable him/her to develop
realistic job expectations and reduce role conflict that might arise in the future. After the hiring decision is made, the manager has to ensure role-talent fit when placing an employee in a certain position and exert all managerial efforts needed to retain that talent in the organization.
2. Start it from the top: Employee engagement requires leadership commitment through establishing clear mission, vision and values. Unless the people at the top believe in it, own it, pass it down to managers and employees, and enhance their leadership, employee engagement will never be more than just a “corporate fad” or “another HR thing”. Employee engagement does not need lip-service rather dedicated heart and action-oriented service from top management. It requires “Leading by Being example”
3. Enhance employee engagement through two-way communication:Managers should promote two-way communication. Employees are not sets of pots to which you pour out your ideas without giving them a chance to have a say on issues that matter to their job and life. Clear and consistent communication of what is expected of them paves the way for engaged workforce. Involve your people and always show respect to their input. Share power with your employees through participative decision
making so that they would feel sense of belonging thereby increasing their engagement in realizing it.
4. Give satisfactory opportunities for development and advancement: Encourage independent thinking through giving them more job autonomy so that employees will have a chance to make their
own freedom of choosing their own best way of doing their job so long as they are producing the expected result. Manage through results rather than trying to manage all the processes by which that result is achieved.
5. Ensure that employees have every thing they need to do their jobs: Managers are expected to make sure that employees have all the resources such as physical or material, financial and information resources in order to effectively do their job.
6. Give employees appropriate training: Help employees update themselves increasing their knowledge and skills through giving appropriate trainings. Generally it is understood that when employees get to
know more about their job, their confidence increases there by being able to work without much supervision from their immediate managers which in turn builds their self-efficacy and commitment.
7. Have a strong feedback system: Companies should develop a performance management system which holds managers and employees accountable for the level of engagement they have shown. Conducting regular survey of employee engagement level helps make out factors that make employees engaged.
After finalizing the survey, it is advisable to determine all the factors that driving engagement in the organization, then narrow down the list of factors to focus on two or three areas. It is important that organizations begin with a concentration on the factors that will make the most difference to the
employees and put energy around improving these areas as it may be difficult to address all factors at once. Managers should be behind such survey results and develop action-oriented plans that are specific, measurable, and accountable and time- bound.
8. Incentives have a part to play: Managers should work out both financial and non-financial benefits for employees who show more engagement in their jobs. Several management theories have indicated that when employees get more pay, recognition and praise, they tend to exert more effort into their job.
There should be a clear link between performance and incentives given to the employees.
9. Build a distinctive corporate culture: Companies should promote a strong work culture in which the goals and values of managers are aligned across all work sections. Companies that build a culture of
mutual respect by keeping success stories alive will not only keep their existing employees engaged but also they baptize the new incoming employees with this contagious spirit of work culture.
10. Focus on top-performing employees: Studies show that high-performing organizations are focusing on engaging their top performing employees or what we call Elite Performers. According to the finding of the same research, what high-performing firms are doing is what top-performing employees are asking for and this reduces the turnover of high-performing employees and as a result leads to top business performance.

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The Elite Performer

High performance employees see quality as a priority in the workplace. They focus on doing a good job to satisfy clients and customers. They concentrate on improving their skills and take the lead when it comes time to make decisions. These characteristics add to their skills and talent to provide innovation and new development within the company or organization. Do you have these individuals within your team?

Have a sense of “control”

Autonomy provides a key ingredient of top performers in the workplace. High performance employees manage their time, complete their workload and learn from their experience to plan ahead with a great deal of autonomy. Top performers report they have more flexibility than typical performers, according to research and surveys on employees conducted by Accenture, a global management consulting firm. Average performers have little or no autonomy, having their jobs closely monitored by supervisors. High performers rely on their strengths and insights to get the job done.

Input and Feedback

High performers seek input and feedback from their supervisors. They want more detailed information about their work, so they can stay on check with their job performance. High performance employees also keep track of the influence and knowledge within the organization. They will have frequent contact with supervisors and managers in other departments and subsequently use the input from the overall organization to develop new ideas. They know when to take the “lead, follow or get out of the way” approach constructively.

Proactive or Reactive

A self-directed approach allows high performers to know what they need to do to support their career development and to help the organization. The high performance employee remains motivated and self-initiating. High performers are more likely to perform research on their own or spend significantly more time in training programs than typical performers. They may look for new assignments or projects to take on and search for opportunities to try something different. They continue to learn new responsibilities to take the next step in their careers. They are eager to handle challenges that help them learn and grow.

Networking Skills

High performers have people-oriented and strong relationship-building skills. Good networking skills help high performers to reach out through the organization and at outside sources to gather information and contribute ample knowledge to the organization. Top performers have larger networks than the usual worker. They can quickly call on these contacts and sources, whether within the company or outside the organization, whenever the need arises. This ability to collaborate with others provides growth for the high performance employee and benefits the company or organization.

Adaptive

A top performer keeps cool under pressure. High performance employees remain emotionally stable and consistent in their style of working and leadership. They will compromise and be open minded when the time is right to change positions instead of being stubborn or resistant. This helps top performers learn quickly and become excellent problem solvers.

Elite Performers is a team of experts specializing in Consulting, Employee Engagement, Business and Life coaching for teams and individuals as well as Leadership training and development.

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