“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
Each of us is a member of a team – be it through family, sports, work, community, church, etc. Within each of these teams, there is bound to be differences in opinions. In fact, many times those differences can actually elevate the team to the next level of performance. Disagreement and diversity are natural, and they can be quite productive. How does one deal with these differences and resolve these issues? The answers to these questions are vital to making the team work and function as a unit.
How does one go about creating a win-win solution, when a team is faced with various challenges? How do team members go about defeating the challenge rather than defeating each other? How do team members develop trust so that all members in the team can win?
1. Recognize and acknowledge differences – this is, at times, difficult but extremely helpful to the team. Issues, challenges, or conflicts must be recognized and discussed. This recognition helps the team come together to find a mutually agreed upon solution or goal that will help each team member find greater commitment in working together.
2. Gain common ground – how can you put the conflict in perspective with team goals? Is everyone on the team committed to the team goals? Are there issues that could prevent the goals from being attained? If so, these matters need to be brought forward.
3. Understand different opinions – step in another’s shoes to gain their insight. This step is intended to gain insight, not necessarily to gain agreement.
4. Work to overcome the issue – differences in opinion are acceptable and even welcome! Remember, attack the issues and not the person. As a team, what is the best solution that can help the team achieve its goals? One should not have to compromise his or her values in reaching a solution.
5. Develop a plan of action – outline what each member of the team will do, and be extremely specific. This document will also serve as an accountability document.
6. Follow up – put the plan into action, follow up, and revise as needed in order to optimize performance.
“No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.”
The helm or steering mechanism of a ship adjusts the angle of the rudder, and in turn, changes the direction of the ship. In the 18th century as technology increased ships began to increase in size. While this growth was advantageous, at the same time the ships became increasingly difficult to control. Thus a ship master needed an invention to foster technical growth but at the same time keep the ship on course. Today’s steering wheel was designed to connect to the tiller of the boat, with a block and tackle. This addition provided a considerable increase in the ship’s mechanical capabilities and resulted in smoother operations with less effort.
I relate this story of the steering wheel because the world economy is going through some stormy waters. Although the changes going on may turn out to be good in the long run, it is still difficult to stay the course in the middle of these “troubled waters”. More than ever we need strong leaders to step up and take the “helm”, provide guidance, and “steer” their teams in the right direction.
A strong leader will effectively partner with each employee and provide direction, guidance, and coaching. He or she can help team member adjust their personal courses and move into “smooth water”.
Providing constant support takes a lot of effort but it will be worth it in the long run. Consider the following points when helping your team stay afloat:
Communicating frequently with each team member
-Will reduce or eliminate fear of the unknown
-Encourages confidence in individual performance
Building understanding within your team
-Instills ownership in the tasks to ensure success
-Keeps each person focused on the goal
Encouraging respect between members
-Promotes synergy
-Supports a relaxed and engaging environment
Maintaining your integrity
-Retains trust in you and the organization high
-Inspires integrity from team members
“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what is required.”
The benefits to building an effective team within the workplace cannot be understated. Yet, after you laid the groundwork for a great team, maintenance is the most important factor.
No one doubts the importance of team building in an organization, but the necessity to maintain the team and continually foster an environment where it can grow is sometimes overlooked. Just like any engine in a car, in order for all the pieces to function perfectly and reliably, the integral parts must be serviced regularly. Effective coaching for your team may mean the difference between significant long-term productivity and a slow decline into obsolesce.
Effective Communication The most significant factor in any team is the ability to communicate skillfully. As a leader it is extremely important for you to be honest in evaluating the team’s communication skill. Every system naturally has a tendency to break down. This isn’t just my opinion; it is the way of all human interaction. Without consistent lubrication and preventive maintenance to keep your people performing at their best, your team will digress into a meaningless machine. The key is to think creatively when renewing team purpose and commitment.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
Remember, no matter what kind of problem your team may be facing, chances are someone else that someone has already dealt with a similar issue and has a unique way to approach it. Seek these people out with a passion; they will inspire both you and your team to excel. Standing on the shoulders of others is a critical key to transformation and forward progress of your team. You may be able to apply the previously developed method rather than the spending your valuable time on your own trial and error.
Check in Regularly
Good communication means just that – going the extra step to assure progress. Checking in with your team members means more than making sure their productivity is staying high. A teammate who is at the end of his rope when it comes to workload may seem productive; right up to the moment that he ‘breaks.’ When this happens, the personnel gap may cost you more money than if you had checked in frequently with the team member and discovered the issues before they became problems.
This post was contributed by Alisa Johnson, a guest writer, who writes about the top online business school. She welcomes your feedback at Alisa.Johnson1982 at gmail.com
Recently, I spent a wonderful day teaching team concepts to individuals from various teams for an organization on the East Coast of the US. During our group discussions, one participant shared that her team had been struggling for many months. In fact, there were so many problems with this team that it had been reorganized on four different occasions. She was frustrated, unhappy, and discouraged. When she described the team, I could see how difficult this experience had been for her. She wanted some answers to these problems and solicited ideas from the class as to what to do.Tips and suggestions came quickly and easy from the class members. As a group we talked about disciplinary action to team members for poor performance. Others suggested a team retreat, while others pointed out that another reorganization of the team might be needed.
I listened intently to the discussion and even offered a few suggestions myself. Although the leader of this team had tried to fix the structure of the team, in an effort to get them on track, to me, structure was not the problem. In this situation, the problem was a lack in other key elements of effective teams. One of the areas clearly missing with this team was clarity of purpose. This team lacked direction and had too many members feeling vague about the team’s mission, goals, and ultimate objectives for working together. Teams without clear direction are easy to spot.
Some of the symptoms of a team without direction include:
1. Team members who struggle with change.
2. Team members with competing priorities.
3. A lack of communication within the team that causes ambiguity.
4. Lack of accountability for missteps toward the team’s goals and objectives.If we look closely at world class teams, we see that they understand to the nth degree their mission.
Team members with clear direction know where they are going, and what they are doing to help the team reach its objective. I find that high performing teams can easily answer these questions:
1. What is our team’s singular reason for existence?
2. What are our strategic priorities?
3. What are the shared values that will guide behavior and actions of each team member?
Teams performing below standard often try to fix the wrong thing. In many cases it isn’t who is on the team, but more about the direction and clarity of the team’s mission. I believe that the first step in achieving effective teamwork is to create a clear direction for the team members need to give their full commitment to the team’s performance.
Without direction and accountability, teams will have varying degrees of performance and failure. So if your team is performing less than up to par, ask yourself if the team understands its direction.
Never Too Young
My grandson has a passion for the Disney movie “Cars.” I’m sure you know the movie well but as a quick reminder, the story centers on a rookie car, Lightning McQueen, who is so intent on winning a cup race to get a big name sponsor that he ignores everything and everyone. In the movie, he learns to care for more than just his immediate dream. After he understands what it means to be a team member, he willingly gives up his win in order to help a competitor cross the finish line.
The Real Story
The real story, of course, is the community in which Lightning learns to become a team member. He is forced to interact and communicate with a diverse group of personalities; crude and naïve, secretive and bossy, nosy and busy, hard of hearing and shy, foreign and domestic, pro and anti military. The story shows that it takes hard work to become a team and members don’t always make the right choices. Yet, when a group works together and, yes, finds time to play together a deep and strong bond or “community” is developed. This diverse community opens up opportunities that cannot and will not occur if team members had to work alone.
In their book, The Team Approach: With Teamwork Anything is Possible , Dr. Stowell and Ms. Mead describe this community as “the relationships, culture, and environment that create a sense of kinship or special chemistry in a group of people who are working for a shared purpose.” This type of community has to be created and sustained. It doesn’t develop naturally and if it is not nurtured, the community will fail.
The Community
An organization or team can be the whole or, simply, a part of a community. In the movie Lightning McQueen becomes a member of two communities. His first is the racing community consisting of his sponsor, Rusteze, Mack the truck, and the pit crew. Lightning resists and even resents these characters. The second is a dying community of quite eccentric characters. They teach Lightning to care about others by their example of integrity, honesty, and open respect, acceptance, and compassion for each other.
This type of community is critical to the development of quality teams. Teams need members with high integrity, compassion, acceptance, and a deep sense of respect for others. A team cannot achieve amazing results when its members are intent on fulfilling individual goals, too often at the expense of other members, and oblivious to team needs.
In order to successfully position your organization in the marketplace, leadership teams must create a compelling and distinctive value proposition. Customers must believe you are there to champion their needs, not just to make a profit. However, defining a really attractive value proposition is actually the easy part. The hard part is getting the organization totally aligned and in sync with a customer focused value proposition. Everyone in the organization must understand and see that the customer is part of their personal responsibility. This customer-oriented culture relies on front line leaders that help people understand how they fit into the strategic management of the business and why they matter.
If you can get people to think strategically about the customer at an individual level and act in ways to exceed their current and emerging expectations, you can keep the organization well ahead of your rivals. However, developing a passion for customer problems and creating solutions doesn’t come naturally to most people and can be challenging to develop. Begin by thinking about your own experience. Ask yourself how well you like doing business with the last company that had lack of interest in your problem? In fact, you might even ask yourself if your current suppliers are anticipating your future needs and problems.
More than 30 years of strategic management and consulting experience has indicated to us that “customer acumen” is the heart of successful business strategy. However, creating this customer oriented culture is hard work and it is not an exact science. Here are a few tips to get started:
Insure everyone in your organization understands that giving customers value is a clear priority. Leaders at all levels have to instill a deep understanding and reverence for what the company stands for and what your value proposition is. In essence, knowing what the company is trying to be, why the company does the unique activities it does, and why these activities are hard to replicate by competitors. A customer centric culture is a function of the behaviors, attitudes, and training of each individual employee.
As leaders you have to preach customer value every opportunity you get. This movement must become part of the daily vernacular. Let people know that bringing value to the customer is the core goal of the organization. Then, coach employees to take responsibility and act in ways that show they embrace customer value.
Finally, give them honest and immediate feedback when they succeed and when they come up short. The end goal is to help members of your organization understand that creating value for the customer is the ultimate measure of their success. It is what keeps you in business and pays the bills. To do this, leaders need to understand their role as change agents and coaches. You must extend the call to all leaders to be courageous coaches and hold people accountable. It is also important that leaders receive development opportunities so they know what feedback and coaching looks like and feels like. These discussions are different than the usual business opportunity discussions. Robust coaching sessions will focus on strengths, weaknesses, and actual behaviors that are occurring on the job.
With active strategic management you can achieve long-term sustained success for your employees, customers, and owners. Once people understand their role as customer advocates, they will begin to see opportunities to grow the business and serve customers by exceeding today’s needs, anticipating future problems, and creating innovation solutions. As leaders and employees alike become comfortable challenging the status quo, they will create a dynamic and rewarding organization for everyone.
Cold and Flu season has been in full force the past few months. It seems that every individual in our office has been affected in one way or another. If not themselves, it’s been a team or family member hit hard by the latest “sickness” that happens to be going around. I would advise against taking them any hot chicken noodle soup. In doing so, you might be tempted to take a little work to your sick teammate. Avoiding this temptation will be better for you and your teammate in the long run. You want your teammate better as soon as possible. Have the soup delivered instead!
Much like your family or area in which you live, your workplace team is a community. Linked together for the common good, there is a certain level of interdependence. When affected by the cold and flu season, our team understands that everyone will “step up” and give a little extra in support for those unable to hold their own.
When a team member falls short, we must get involved and make sure that the team does not fail. It isn’t selfish, but reality is if the team doesn’t perform and succeed, it is a reflection on us all.
The trust and respect of all team members for each other fosters good will and a sense of security. That feeling of belonging and safety allows us to know that even if we are out with the flu, our team has our backs; assuring projects and deadlines are being met, taking care of customer needs, and following up with urgent matters.
I mention the cold and flu season as an example and because this is actually happening within our office, but the reality is that there are many events in our lives that will force us to depend on others; if we’re lucky, a team. The security of knowing you’re not on your own is the true meaning of teamwork.
Each of us is a member of a team – be it through family, sports, work, community, church, etc. Within each of these teams, there is bound to be differences in opinions. In fact, many times those differences can actually elevate the team to the next level of performance. Disagreement and diversity are natural, and they can be quite productive. How does one deal with these differences and resolve these issues? The answers to these questions are vital to making the team work and function as a unit.
The most significant factor in any team is the ability to communicate skillfully. As a leader it is extremely important for you to be honest in evaluating the team’s communication skill. Every system naturally has a tendency to break down. This isn’t just my opinion; it is the way of all human interaction. Without consistent lubrication and preventive maintenance to keep your people performing at their best, your team will digress into a meaningless machine. The key is to think creatively when renewing team purpose and commitment.
With active 
