Three Simple Steps to a
Great Team
Susan Rochester: Balance at Work
We all want teams that work
together productively, even when we’re not
there. How to you achieve this goal?
Here are my three simple steps to having a
‘dream team’.
- Design
This is the most important step and
probably the step that is most overlooked.
Have you notice that when a national
sporting team loses a championship, the
selectors are among the first to be blamed.
That’s just one example of how important it
is to get this step right!
To have an effective business, we need an
effective team (or teams). Without it you’ll
waste a lot of time and money and as Michael
Gerber said “If your business depends on
you, you don’t have a business, you have a
job. And it’s the worst job in the world
because you’re working for a lunatic!”
We know the design is important. We know we
need to do it. But where do we start? I
advise my clients to start with just one
question: What would it take for my team to
be complete?
You may already have a team in place or you
might not have started your team yet. It
doesn’t matter – you still must reflect on
this question, in the context of what you
want your team to achieve.
What would your ideal team look like? Get it
down in detail, including skills, beliefs,
values, attitudes, potential, work
preferences and relationships.
- Combine
The second step is to take the results
of your design process and analyse how this
relates to your current team. In the case of
a new team, you now have a blueprint for
recruiting the right team members.
In the words of Jim Collins in ‘Good to
Great’: “If we get the right people on the
bus, the right people in the right seats and
the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll
figure out how to take it someplace great”.
This step is where you can triumph or where
it can all start to fall apart. If you don’t
get the right mix – or you don’t put in the
effort that’s necessary to get a team
working smoothly together, you’re sure to
run into issues.
Problems with your team might manifest in
underperformance or subtle signs such as
poor timekeeping and complaints about
management and co-workers.
When issues arise, a common response is to
book the team for some team-building
activity or a retreat. Your typical
team-building challenge is great for getting
out of the office and having some fun
together.
Will it solve your team issues in the long
term? Probably not!
Instead, I recommend examining the
individual strengths of your team members
and analysing how you can combine and use
those strengths to greater effect. It’s much
easier to build on existing strengths within
the team than to try to create something new
in an artificial situation.
An experienced coach can help you with the
analysis and this vital step of combining.
- Refine
This step is all about lifting your team
to the next level of performance.
You will know you are at the optimum level
of teamwork when everyone on the team
experiences the ‘CEO of Teamwork’:
Challenge, Enjoyment and Opportunity. If you
don’t aim to provide these things, it’s
likely that your team members will find
other employers and/or other managers who
do.
Let’s say you already have a good team in
place. How do you know what to do to make a
difference? A good starting point would be
to ask yourself to what extent the work in
your team offers the individual members
challenge, enjoyment and opportunity.
If your reflection identifies any gaps, try
asking the team how they think teamwork
could be improved. If you use an anonymous
survey with targeted questions, you will be
surprised at how much useful information
you’ll gain. (Consider using a coach or
consultant to do the survey for you.)
With each of these steps, once you have the
information you need, the most important
thing is to use it to develop an action plan
that will lead you and the team closer to
being a ‘dream team’.
Source:
Balance At Work
Disclaimer: Links to third-party web sites
are provided for your convenience only.
Subscribe-HR does not endorse nor support
the content of third-party links.
Subscribe-HR is not responsible for the
content of a third-party web site. By
clicking on a third-party link, you will
leave the Subscribe-HR web site. Privacy and
security policies may differ from those
practiced by Subscribe-HR. Subscribe-HR does
not represent either the third-party or the
customer if the two enter into a
transaction. |
