I know this is gonna sound a little ridiculous but we hear so often in corporate America the phrases team development or team cooperation or team engagement just to name a few. I think it's vital we obviously have strong teams that we manage but what does a strong team actually mean? I am not here to tell you that answer rather challenge you to create your own answer.
So often we hear phrases such as motivate your team, inspire your team, challenge your team, etc. A team is a very brittle entity that requires definition, development, challenges, and a close eye. The process of developing team is certainly very subjective but here are five steps we encourage managers to utilize in some fashion:
- Define what team means and/or define what team means with your team's help.
- After the definition has been completed ask the staff to identify performance attributes and characteristics that represent that team definition. The key is to hold people accountable to these attributes and characteristics as just one deviation from one employee can have the power to erode the whole team concept.
- After completing stages one and two create a plan and a stream of consciousness to coach to those attributes and characteristics on a scheduled and continuous basis.
- Find a tool that can actually measure those attributes and characteristics both internally and potentially with third-party observation such as another department or manager.
- Facilitate team interaction outside of what the team actually does. For example, think about having a day of random acts of kindness with people pairing up in groups of two and performing such acts of kindness for people in other departments inside your organization. Think about the impact this has on the relationship of each pair as well as the perception of other people from other departments. These acts seem so corny and cliche but they actually help create cultures that are cooperative and very team driven.
Would you like to measure nine attributes that affect your team?: click here
