Impolding Structure from www.washington.edu

You have always suspected that members of your team are not happy and yet when you ask what happened, you don’t get any good answers. You’re sure that there’s something wrong, but you just can’t confirm it. How can you tell if your team is at risk? 

1.    Some members of the group feel frustrated and sometimes avoid bringing out certain issues when it is important. 

2.    There’s unresolved conflict in the group. They might even avoid meetings to keep away from meeting the person they are unhappy with. 

3.    Team members start to complain about each other and say “Just between you and me, I believe that Jack is …..” 

4.    Members start to point fingers and lay blame at each other. 

5.    You start seeing small cliques within the group; each trying to support their friends in discussions. 

6.    Worst of all, anything you say, seems to be the best idea and you are constantly reminded that your ideas will make a huge difference in their lives. 

What can you do? 

1.    Remember that when people come together, conflict is inevitable. Rather than call it conflict, we should call them reasonable engagements. It is reasonable to engage your team members in a conversation. Conflict resolution skills should be developed to handle different opinions, rather than avoiding conflicts. 

2.    People do not need you to necessary agree with them on everything but they need you to hear them out. Once team members have spoken, they tend not to harbor resentment. 

3.    Be sure to remind your team that they are challenging ideas and not each other. 

4.    Check if team members share the same objectives, it is simply impossible to solve issues if they do not have that common ground. 

5.    Help members understand that the group’s interest takes precedence over self interest. 

6.    Educate team members about the different working styles and personalities of each member. Tools such as DISC personality profiling assessments have been used by over 50 million people, many of them in the Fortune 500 companies. 

To prevent a group from disintegrating, a leader must be sharp to detect the symptoms and then apply the necessary ways to address them. I have personally learn from my mistakes that whenever team problems arise, I must address them quickly. Failing so will lead to a lot more problems in the future.

Want to know ways to increase your team work and by helping your managers work on their team management abilities? Contact Kenneth now.

Related Articles: 

Here Are The Limitations Of Most Teambuilding Programs 

How Teamwork Helps You Achieve More With Less 

Getting People to Consistently Trust You In All You have to say 

10 Ways to Inspire Team Members to Consistently Give Their Best

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People Resigning from whyatt.com.au

Whenever a person leaves a company, it is estimated to cost their employers about 2 years of that person’s salary. This cost comprises of rehiring, training, loss of contacts that this person might have, employee benefits and etc. During exit interviews, I don’t think you will actually hear the REAL reasons why they leave. After talking to many professionals and including HR practitioners, I have concluded that in most instances, people actually leave their bosses, not their jobs.

I understand that there might be other push/pull factors for a person to leave; however, I will just focus on the reasons to why people leave their bosses (or managers).

1. Poor leadership skills of bosses

One of the main reasons is that their immediate bosses tend to have poor leadership skills. Bosses tend to give them unclear job descriptions, make them work hard without proper recognition/rest, are picky or have poor people skills. Making staff work hard is not the main issue, but not giving them the proper respect and acknowledgment at work is extremely frustrating to their staff. There are some bosses who also tend to be insecure in their role, pushing their staff down, while ensuring that they be acknowledged for every level of success their staff brings.

2. They are micro-managed by their bosses
If a staff is constantly asked by his/her superior on the progress of their work and had them to intervene in the way they do things, they will tend to be frustrated. Bosses intervene mainly because there is a lack of trust in their staff’s quality of work. It is better for bosses to actually manage based on end results rather than day to day monitoring.

3. Bosses with hidden agendas
The lack of trust between staff and boss tend to produce conversations with hidden meanings. When trust is low, people start to guess what their boss actually mean in their conversations. Some bosses speak in meetings to seemingly care for their departments, but often their staff feel that there is a hidden purpose behind every statement. Some people have even commented that their bosses are political and hide behind different meanings in a statement. The way to combat such ill feelings is to be forth-coming, truthful and transparent in the way you relate to staff.

4.    Bosses not delivering promises

Have you heard of the following statements:

“I have plans to promote you in the next few months” or “If you were to achieve these targets, you can expect _____” to only find out that your boss did not fulfill his/her promise?

The thing I am trying to bring across is that sometimes managers don’t deliver on what they say. It only needs to happen only once before people starting doubting everything their boss says. The only way to address this issue is to consistently say what you mean and mean what you say.

Conclusion

Whenever people leave, take a good look at the leaders. In most cases, people leave their bosses, not their jobs. In order to stop great people from leaving, always start with working on the way leaders lead their people.

PS: I would love to hear your comments. Do let me know what you think! If you have other reasons, do share them in the comment link above this article.

Popularity: 100% [?]

I have spoken to many clients about their teambuilding needs and realised that many companies want to have teambuilding programs without very clear objectives. Generic statements like the ones below are often uttered:

“We want them to be more cohesive and have a spirit of camaraderie.”

“Foster closer ties and have teamwork.”

“We have gone to __________ (insert your previous venue) before, can we go somewhere else different this time?”

I know that there are reasons behind those statements but what is it that they are really tackling? Whenever I talk to my clients, I try to help them gain clarity in their purpose to make it a fun and yet meaningful experience for them.

Most teambuilding programs have severe limitations and here are the things that it cannot do:

1.    Solve deep rooted resentment among specific individuals. If certain colleagues are already angry with each other, teambuilding programs might not be the best answer. It is better to trash it out openly between them then send them to a teambuilding program.

2.    Streamline processes in work, thus making things more efficient. You need a process consultant, not a teambuilding expert.

3.    Change corporate culture. Culture is already embedded into the company and it does not change overnight.

So, after knowing what teambuilding cannot do, the question is then “what can it do?”

1.    Inspire change in mindsets. My experience is that we can shift or break certain old patterns of thinking by introducing new ones through activities. Using activities are great because most people have better retention rates if they experience the lessons rather than just hear them through a lecture.

2.    Get people to start opening up and sharing with each other.

3.    Create a sense of belonging to the company. When people play together with each other and not against each other, there is a sense of unity.

4.    Give important principles about team concepts and winning with people. Principles are easily remembered and will not change with time.

5.    Help participants know that the company cares for them. Companies provide what I call “meaningful fun” rather than just play games and not learn anything serious.

So, before you start to choose a company for teambuilding, consider your objectives first and then get a company with a great track record. They must be consistent in providing an experience where your colleagues can feel inspired to make a change in their lives.

Here’s an interesting video on how everything goes wrong in a teambuilding exercise by American Airlines. Enjoy!

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Running To The End Point, Image from www.zimbio.com

There is one trait that totally sets successful people apart from the rest of the other people. This one trait made them rise above the rest and is very well respected by many people. What is it?

The trait that I am talking about is Single-mindedness. All successful people know what they want in their hearts, are very purposeful and single minded in reaching their aspirations. Few people actually know what they want, fewer people actually stay true to their purpose. They get caught up with many other things in life that they lose sight of what really matters and give-in to everything that shouts for their attention.

Why be single-minded and focused? Let me share with you reasons why you cannot afford not to do it:

1. It keeps us disciplined.
The ability to say “NO” to the distractions around you and being clear to move forward is extremely important. This helps you to be focused and clear the clutter on what inattention brings. We also become very purposeful in setting aside time to what’s most important and continue to see it through. It is my firm believe is that you can only say NO when you have a clear strategy/purpose.

2. It yields results.
Being single-minded is not being inflexible, but knowing that you have very clear on the end goals. When I first started my business in training, I wanted to do everything. I started training in eight different topics and this got me nowhere. Much later, I understood the importance of concentrating in being the best I could be and I literally struck off many programs to just concentrate in two core areas; motivation and teambuilding. The results were astonishing! I started to be noticed by magazine writers, newspapers and even was had the chance to speak and train in six different countries around Asia. You need to hold on to your firm convictions and not be easily swayed. Keep working on it and find out how to make it work!

3. It pays well.

Jim Collins, in his book, Good to Great, highlights how companies moved to greatness by just perfecting what they are good at. Their generated cumulative stock returns from end 1975 to 2000 outperformed the market by 15 times, beating great companies such as GE, Coca-Cola and Intel. By just concentrating in relocating all their stalls into convenient locations, using clustering methods (sometimes up to nine stores in a mile), drive through pharmacies and even high margin photo processing services, they increased the profit per customer visit. More convenience led to more customer visits and when multiplied with the increased profits per visit, it threw cash into their company.

Conclusion:

I hoped I have given you compelling reasons to start being single-minded. Start small by deciding to keep to the things you have decided and not waiver on them. Then move on to bigger decisions which involve your life, family and career.

PS: Hope to also hear from you on what are the steps you have decided to take after reading this article.

Popularity: 26% [?]