Ten Tips For Effective
Team Interaction
Teams have been touted as
a way to replace managers, evoke initiative, assist in
leadership development and save the Queen. In reality,
the synergy that's possible in teamwork usually turns
out to be chaos. Here are 10 tips on making the most of
your team.
1. Give the
team (or have them create) a big enough vision or outcome.
If the goal isn't bigger
than the personalities of the team members, the team's
effectiveness will be mediocre, due to ego.
2. Train
all team members in the standards of behavior of the
team's communication, response and interaction.
These ground rules are
designed to keep the team's communication clean and make
team membership mean something. Bad attitudes, delayed
responses, nattering, gossipping, whining or politicking
are grounds forexplusion.
3. Have the
team vote the Team Leader.
Leadership is still
required in a team environment. Not a manager, but a
Team Leader. A Team Leader should have the confidence of
everyone and not the person with the power to hire and
fire, unless the members are ok with that.
4. Install
structures to support the team and keep it moving.
Daily or weekly
reporting, public display of team goals/results,etc.,
helps everyone on the team get that they ARE on a team
and that the team is accomplishing something.
5. Teams
need a member/manager who manages the details and flow of
idea sand information.
Have one team member be
the person who makes sure that ideas are catalogued,
agreements are kept, promises are made and that input
from team members "goes" somewhere good and not into the
ethers.
6. Include
periodic meetings where the agenda is how the team can
work better together -- and no other agenda for that
meeting.
It's KEY that two things
happen, otherwise these "effectiveness"meetings become
too personal/venting/gripe sessions. First, make it
aground rule that any unresolved/uncommunicated issues
among/between team members must be completed resolved
PRIOR to the next effectiveness meeting. This will help
the meetings be positive and healthy progress/bragging
sessions vs hurtful or finger-pointing slugfests.
Second, have every team member make one suggestion for
team effectiveness improvement prior to the meeting, so
they can propose it during the meeting.
7. Know
when a team approach is called and know when it's "not
enough."
8.
Continual, accurate and frequent acknowledgement
A big part of what makes
the synergy of a team work is that individual team
members are publicly acknowledged for what they've done
to help the team and/or forward the outcome/goal.
However, keep this praise accurate vs manipulative
puffery.
9. Team
meetings should be exciting moments of creating, not
reporting.
Pose a great question or
significant problem for the meeting,don't make it be a
boring reporting session -- that's why God invented
email and copy machines. If there's any reporting to do,
keep it short shares about the wins and progress.
10. Teams
work best when people enjoy each other's company.
