Teams That Work
Effective teams don’t “just happen” they are created. It takes communication, discipline, and a focused intention to make it through the evolutionary process of realizing full potential. Applying an approach that works to team development and building a strong foundation that accomplishes business goals as well as addressing the personal needs of each team member, will lead to high levels of empowerment, achievement, and success.
A well-tuned team brings innovation and productivity to an organization, but even the most effective and productive teams occasionally hit plateaus or barriers that can prevent them from achieving their full potential. It is important when optimizing a team for the members to take ownership of the performance of that team and responsibility for improving team effectiveness. It’s key that all members are focused on high priority actions and strategies that directly support the goals established by the team. Then, it’s also critical that the team maintains awareness of the “team environment” so there are synergy and harmony within the group that honors the individual contribution, as well as the team’s accomplishment.
Key Factors to Optimizing Your Team
- Leadership: It is critical that the team leader builds relationships with the team members built on trust and loyalty rather than fear and power. Trust and loyalty create rapport and authentic interaction that values both parties. Fear and power, squelch communication, and prevent revolutionary thinking.
- People not machines: Each individual member of a team has feelings, opinions, ways of giving, and receiving communication that is all unique to that individual. It is important to validate and value each team member as an individual and be sensitive to their unique ways of communication and their perceptions.
- Trust and Cooperation: relationships team members establish among themselves are every bit as important as those the leadership establishes with them. It is important to create an environment that leans towards cooperation and minimizes competition.
- Value: Members of the team are on that team for a reason. They have been picked to be part of a mechanism that will solve problems, overcome obstacles, enhance productivity, and accomplish goals and objectives established by the organization. By valuing each member equally for the unique gift they bring to the team will create a platform for each to perform at their highest potential, therefore benefiting the team significantly. Valuing each member will also create a high-value perception for the team as a unit as well.
- Core values and protocol: It is critical for all team members to be on the same page. They must all understand the rules of engagement, proper protocol, and have a clear picture of what their job is within the function of the team. In addition, all team members must be privy to the overall objective of the organization has for their team. This requires clear goals and objectives.
- Clear goals and objectives: Having a clear and concise roadmap of the project and expectations is very important for the team. In addition to each person knowing what is expected of them is important for team members to feel part of the “big picture”. Knowing the goals and objectives of the organization in relation to the team is as important as the team member knowing the goals and objectives of the team itself. By trusting employees with this big picture concept creates trust, value, and loyalty on an individual level as well as a team level.
Change That Empowers
As an organization grows and the level of complexity increases, members of that organization experience stress and challenges that requires them to dig deep and find genius, innovation and initiative. Most often, this type of environment creates disharmony, engenders power struggles, inflates egos and prevents organizations from progressing.
But if properly guided and refocused, this type of environment can actually create opportunities for people to find the very best in themselves and to discover talents and abilities laying dormant within themselves allowing people to grow and expand – which in turn will extend throughout your organization.
To be ready for this change, team optimization is imperative. Growth and success can be the best thing to happen to an organization if they are prepared for the increase they create. By optimizing how your team works, the challenges of growth and increased opportunity can actually be turned into a force that propels your organization team towards greater success.
At TobyChristiansen.com we have found tremendous success is dealing with identifying and permanently shifting team dynamics. We do this by employing cutting edge technology that allows the team to; create a solid shared foundation and vision, recognize and value each member of an organization, and create the right environment that promotes revolutionary thinking, creativity and innovation. Taken together these allow companies to reach new horizons of success in an atmosphere of excitement, positive motivation and harmony.
To learn more about how you can Optimize Your Team, visit tobychristensen.com
