Unleashing Unbridled Success – Optimizing Your Team
About Optimizing Your Team
One of the biggest problems facing organizations today is the fact that they have highly skilled, high performing, and effective people that cannot work together as a team. It is critical for the success of an organization to have such high performing individuals. Sometimes too many stars create confusion and chaos. If the stars are not synchronized in a way that has them functioning harmoniously it becomes a mess.
Wasted time, wasted expenses, lack of progress, and failure is the result of the team that is not optimized. This can be exemplified most easily by looking at professional sports teams. A clear example of this is when Lebron James came on board with the Miami Heat to join star players Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. It was said that this trio would crush its opposition and create a super team! The result however was a collection of defeats, which embarrassed the team and its players.
Superstars
Superstars are only beneficial when they work in harmony within organizations’ objectives, goals, and fellow team members. In the words of the great coach Pat Riley:
“Great teamwork is the only way we can create the breakthroughs that define our careers.”
In business – teamwork is equally as important. Differing values, goals, and agendas often seem to be the problem. But underlying those apparent culprits are actually self-interest and egos. These often create internal roadblocks that prevent progress. They also hinder communication and burn valuable resources. This puts leaders and managers in a precarious position. How does one harness the genius of their team? Do they especially harness their superstars for the benefit of the organization? How do they the needs of the individuals within their organization?
Identifying the Real Challenge
Being able to clearly identify the specific challenges your team is facing and the underlying drivers for them will allow you to create an effective strategy to address and shift those dynamics. So what are the common challenges?
Decreased productivity is usually one of the first signals. This is often accompanied by conflict or hostility among staff members, confusion about assignments that lead to uncompleted tasks, and missed important details. Lack of initiation, imagination, and innovation is another key sign that optimization is needed. Complacency is like a virus; it spreads throughout an organization and eventually immobilizes the team’s ability to progress. When this condition happens members of a team begin to become even more ineffective which leads to the disillusionment that can deteriorate morale and increase absenteeism and stress in the workplace. If left unattended these symptoms can cripple a team or company and completely disengage its effectiveness and progress.
Key Benefits of Optimizing Your Team
- Increased productivity
- Real innovation
- Creative problem solving
- Reduced stress
- Improved morale
The synergy that comes from putting individuals together to solve problems, make decisions, and initiate action is a power that must be harnessed to ensure organizational success. There are many teams that are put together based on the skill of each individual functioning at a very high level of success but often, if not synchronized, a team of highly functioning successful people can become a train wreck if not working together harmoniously.
When these symptoms are addressed early, they can be quickly turned around and used as a platform to create momentum and inspiration within an organization. Sometimes these symptoms are indicators that the level of complexity has raised beyond an organization’s capacity to reach their desired destination. By optimizing the container for success, a company that addresses these symptoms can find itself soaring to new heights of greater productivity and success.
To Be Continued… Optimizing Your Team – Part II
