Team building is important for any organization, as success typically depends on the ability of individuals. Taking the time to build an effective team will improve productivity and motivation.
The following team building tips will give you ideas on how to accelerate your team building and build a more sustained, productive team:
- Create A Common Vision – Spend time as a team thinking about what you want to create and where you want to go.
- Set Common Goals – The goals of your organization should be understood and supported by all team members. Make sure team members know what role they play in supporting these goals.
- Make Clear Roles and Responsibilities – Clarifying individual roles will help in achieving your common goals.
- Provide Management Support – Make sure that managers are following up with team members regarding what their needs are and how team building can be improved.
- Plan Engaging Exercises – Team building exercises should be fun, engaging and challenging.
Creating an action plan is the best way to ensure that team building is part of everyday work. Innovative Team Building recommends having managers follow up during regular staff meetings. Other ways of sustaining team building include manager check-ins and internal/external coaching.
And, most importantly, don’t forget to have fun with your team!
Posted in At Work, Career Coaching, Leadership, Rodas Coaching
Team building is an important aspect of being a manager. Most organizations know the importance of building and fostering teams, but building an effective team requires ongoing work and input from managers. Rather than limiting teams to what each member can do on their own, the key is to unite your team around a common goal, which will raise productivity.
Huffington Post shares five steps to build an effective team:
- Establish leadership – Managers need to develop the right kind of leadership skills, so that employees will work effectively on their own. Instead of asserting authority, foster trust through honesty and transparency.
- Form relationships with employees – Learn more about each team member, like their skill sets and how they’re motivated. This information is invaluable to leaders because they can match each employee’s expertise and competencies. Giving your team open-ended projects will allow them to determine the best solution and encourage them to cooperate.
- Build relationships between employees – Examine the way your team works together and try to improve communication and cooperation. If there is conflict, act as the mediator.
- Encourage teamwork – Help your team work together effectively by encouraging them to share information among themselves and within the organization.
- Set ground rules – Include your team in creating team values and goals, so they know what is required and they agree to it.
What tips do you have to build an effective team? Share what has worked for you in the comment box below.
Posted in career, Career Coaching, Leadership, Rodas Coaching
Confusion is easy but clarity takes work, writes Dan of the Leadership Freak blog. Use Dan’s tips below to find the right leadership behaviors to get great results.
- Work on internal environments. You can’t control the external world, but you can control the way you do things internally. Grab the bull by the horns, if you don’t like what you see when you look around.
- Define wins in behavioral terms, not just by results. Identify, honor, and recognize behaviors that produce great results. Leaders who focus only on results use people. Leaders who focus on behaviors develop people.
- Drive toward clarity and simplicity. Complexity is a lazy leader’s legacy. Any fool can make something complex. It takes wisdom to simplify. The path to simplicity and clarity is painful. Chaos happens all by itself.
- Ignite and manage momentum.
Set short-term goals.
Celebrate imperfect progress.
Remember the big picture.
Repeat… - Feel the emotion of others. Feel sorrow with the sorrowful and happiness with the joyful. Be upset when others are upset, at least a little. Lack of empathy makes others feel you don’t understand them.
- Connect the dots. Remarkable leaders explore how plans impact employees, customers, and the people actually doing the work. One way to connect the dots is to include the people doing the work in making the plans.
- Relentlessly focus on imperfect forward movement. Spend less time perfecting before-you-go and more time adapting as-you-go. Try things.
- Spend more time energizing the energetic than reigniting long-term burnouts. (I’m not suggesting you completely ignore black holes. But, if you’re better off without them, admit it.)
- Dive under the surface when things go wrong.
What’s the whole story?
What did you actually try? Remarkable leaders don’t accept general statements like, “I tried but it didn’t work.”
What didn’t work?
What will we do next time? - Dive under the surface when things go right.
Posted in Leadership, Rodas Coaching
Being a successful leader at the office can be a challenge. Whether you aspire to be a CEO or an entrepreneur, you should be actively working on improving your leadership skills.
If you want to become a better leader, Entrepreneur Magazine has some tips for you:
- Encourage employees to disagree with you – Companies get in trouble if everyone is afraid to speak truth to power.
- When people err, don’t destroy them – But make sure they learn whatever lesson there is to be learned from the mistake.
- Be constantly learning and curious – Ask yourself, “What is it that I don’t learn that I should know?”
- Be focused – Stick to one goal at a time.
- Practice leadership skills daily – Practice makes perfect.
Would you like assistance with your leadership development? Let me help you achieve your career goals! Email Deborah for a free consultation today.
Posted in Leadership, Rodas Coaching
Recently, the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management posed an interesting question – can introverts be effective leaders in the workplace? The common thought is that the virtues of extroverted personalities are the most desirable qualities for business leaders, however recent studies show that this may not be the only personality type capable of leadership.
When introverts speak, people listen. In fact, some of the greatest leaders are introverts – Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Google’s Larry Page all consider themselves introverts.
Here are three reasons why introverts can be more effective leaders than extroverts:
- They listen more than they speak – Introverts listen, consider what has been said, then speak. Listening allows the leader to consider what everyone has to say, rather than drowning out other people’s ideas with their own.
- They are prepared – Unlike extroverts, introverts avoid acting impulsively. Introverts are prone to preparation and hold an even-tempered exterior, projecting confidence.
- They require solitude – Introverts need to spend time alone to recharge, which can seem like a bad thing in our social world but it’s actually an advantage. These breaks help introverts fuel creativity and innovation and unlock ideas.
Introverts may not stand out in the traditional sense but it is in the best interest of a business to explore the leadership capabilities of both extroverts and introverts.
Posted in Leadership, Rodas Coaching