Feeling the heat in the office
Never mind the heatwave, the temperature has been steadily rising in offices all over the country and now many seem to have reached boiling point.
Tougher targets, higher workloads, slashed budgets and increasing tension in the workforce mean that conflict is now much closer to the surface than this time last year.
Before you bite, or say something you may regret: take a breath, remind yourself that people don’t deliberately make the wrong decision (so they think they are doing the right thing), and ask yourself how your reaction is going to look to your colleagues.
Keep a cool head, find something to laugh about and give your jaw a little wiggle – that’s where we store up most of our immediate tension.
Same s**t, different people
Filed under: Management support, Team Performance | Tags: conflict, management development, managing under pressure, problem-solving, understanding
Leave a Comment It’s funny how people believe that the stresses and strains of their industry are different from anyone else’s. In almost two years of running my management workshop “Difficult People Made Easy”, I’ve learned several valuable things, the main one being that the problems of managing and motivating people are the same, wherever you go!
If I had to pick a top three, I’d say lack of enthusiasm, personality clashes and inappropriate language or behaviour would be the most common problems. Bit of a downer if that’s your daily experience at work, but at least the good news is that something can be done about it.
In defence of managers
Filed under: Management support, Management training and development, Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: Leadership, management development, management training, team work, understanding
Leave a Comment Everyone seems to have a horror story about managers they’ve suffered under in times gone by, and many of those horrors are being relived in offices all over the country today. Things like bullying, intimidation, humiliation and power games are very much alive and kicking in the workplace.
However, if we insist on promoting people to a management role, because they were good at the job they did before, or, even worse, because they are “time served” – in other words, they’ve sat in one seat long enough, it must be time to move them on – what can we expect? Very few emerging managers have anything resembling training or preparation for their new role in understanding and getting the best out of their team.
Lacking the skills and confidence to manage their teams well, they resort to all the old (bad) lessons they learned from their old (bad) managers and the cycle continues.
It would be nice to think that one day, we’d have more stories about amazing, inspiring managers than the horror stories, and I certainly live in hope.
Building a team by sharing ideas
Filed under: Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: collaboration, performance, problem-solving, understanding
Leave a Comment Had a fascinating evening with Leicester Business Club last night, developing, among other things a great sense of teamwork in a very short space of time. In groups of 8, we took 15 minutes to focus on a particular issue or question for each of the group members.
It just goes to show that, when you’re engrossed in your business or project, it’s so hard to see the wood for the trees, and the perspective of someone completely unconnected to your world can bring such a fresh approach. In lots of cases, we heard things we knew already, and would have advised others to do, but had somehow forgotten to do them ourselves!
This is a powerful way to spend a short space of time and really raise the energy levels around a particular area of work. I wonder how many teams get together for just this kind of exercise. The truth is that most team members are on their own when it comes to delivering results or solving problems.
How much better it would be for teams and organisational performance to have some kind of structured exercise to understand each others’ work and offer support and ideas.
At last, teamwork on the TV
Filed under: Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: collaboration, conflict, Leadership
Leave a Comment I caught a bit of “Living with Monkeys” last night on the TV and, as well as the wildlife, the tree house, the local people and the natural environment, was really impressed to see a refreshing demonstration of teamwork at its very best.
Each of the three people involved had a very clear role (science and research, camera stuff and provider of essential supplies). Each person knew exactly what they were doing, they were respected and allowed to get on with it and offered support and encouragement. As a team, their success was a collective exercise, each relying on the other, with clear leadership from their modern-day Tarzan, Guy Grieve, who supplied food, comfort, water, humour and honesty. I don’t think I was alone in thinking “Lucky Mrs Grieve”.
I hope other “reality” TV makers were watching: there was no conflict, fantastic teamwork and true collaboration. Boring for the brainless, maybe, but an inspiration for the rest of us.
Dare to be different
Filed under: Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: change, collaboration, problem-solving, team work
Leave a Comment Just back from my breakfast networking, where I ran a quick session called “Dare to be Different”.
Based on the fact that success in any walk of life means behaving differently to the mediocre majority, we ran quick, focused brainstorming sessions on how we could all approach our work in new, unexpected and different ways.
In a short period of time, and given we’re not all at our best at 7.30 in the morning, this was nevertheless a great example of how collective thinking can help to challenge the status quo and generate new ideas.
How many teams really encourage collaborative idea-generation? In my experience, most team members are so busy doing there thing that they have little time to consider their team-mates’ issues, and nor are they invited. Most people would respond: “there’s no point in asking them, they don’t know anything about what I do”
And this is the point. Einstein is often paraphrased, but my version of is excellent quote is “No problem was solved by the same thinking that created it”
In other words, those opinions, questions and thoughts of someone completely unconnected with your world may just be the key to great leaps forward.
Give it a go, what have you got to lose?
Teamwork and how not to do it
Filed under: Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: conflict, Leadership, team work
Leave a Comment Take one look at the Labour party this morning and you’ll see, in glorious technicolour, what happens when a team goes bad. Setting aside for a moment what you think of the Labour party, (or politicians generally), here are all the hallmarks of a team in serious trouble.
All teams have their internal niggles, egos and jostling for position: it’s how the team leader manages this, and the culture of the team, that defines what kind of impact this has on team performance.
At the moment, the team members have erupted into an unseemly squabble, some jumping before they’re pushed, others attacking the leader and others trying to defend him. The team leader seems to have gone into hiding.
Meanwhile, the team goals, what they are there for (in this case, our government), are completely forgotten. The mission, vision and purpose of the team are lost in the chaos and we, the unwilling passengers, are having to watch while the crew of this rudderless ship fight amongst themselves.
So, if you’re a team manager starting work for the day, take a look at Gordon and do the exact opposite of him.
Chin up, chest out, keep smiling
Filed under: voluntary sector | Tags: commitment, managing under pressure, resilience, voluntary sector
Leave a Comment I’ve been reading this week about resilience at work – our ability to keep on going, sometimes even with a smile on our face, regardless of what the world throws at us. Clearly some of us are better at this than others, as are some organisations, and this year could well be the biggest test of resilience most organisations have ever faced.
Working with the voluntary sector in London last week, I was reminded of true of resilience. These are the organisations that can run on a shoestring, with little or no money in the bank, remain committed to their mission, focus on brighter futures and still be great company.
So, I want to thank them, and encourage everyone else to give it a go. Chin up, chest out, keep smiling.
Fun time for team events
Filed under: Management support, Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: motivation, team meetings, team work, teams
Leave a Comment Hard work, lots of thinking, hilarious moments and a rare opportunity to work together – the general themes of this week’s most interesting challenge. I ran a team development session for 38 people from across the country. They only get together twice a year and it was important to make the most of the day, allow time for fun and relationship-building, and create a series of work streams that will live on and develop between now and November, when they get together again.
Make your team meetings interesting, worth while, challenging and stimulating. Promise yourself that you won’t be covering the same old issues every time you meet, and get help with planning and delivery to ensure that people think and act freely.
Teamwork? I’d rather not!
Filed under: Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: motivation, teams
Leave a Comment Teamwork is one of those phrases that’s used often in hope more than in reality. Most teams, if we’re honest, are really just a collection of individuals, and the “team” is more than happy for it to stay that way.
If you are a bit of a “left brainer” – logical, practical, independent and focused on the task, why would you want to spend time getting to know your colleagues, hearing about their craaazy weekends and getting caught up in the emotional turbulence of office politics?
Maybe it’s time to take a good look at what a team really is: if the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, is that enough?
