Archive for the ‘Team Performance’ Category
A new horizon for middle managers
Filed under: HR, Individual Performance, Management support, Management training and development, Team Performance, Teamwork, problem-solving | Tags: performance, team work, motivation, management training, management development, Delegation, change, decision making, Leadership, collaboration, resilience, bullying at work, difficult times, management pressure, behaviour management, communication, team building
Leave a Comment Our middle managers take such a bashing, at work, in the media and in business research (see my CIPD article for more). It’s a wonder anyone aspires to be a manager, and amazing that we have accepted this sorry state of affairs for so long.
No matter how good the technical training…
My blog has now moved to the Reflection Consulting – East Midlands Teamwork & Management Services – main website and this article can now be read, in full, at new horizon for middle managers
Get the people right from the start
Filed under: Management training and development, Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: team work, management development, Leadership, productivity, communication, new business, team building
Leave a Comment Talking to the business manager at HSBC the other day made me realise the lengths new business owners go to secure capital, premises, stock, logos, stationery and all the trappings of a shiny new business, but spend hardly any time thinking about the people they’ll be employing.
A friendly word of advice to business owners…
My blog has now moved to the East Midlands Management & Teamwork – Reflection Consulting – main website and this article can now be read, in full, at Get the people right from the start
Most teams are anything but
Filed under: HR, Management support, Management training and development, Team Performance, Teamwork, communication, problem-solving | Tags: teams, performance, team work, motivation, understanding, management training, management development, Delegation, change, Leadership, collaboration, managing under pressure, behaviour, behaviour management
Leave a Comment How long does it take for a group of strangers to form into an effective, productive team?
Speak to the head of any organisation, and you’d…
My blog has now moved to the East Midlands Management & Teamwork – Reflection Consulting – main website and this article can now be read, in full, at Most teams are anything but
The whining dog blog
Filed under: Management training and development, Team Performance, problem-solving | Tags: change, decision making, motivation, problem-solving, productivity, resilience
Comments (2) This story lodged in my head when I read it some months ago, and keeps coming back to haunt me. I’ve no idea who wrote it originally, so thanks and apologies for the paraphrasing.
Two old men, Abe and Ben, are sitting on their rocking chairs on the porch, enjoying the afternoon sun and looking out over the prairie. In between them lies Abe’s dog, Blue.
Every now and then, Blue lets out a long, painful whine and whimpers himself back to sleep.
Ben says “Abe, what’s the matter with your dog?”
Abe replies “He’s lying on a rusty nail.”
Ben looks horrified: “Why doesn’t he move?”
Abe: “It doesn’t hurt enough yet.”
I could apply this to the majority of organisations I meet. They are struggling on with the status quo, knowing it’s damaging their people and their performance, but not yet motivated to take any action.
Like lying on a rusty nail, those current problems are never going to heal themselves, in fact they are more likely to create more problems, the longer you leave them.
Don’t be like poor old Blue, take control and ask yourself why it’s taken you so long.
Motivation and communication
Filed under: Management support, Management training and development, Team Performance, communication, difficult people, problem-solving | Tags: behaviour, collaboration, communication, conflict, difficult people, management development, motivation, performance, productivity, team work
Leave a Comment This week I’ve had the opportunity to ask team managers, business leaders and team members how they feel about their teams, and what they would like to see changed.
In every case, top of the list was Motivation and Communication. Poor motivation and communication can really undermine a team, no matter what sector you are in, but there are ways of turning this round. However, it takes consistent work and a real commitment from the top to maintain it.
My free tips for motivating your teams are increasingly popular and I think it’s time to add some more tips on team communication.
Yesterday’s workshop “Difficult People Made Easy” brought together a really interesting mix of people, all of whom had their own challenges at work and were looking for support and solutions. They quickly developed into a peer group and I have no doubt will be sharing news on how they get on back at the office.
Conflict and disagreement saps energy and productivity from an organisaton, so I wish our participants well with their new strategies.
toxic emails
Filed under: Management support, Team Performance, difficult people, problem-solving | Tags: anger, behaviour, conflict, performance
Leave a Comment There’s no doubt that tempers are definitely shorter at work these days; people are quicker to anger, far less tolerant and less concerned about who knows it.
Discussing tension at work with a friend yesterday, she told me about a string of aggressive, rude emails had received from a junior colleague after she requested some very mundane, everyday tasks to be completed.
From an outsider’s point of view, we can see that there are some issues of stress, workload and prioritisation to be sorted out. But from my friend’s perspective, this outburst was completely out of order and will affect her contact with this colleague for some time to come. Far from getting any help, the colleague has now singled herself out as irrational, unprofessional and unhinged, and has probably secured her place at the top of the imminent redundancy list for her department.
This kind of scenario is being played out across the country today, with the boss’s response being largely along the lines of “think yourself lucky you’ve got a job”.
If we fail to address rising levels of stress and decreasing levels of tolerance and respect at work, we’ll be seeing far more problems like this to come.
Size does matter
Filed under: Individual Performance, Team Performance | Tags: collaboration, performance, productivity, team work
Leave a Comment Just read a fascinating blog from Jonathan Littman http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-littman/fighting-teamwork_b_241421.html
He’s watching a tug of war and observing the dynamics, effort and activity of the two teams. What he sees confirms studies of large teams done almost a century before by Maximilian Ringelmann, a French agricultural engineer.
Littman says:
“Ringelmann’s experiment had already proved this. His study showed that three men only pulled as hard as two and a half men, and astonishingly eight only pulled as hard as four individuals. Today this is known as The Ringelman Effect: The more people in a group, the less each one contributes to the group goal.
Far from synergy, group effort creates an inverse productivity ratio. The more people you throw at the problem, the more you lose. The declines are the result of what’s come to be called coordination losses or “social loafing.”
Having been part of both small and large teams, I was aware of the different work-rates, levels of productivity and management challenges, but I’d never seen this quantified before.
So, the moral of the story is: if you want something doing, get a small, perfectly-formed and well-prepared team to do it.
Team spirit
Filed under: Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: competition, sport, team work
Leave a Comment Thinking about the importance of teamwork in sport is a good starting point for any discussion about teams and performance. Whether you’re a spectator or participant, most people get the idea that team members have a specific role, everyone’s good at something, but no-one’s good at everything, and that the team success is the over-riding driver for everyone.
The most profound demonstration of this for me was when I became the member of a rowing team. Prior to this, I had been a competitive swimmer and never really worked as part of a team – swimming is an essentially solitary sport, even for the relays you’re just in the pool and swimming as fast as you can.
But rowing was different: 4 oarsmen (women in our case), and a cox, each position in the boat having a very distinct and specific role, and the drive to do your best for the team was a mind-blowing experience. We developed some pre-race routines to get us in the right frame of mind, we practised every night, encouraged and supported each other constantly, laughed and celebrated together.
If I could capture that spirit and bottle it, I’d be a very wealthy woman. But just knowing it exists is a good start.
Worried for my friend
Filed under: Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: collaboration, motivation, resilience, teams, understanding
Comments (1) Met up with an old friend yesterday, and she told me about her plans to do a sponsored walk next weekend – 100km in 30 hours! She’s fit and strong, so should have no problem with the physical challenge, but they have to work in teams of 4 and the team is in bad shape.
On a challenge like this, non-stop walking day and night, it’s the team strength that’s going to dictate success or failure. They need to know that they can rely on each other’s support when things get tough, that they know what to say (and what not to say!) when someone needs a boost, and that the problems that the team is already experiencing aren’t going to drag them down.
Given that they have no group time together before the start of the walk, my friend has already had to prepare her own survival techniques, things to keep her going in the knowledge that she really only has herself to rely on. What a shame – just imagine the difference if her team was strong, resilient and based on trust and collaboration.
Finding and keeping the right person for your business
Filed under: Management training and development, Team Performance, Teamwork | Tags: Delegation, management development, management training, recruitment
Leave a Comment This was the title of my seminar last night to the Loughborough Enterprise Club. Definitely one that falls under the heading of “easier said than done”.
Rather than cover the whole subject in endless detail (we only had 30 minutes!), I illustrated three of the most common and costly mistakes that employers make, in the hope that others could avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
In essence, these holy 3 are: take extra care in the recruitment and selection process, be absolutely clear about how you expect your team to behave and finally, learn to delegate.
We had a fantastic turnout and some great questions at the end. I have a feeling I’ll be delivering that topic again some time soon!
