Getting the best out of your team
Filed under: Individual Performance, Management support, communication, problem-solving | Tags: collaboration, communication, difficult times, managing under pressure, problem-solving, productivity, team work, understanding
Leave a Comment This was the title of my breakfast seminar with the Institute of Directors yesterday morning. It was heartening to see so many nods, smiles and flashes of recognition among the audience as I outlined my observations on the three most common, and costly, mistakes made by teams across sectors.
The questions afterwards reminded me of just how long managers struggle on with their own problems before they seek help. It’s easy to believe that our problems are unique, and it can be very difficult to find safe, reliable sources of help, so I’m pleased that at least some people had a slightly easier day at work as a result of our chat.
Whatever your problem, and however isolated you are in your role, it’s worth looking for support and asking around – you don’t have to take up other people’s suggestions, but another perspective, particularly from someone you trust, is a sure-fire route to a better night’s sleep.
Matron to mechanic
Filed under: Management support, Management training and development, communication, problem-solving | Tags: communication, problem-solving
Leave a Comment So, deciding to drop the fluffy red rose logo; too soft, too kind and friendly, I’ve been quizzing my friends and support team about an alternative.
Like a flash of the blindingly obvious, we see that my most successful service has been the Teamwork MOT, and that maybe continuing this car maintenance theme will give the right message – that maintaining an efficient, productive team is like maintaining a high-performance car. You wouldn’t wait for your fantastic, purring motor to end up a steaming pile of rusting junk in a ditch, you’d make sure it was serviced, topped up, polished and ready for action.
So, off to the photographer’s I go with some brand new overalls and a set of spanners. See the results for yourself on my website!
being part of the problem..
Filed under: communication, problem-solving | Tags: change, communication, performance
Leave a Comment Funny how another person’s perspective changes the way we see ourselves. I’ve been griping on for months about my one-woman mission to remove the term “soft skills” from this world of teamwork, performance and communication, when one of my trusted support team reminded me of my logo – a beautiful rose, softly reflected on itself in shades of raspberry and grey.
The sad thing is, I love this logo, and so does everyone else who sees it, and that’s not just a girly thing, boys always comment favourably on it too. But, it’s probably giving the wrong message, and I’m going to have to make some changes.
So, in the spirit of grabbing the bull by the horns, I’m taking a look at my message, written and unwritten – I’m evolving into something far more appealing to people who recognise the technical difficulties of dealing with people and want to do it efficiently.
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.
Difficult People
Filed under: Teamwork, difficult people, problem-solving | Tags: anger, behaviour, conflict, difficult people, problem-solving, team work, understanding
Leave a Comment My most popular workshop “Difficult People Made Easy” demonstrates time and again how hard we find dealing with each other, particularly when the pressure is on.
There’s tons of advice and everyone’s an expert when it comes to solving other people’s problems, but when that red mist has fallen and your teeth are grinding, it’s a lot harder to be logical and detached about that IDIOT and their outrageous behaviour.
I’m one of the lucky ones; I don’t work in an open plan office, listening to the same old gripes and whinges every day, I don’t have to sit through endless meetings with the same people, hearing the same thing and knowing nothing will change. But I do hear a lot of complaints about colleagues and bosses and I know that each one of those is having a serious impact on happiness and productivity at work.
The truth is, a really strong team with multiple strengths, breadth of experience and diverse views is essential for most organisations. But that brings with it all the challenges of different “right” ways of doing things.
Since when did we all become so judgemental of each other, and so convinced that our feelings our everyone else’s top priority? Maybe our acquisitive society has made us more self-obsessed and less open to differences of opinion, because it’s these differences that are most often the cause of “difficult people” type problems.
I prescribe a collective, communal deep breath. We don’t have to like everyone we work with, but we do need to work with them, so it’s probably best to find that happy place where we accept difference and discard our preconceptions and prejudice.
Years ago I heard a great saying: “Anger is a poison that you swallow, hoping it will kill someone else”.
It’s not unusual
Filed under: Management support, Teamwork, problem-solving | Tags: conflict, managing under pressure, problem-solving
Leave a Comment Funny how so many team managers believe that their problems with difficult team members are unique and unsolvable. The number of times people will say “this one will be beyond even you”, when all it really means is that they have given up or are actually quite comfortable with the status quo, no matter how damaging it is to the performance of the team as a whole.
The truth is that most problems are duplicated in different places the world over. Some have found solutions and others have not. The nice thing about being impartial and visiting lots of teams is that you can see the issue with fresh eyes and the all-important level of detachment.
So, if you’re stuck with a teamwork problem, don’t give up. There is a solution and it could be easier than you think.
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.
Easily distracted
Well, there’s 36 minutes of my day I’ll never get back! Just thought I’d take a morning stroll through the blogosphere, see what others are saying and maybe find some like-minded bloggers.
There’s TONS of information out there! I can see how people get lost for hours; reading, following links, commenting, watching videos and being taken down some very unexpected avenues!
This, however, is going to have to wait for the weekend. I have a business to run!
