Identify what each member's individual contribution to the team's work should be...
Team members should all share in the glory when their team succeeds, and they should share in the blame when it fails. However, members need to know what they cannot ride on the backs of others. Identify what each member's individual contribution to the team's work should be and make it a part of his or her overall performance appraisal.
To help monitor performance, select members of the team to act as participant-observers. While a team is working, the role of the participant-observer is to focus on the processes being used: the sequence of actions that takes place between team members to achieve the team's goal. Periodically, the participant-observer should stop the team from working on its task and discuss the process members are engaged in. The objectives of the participant-observer are to continuously improve the team's functioning by discussing the processed being used and creating strategies for improving them.
Create a performance agreement to record the details of what the team is aiming to achieve, what is required and expected of every team member, and what support will be available to them. Setting out the framework for team success clearly helps to ensure that there is a mutual understanding an common vision of the desired results and emphasizes the standards that you expect from every team member.
ACTION POINT: Create a mindset of shared responsibility for success or failure with your team.
Showing posts with label Teams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teams. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Achieving Good Teamwork
As the manager for a team, it is your job to provide the resources and support that the members need to achieve success.
To help your teams perform to the best of their ability, create clear goals. All team members need to have a thorough understanding of the goals of the team and a belief that these goals embody a worthwhile result.
This encourages team members to sublimate personal concerns to those of the team. Members need to be committed to the team's goals, know what they are expected to accomplish, and understand how they will work together to achieve these goals.
However, these goals must be attainable; team members can lose morale if it seems that they are not. To avoid this, set smaller interim milestones in the pat to your overall goal. As these smaller goals are attained, your team's success is reinforced. Cohesiveness is increased, morale improves and confidence builds. As the manager for a team, it is your job to provide the resources and support that the members need to achieve success. Offer skills training where needed, either personally or by calling in specialists within your organization or outside training services.
ACTION POINT: Create clear goals with milestones along the way for your team to achieve.
To help your teams perform to the best of their ability, create clear goals. All team members need to have a thorough understanding of the goals of the team and a belief that these goals embody a worthwhile result.
This encourages team members to sublimate personal concerns to those of the team. Members need to be committed to the team's goals, know what they are expected to accomplish, and understand how they will work together to achieve these goals.
However, these goals must be attainable; team members can lose morale if it seems that they are not. To avoid this, set smaller interim milestones in the pat to your overall goal. As these smaller goals are attained, your team's success is reinforced. Cohesiveness is increased, morale improves and confidence builds. As the manager for a team, it is your job to provide the resources and support that the members need to achieve success. Offer skills training where needed, either personally or by calling in specialists within your organization or outside training services.
ACTION POINT: Create clear goals with milestones along the way for your team to achieve.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Mutual Trust
Consistency and honesty are key...
A climate of mutual trust is essential in a high-performing team--each member of the team needs to know they can depend on the others. Successful managers build mutual trust by creating a climate of openness in which employees are free to discuss problems without fear of retaliation. They are approachable and respectful and listen to team members' ideas and develop a reputation of being fair, objective, and impartial in their treatment of others.
Consistency and honesty are key, so they avoid erratic an unpredictable behavior and always follow through on any explicit or implied promises they make. Communication is at the heart of building and maintaining mutual interdependence between members of a team. Managers of high-performing teams keep team members informed about upper-management decisions and policies and give accurate feedback on their performance. They are also open and candid about their own problems and limitations.
ACTION POINT: Establish an atmosphere of mutual trust with your team.
A climate of mutual trust is essential in a high-performing team--each member of the team needs to know they can depend on the others. Successful managers build mutual trust by creating a climate of openness in which employees are free to discuss problems without fear of retaliation. They are approachable and respectful and listen to team members' ideas and develop a reputation of being fair, objective, and impartial in their treatment of others.
Consistency and honesty are key, so they avoid erratic an unpredictable behavior and always follow through on any explicit or implied promises they make. Communication is at the heart of building and maintaining mutual interdependence between members of a team. Managers of high-performing teams keep team members informed about upper-management decisions and policies and give accurate feedback on their performance. They are also open and candid about their own problems and limitations.
ACTION POINT: Establish an atmosphere of mutual trust with your team.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
High Performing Teams
Successful managers are those who create, work with, and manage successful teams.
As Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler Corporation, said: "All business operations can be reduced to three words: People, product, and profit. People come first. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two." Successful managers are those who create, work with, and manage successful teams.
A team is two or more people who meet regularly, perceive themselves as a distinct entity distinguishable from others, have complementary skills, and are committed to a common purpose, a set of performance goals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. High-performing teams engage in collective work produced by coordinated joint efforts that result in more than the sum of the individual efforts. Teams of ten or fewer members find it easiest to interact constructively and reach agreement.
ACTION POINT: Understand and utilize the power of teams in your organization.
As Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler Corporation, said: "All business operations can be reduced to three words: People, product, and profit. People come first. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two." Successful managers are those who create, work with, and manage successful teams.
A team is two or more people who meet regularly, perceive themselves as a distinct entity distinguishable from others, have complementary skills, and are committed to a common purpose, a set of performance goals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. High-performing teams engage in collective work produced by coordinated joint efforts that result in more than the sum of the individual efforts. Teams of ten or fewer members find it easiest to interact constructively and reach agreement.
ACTION POINT: Understand and utilize the power of teams in your organization.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Managing a Team
To be a successful manager, you need to, motivate your team to excel.
Planning is a key skill for any manger and starts with having a good understanding of the organization's objectives. It involves establishing a strategy for achieving those goals using the personnel available, and developing the means to integrate and coordinate necessary activities.
Planning is concerned with ends (what needs to be done) and means (how those ends are to be achieved). In order to create a plan, managers must first identify the organization's goals--what it is trying to achieve. Goals are the foundation of all other planning activities. They refer to the desired outcomes for the entire organization, for groups and teams within the organization, and for individuals. Goals provide the direction for all management decisions and form the criteria against which actual accomplishments can be measured.
ACTION POINT: Set goals and plan for achieving them.
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