Some business owners cringe when it is time to focus on team building, improving morale, increasing employee engagement, and enhancing team productivity. What is it about team dynamics that challenge many of us? Why does the idea of working on teambuilding often invoke such resistance or even negativity?
Why do many believe that team building is a waste of time and money? They may simply see this as “increased Labor Expense” or may not see the value in the activity that creates teamwork and team building. We help business leaders and business owners shift to an investment mindset by measuring the tangible return on investment (ROHI = Return on the Human Investment). It is critical that employees are aligned and work in unison to reach organizational objectives. How do you do that without forcing or coercing them to work together?
Often, team building fails because the basics aren’t addressed. Organizations rarely focus on individual motivating factors, and often fail to identify and understand the value of different behavioral styles, and often do not have standard operating procedures to help nurture organic team dynamics with metrics and expected outcomes. Without understanding where each employee is and how they contribute to the organization, one could permit huge gaps in the team building framework, resulting in gaps of performance expectations.
At ActionCOACH Excel EDGE, we focus on six keys to building a winning team. The foundation of the process focuses on individual contributors and how they are fundamental to team productivity. The six keys to building a winning team include;
- Strong Leadership
- Common Goals
- Rules of the Game
- Action Plans
- Support Risk Taking
- 100% Involvement and Inclusion
Strong leadership requires leadership that is transparent and demonstrates high integrity. Strong leaders simply model desired behaviors and are clear with their direction. Strong leaders understand that lifting their team members up makes them and the organization even stronger. It is truly an “investment” mindset that creates a positive work environment to attract and retain talent (a top business challenge these days).
Common Goals allow team members to identify what is important and understand how they fit into organizational framework. Core values, culture points, and a clear vision with an inspirational mission all serve to crystalize goals.
Rules of the Game are simple standard operating procedures that give clear direction on how things are done. These agreed rules provide clear definitions with parameters of behaviors and actions expected from the team. Detailed outlined rules of engagement leave little room for interpretation because these rules relate to the desired outcomes that the company expects.
Action Plans developed to achieve results include team member involvement and become a clear road map. These plans create alignment and give team members direction with clear expectations of “who” will do “what” by “when” with “follow-up”.
Supporting Risk Taking within the organization can ignite innovation and motivate team members to contribute in new and creative ways. Learning from failure is critical to help teams be successful. Build a culture that doesn’t punish team members for mistakes but rather creates a learning opportunity to grow and continue to improve.
100% inclusion and involvement are critical elements to set up an environment that invites and expects participation. All voices need to be heard. Contributions from everyone in the organization ensure their collective work becomes the pathway to responsibility, accountability, and ownership to achieve organizational greatness beyond what is expected.
Open communication, clarification of roles, responsibility, and behavioral expectations, along with timely feedback and transparency all work to build positive team dynamics. A motivated team member that understands their place and contribution to the whole as the greater good, will likely function and behave in ways that achieve grander results because it also benefits their personal goals, achievement, and growth.
TEAM doesn’t have be a four-letter word, it needs to be transformed into a leadership rallying cry, ‘Together WE Achieve More.’ Connect with us at ActionCOACH ExcelEDGE to guide you in learning how to measure what matters and clearly determine the Return on the Human Investment in your organization.
