- What IS working with your team?
- What is NOT working with your team?
- What does it really take to build deep trust
- Where a team can soar to it's highest potential?
Getting your team on the same page, with a clear mutual goal, and the sense that each person is an integral and valuable part of the team are the beginning steps to success. Team building is a process in which a team forms a powerful connection and encourages and values the contributions of each team member. By utilizing interactive feedback it becomes clear how to recognize and incorporate each member's skills and talents for problem solving, task effectiveness, and to achieve the team's purpose. True power is a direct function of belonging to a team which generates integrity through clear intentions. By creating a safe space for sharing intelligence a team can build mutual respect and trust and create incredible results.
As part of this process, team members need to learn how to manage conflict, evaluate performance of the group, and provide feedback and support that will encourage each member to meet their commitment to the team and the organization.
- Learn harmonious ways to handle upsets and conflict.
- Discover new things about yourself and your co-workers.
- Clarify team goals and purpose.
- Learn ways to inspire and coach your team.
- Communicate more effectively.
- Appreciate and utilize each others differences and potential.
The key to harmonious and productive teams is compatibility and coachability. If you and your co-workers are coachable, two things happen:
1. Team connection, inspiration and trust build and productivity soars.
2. Participants learn coaching skills that they can pass on to others.
Developing a Powerful Productive Team
- Each team member has a commitment and clear intention for achieving the desired results.
- A team leader will empower their team
- Each team member contributes their intelligence, skills, and experiences for achieving the team's purpose.
- Each team develops a safe/relaxed environment for direct and open communications.
- Acknowledge and appreciate team member's skills, capabilities and contributions.
- The team is clear about its goals and creates performance targets that cause the team to stretch but are achievable.
- Team member roles are defined and matched with their desires.
- Problems are faced by finding solutions and communicating possible alternatives
- Team members learn how to give feedback without making personal attacks, which enables the group to learn from its experiences.
- Teams are focused on the achievement of results, and team performance is reviewed regularly to see what is working and what is not.
- There is a sense of trust and equality among team members that facilitates open and honest communication.
A powerful team works jointly on a mutual purpose. This allows each member to provide their knowledge and skills in assisting to resolve problems, complete the project, and develop new programs. During this process, team building can be facilitated as members evaluate their working relationship as they develop and clarify guidelines that will lead to increased productivity and team member cooperation. As the core team expands and leads their teams, there remains a sense of connection to the purpose. In this way the right hand does know what the left hand is doing, as a mutual goal and sense of cooperation is achieved.
Team performance can best be evaluated if the team develops a model of excellence against which to measure its performance.
Building Power Team Provides
Team Building Formula for Life - for Business & Personal Usage
Create Winning Attitudes
Self Empowerment
Trust Building Activities
Create Self-directed Teams
Enhance Communication Skills
Ways to Handle Stress
Team problem-solving
Performance Enhancement
Managing Change
Cooperation vs. Competition
Conflict resolution
Facilitation Skills
Experiential learning
Inspiration Motivation
Fun, Fun, Fun!
Characteristics Of Power Team s
- High level of respect and honesty among team members
- Team leader has good people skills and is committed to team approach
- Each team member is contributing in a way that is inspiring and energizing
- Team develops a safe relaxed environment for communication
- Team members develop mutual trust and respect through honesty
- Team and individuals are prepared to be open to expanded possibilities
- Team is clear about mission and establishes goals
- Team member roles are clear and flexible
- Team members know how to examine team and individual progress without personal attacks
- Team has capacity to create new ideas
Each team member knows he/she plays a vital role in creating results
Team Effectiveness
When determining how well team members are working together, the following statements can be used as a guide:
Team goals are developed through a group process of team interaction andcooperation in which each team member is willing to work toward achieving these goals.
Participation is actively shown by all team members and roles are sharedto facilitate the accomplishment of tasks of group connection.
Feedback is asked for by members and honestly given as a way ofevaluating the team's performance and clarifying what is working and what is not working with the team members. When feedback is given it is done without blame or making anything wrong. Nothing is personal.
Team focus involves a process that encourages active participationby all members.
Leadership is distributed and shared among team members and individuals willingly contribute their resources as needed.
Problem solving , discussing team issues, and contributing solutions are encouragedby all team members.
Conflict is acknowledged. Team members are allowed to express negative feelings and confrontation within the team which is managed and dealt with by team members. Dealing with and managing conflict is seen as a way to improve team performance.
Team member resources , talents, skills, knowledge, and experiences are fully identified, recognized, and used whenever appropriate.
Creativity is encouraged. Whether new suggestions are used or not they are acknowledged and appreciated.
Mistakes , when mistakes are made, they are treated as a source of learning rather than reasons for punishment or blame. By evaluating your team performance against the above guidelines, you can determine those areas in which your team members may require more training and support.
The team leader should be the liaison between the team and upper management. The team leader needs to know and work with upper management to obtain a full commitment from them in support of the team's program.
However, when this happens, team members must realize that they have a major responsibility to make maximum use of the resources and support provided.
The team leader can encourage team member growth, and should be willing to take some risk by having members whose resources are relevant to the immediate task provide the leadership.
The team leader should be fair, supportive, and recognized by team members as one who can make final judgments, work with upper management, and give direction to the team as needed.
To assist the team leader in evaluating the level of team development, have each team member answer the twelve questions in Table I . This should be followed by a discussion of the questions to determine where and how changes should be made to help facilitate the development of a strong team.
As team members build commitment, trust, and support for one another, it will allow them to develop and accomplish desired results. This commitment, trust, and self-determination by each team member is critical in achieving a sustained high level of performance. Team members will learn to appreciate and enjoy one another for who they are and will help keep one another on track. The team will have developed its working methods so that they become an informal set of guidelines.
A Focused Team
When the team resources are focused and members are all working to accomplish the same purpose, teamwork can be very rewarding and productive. This is best accomplished when team members use a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach to accomplish their purpose (Adams, 1987).
The proactive approach manifests such characteristics as:
- The team members take a very positive approach in jointly determining the way they are going to work together as a team and what they want to have happen. When individuals and the entire team choose to operate this way and are willing to set petty differences aside, unbelievable results become possible.
When individuals adopt this attitude and commit to use their resources, knowledge, and skills to contribute to the goals of the team, alignment with the team's overall purpose comes about. This will not happen unless both the team leader and team members choose to do so.
- Having a well-defined purpose or vision of what the team will accomplish is a very powerful force for the team leader and members. Goals are aligned with the team purpose, and team members are empowered to accomplish the goals. This process leads to a high level of team productivity.
- Team members have a positive attitude toward change and are willing to accept and allow change to occur as needed in order to accomplish desired results.
- Team members understand that patience is required, and that for some goals, a long-term commitment is needed to accomplish the desired results.
- Interests of both the team leader and team members are focused on desired results rather than on shorticulture-term problem- solving activities.
If people learn to focus simultaneously on both the current situation and the desired results, problems that arise will be solved as part of the total process of achieving the desired results.
- The sixth characteristic of a well-functioning team is that the members have a strong feeling of control within the team. They are able to establish priorities and then commit time and resources for accomplishing these tasks.
- The seventh characteristic of a well functioning team is team members verbally and publicly support each other. They recognize that negative comments about others tear the team down.
Team leaders and members that make a conscious, sustained effort to make these seven characteristics a part of their mind set will find that both creativity and accomplishment of desired results will be much higher than it would be otherwise.
Team Leader
There are several ways in which the team leader can contribute to creating a positive climate within the team. One of the most powerful forces is to put forward, in cooperation with team members, an exciting vision/purpose of what the team is to achieve. Once the vision is developed, it needs to be kept in front of the team members as a reminder of what they wish to accomplish.
The team leader where possible should help select or influence the composition of team members. Selection should be based willingness of people to work in a team setting and the resources, both people skills and technical components, they are able to bring to the team.
The team leader can provide the leadership for helping the team develop an understood and accepted set of principles that will contribute to their success. Included in this set of principles should be norms for operating within the group, criteria for evaluating success, standards for determining quality of performance, and an identified reward system to recognize the team's successes.
