Team Building, by Joyce Weiss, M.A., CSP

A group of people who just work together may develop the dreaded "Who cares?" disease - a sometimes fatal illness that is infectious, and can slowly erode all the good efforts that a few excellent workers produce. Some of the effects of this disease are that employees look bored or angry. Nobody seems to care about the whole group, only whatever small portion of the work he or she may be responsible for. Clients begin to think, "If they don't want to be here, why should I?" If your department has been on a slow, subtle slide to a full fledged case of the "Who cares?", it's reversible if you take immediate action.

Here are 10 tips on how to turn your staff into a winning team.

1. FIND OR CREATE A TEAM LEADER Great teams don't just happen, they are carefully and purposefully built by a team leader. This person may be the manager, but could be any staff person who is interested in group leadership, or has a talent for working with people.

2. DEVELOP GOOD COMMUNICATION WITH YOUR TEAM Now that the team leader is in place, call your team together and talk about teamwork. A team member may ask "What good is a team anyway?" Answer that question by asking these questions, "Do you want this company to grow and prosper?", "Do you want to improve your skills and finances?", "Do you want to have a job in the near future?" Only by working together will these things be accomplished.

3. FIGURE OUT WHAT YOUR COMPANY NEEDS TO BE SUCCESSFUL Every winning business starts out with a plan. That plan is almost always purposeful, both short-term and long-range. This is called a strategic plan, and it begins with the team deciding what the company goals are for the next day, week, month, year and so on. These aren't just financial goals, because finances alone won't help you succeed. Other goals are just as important and lead to increased profit, such as good customer service. Discuss what customer service means to the team and your clients.

4. ASSESS THE STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES AND NEEDS OF THE TEAM When you know who is really good at what, and the converse of that statement, who is not good at what, it will be fairly easy to assign tasks to team members in order to reach the goals. One of the employees might enjoy helping out with marketing the business. Another, with artistic talent, might help design a logo. A creative planner could organize a fundraiser for local charity in order to raise visibility in the community and bring in new clients.

5. AGREE ON TEAM RULES All groups, whether teams or mobs, have rules. Most of the time they are unwritten. Successful teams have written rules which they develop themselves. What kind of rules will be helpful to a team? How about "Tell a person when you have a conflict with them or their ideas or behavior." Another good one is "Don't talk about people behind their back." An effective rule is "Never be late for trivial reasons." Your team will get the idea after a few examples.

6. SUPPORT THE TEAM - EVEN WHEN THERE IS CONFLICT It's easy when everybody gets along. The real test of a team is when there is disagreement. This is when "conflict negotiation" is crucial. If team members learn to mediate differences of opinion, listen to them, accept them, reject them without resentment or compromise, then you know that you have an effective team. The team leader will be especially helpful in helping members deal with conflict.

7. ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY AND RISK-TAKING Who wants to make a mistake? Nobody does, especially if their co-workers are going to make them pay for it by being nasty or punitive. On the other hand, most great inventions were the product of hundreds of tries, including the electric light bulb and the telephone (and where would we be without these two wonderful inventions?). People learn and grow from their mistakes. Only those who are willing to fail will be willing to try new things. So team members need to support creative ideas and attempts, learn from the ones that don't succeed the first, second or even tenth time, and go on to try again.

8. GIVE POSITIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK I never met a person who started the day by saying, "I think I'll be terrible at work today. I think I'll mess up, get a few clients mad at me, and humiliate a few co-workers." In fact, I never met anybody who seriously wanted to make mistakes and be rejected. On the other hand, almost every person I know wants to be liked and accepted. If the team leader, and every team member, keeps this in mind, it will become natural to give lots of positive and helpful feedback. People will want to be part of a team that recognized their strengths, and offers to help with weaknesses.

9. MOTIVATE THE TEAM People are motivated by what they want. One of the things that most people want is appreciation and recognition. So give your team lots of it. In addition to recognition and appreciation, people want what makes them happy. It could be money for me, but a trip to a resort for somebody else. So how do you find out what makes a person happy? That's easy - just ask them! Compile a list of "rewards", and let the team know how they can win them.

10. LEAD BY EXAMPLE Do you subscribe to the philosophy of "Do what I say, not what I do"? Have you ever noticed how well that works with children? Not very well at all. Nor does it go over well with the people you are supposed to be leading. If you arrive late for a client or for a meeting, you will be setting an example for your co-workers. If you don't follow the team rules, but expect everyone else to, eventually they will stop following the rules, too. If you are critical and punitive, expect your team to be that way. If, on the other hand, you arrive early, take on more than your share, help out when somebody needs a hand, and are supportive and positive, you will me modeling the kind of behavior that you want your team to learn.

©Copyright Joyce Weiss, M.A., CSP - All Rights Reserved.