Posted by Kaitlin King on Mon, Aug 02, 2010 @ 07:10 PM
By Jennifer Porcher, Vice President of Educational Services
“Is your team in conflict?” would be better stated, “Are you creating an environment of healthy debates?”
So often we find companies are more concerned with keeping their team in harmony than challenging one another’s decisions. It sounds right to not have people in disagreement, and it seems like the perfect situation to have constant harmony in the workplace. Isn’t that what we work towards, having a compatible team? We hire different personalities to balance out our strengths and weaknesses, but we don’t always take the time to listen to all perspectives or create an environment where people feel valued and heard.
As Dee W. Hock of Fast Company says, “Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength and idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.” The point is that we need to see different perspectives to be successful.
Then there are the companies who hire right, but don’t know how to maximize their resources by allowing discord. Why work so hard to create a diverse team if you are not allowing them to voice their individual views? Leaders can break this pattern, and encourage an environment of healthy debate by understanding and applying the following:
- First, know your people. You should have a good idea of how each member of your team makes decisions. You should know each member’s motivation and what drives them to succeed. The better you know your people, the more effectively you can manage the debate.
- Second, develop trust amongst your team. People will not expose themselves if they do not feel they can trust those around them. The best way to gain trust in any situation is to start by exposing vulnerabilities, to encourage team members to let down their guard. This is the most important action a leader can take, but they must lead by example and demonstrate their own vulnerability first. This takes time and consistency to establish, and once it is in place teammates must be given a safe place to reveal their true opinion and feel heard.
- Third, invest in a tool that helps team members understand one another. A personality profile like Myers-Briggs, DISC, or Worktraits™ is an excellent exercise to help with the process of understanding personalities and temperaments. Knowing these differences helps to honor individual uniqueness rather than allowing differences to be a source of irritation. It is not only important for you to know your people, but for your people to know one another.
- Finally, be a leader who is not afraid to “put it out there.” This process requires courage to look at an issue with a genuine desire to work through it. Willingness to hear everyone’s opinion and proof that the opinion is truly heard are vital. Leaders must demonstrate patience, and not take things personally. It’s not always about getting everyone to agree—the process of agreeing to disagree can even be a solution. It’s about hearing all perspectives.
Most people aren’t willing to challenge a thought process because they don’t have all the answers. However, creating a safe environment for healthy debate can encourage your team to express their opinions. By engaging in productive conflict and revealing individual perspectives and opinions, a team can increase a company’s capabilities.
Take the time to know your people, encourage your team members to share their vulnerabilities, invite them to build a strong level of trust with one another, and invest in a resource that provides further understanding of personality differences. Ultimately, allowing your team to feel heard by engaging in healthy debate will inspire a united front of individuals who are determined to see their group succeed. Their determination to collaborate for the greater good will sustain accountability and become your most powerful source of profitability.
Posted by Kaitlin King on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 12:05 PM
By Michael Gunther
When you hear the word diversity, what comes to mind? For many people, diversity equates to a group of people of various nationalities and cultural backgrounds. But for me, it goes beyond ethnicity and background. Over the years, I've gained the perspective that diversity encompasses differences in thoughts, opinions, management styles, education, etc.
I'm sure you've known an organization in which everyone is cut from the same cloth; their thoughts, opinions, management styles, etc. are homogeneous and/or people with different beliefs or experiences are seen as outsiders or trouble makers. In these organizations, managers typically hire people like themselves. And why shouldn't they? Their team members will all agree and everyone will get along, right?
Well, I believe that creating an environment in which diversity of thought, expression, or opinion is discouraged hinders an organization's growth and potential. This belief is as much a part of me as my memories of growing up with 10 brothers and 6 sisters - which is exactly where it originated. In a household with so many people, I had to work with many different personalities just to survive. Imagine having to negotiate everything from what chores to do to what games to play - with so many different people! In the Gunther household, we had no choice but to listen to all different perspectives in order to generate an end result; sometimes a win-win for everyone, sometimes not. As the old saying goes, you can't please everyone all of the time. Whatever the end result, we certainly did learn to value diversity.
I learned another side of diversity - in the workplace - from my Dad, who championed differences amongst his team as a manager at RCA in the 1960's. I remember him telling me a story about his peers giving him a hard time because of the team he assembled; RCA's most ethnically diverse team at the time. He believed in hiring for the right skill and attitude for the position, regardless of background and nationality (not a common belief at the time). Ultimately, those were the traits that made his team strong and successful.
Accepting diversity of thought and opinions can be challenging for many managers and leaders, particularly those who believe it's their personal role to have all the answers. In reality, it is collective participation that creates strong solutions and opportunities within an organization.
My business partner, Lee Johnson, spent 18 years with the Maersk Line - the shipping arm of AP Moller-Maersk (Maersk). Now the #1 largest shipping company in the world, Maersk was ranked #10 when Lee began his career there. Ask Lee and he'll tell you that the diversity within Maersk was a key factor that led to the organization's growth and success. Methodologies to promote diversity were infused throughout the company's management and human resource processes. Leaders were measured each year on the diversity of their teams as well as the leader's ability to be open to and encourage differing thoughts and opinions. In addition, managers used a communication assessment tool to better understand the different communication styles of their employees in order to improve and enhance the communication of the overall team. It was this constant focus on welcoming diversity, understanding others, and encouraging opinions that set Maersk apart both as a great place to work and as an industry leader.
When is the last time you analyzed the diversity of your team? Does each team member offer different opinions, viewpoints, and skill sets that in the end will provide for a collaborative team?
The Bottom Line
Whether your organization employs 2 or 2,000, a team that embraces and encourages diversity will offer value to your organization, your employees, and your clients. Look around at your team and ask yourself if you have the diversity needed to grow as a leader and as an organization.
This is the sixth in a series of articles on Michael's entrepreneurial story and how being raised in a large family has influenced his career. To read the previous articles in this series, visit his blog at www.Collaboration-llc.com.
Michael Gunther is Founder and President of Collaboration LLC, a team of highly skilled business professionals who are dedicated to assisting proactive business owners to build profitable, sustainable businesses through results-oriented education, coaching, and consulting services. Learn more at www.Collaboration-llc.com.
Posted by Michael Gunther on Thu, May 27, 2010 @ 05:53 PM
Written by: Michael Gunther
I learned early in life the importance of setting clear roles and responsibilities for work groups. Looking back, I'm amazed that our house full of 17 children was always clean and organized, since in my own household today (with only two of us) we struggle to maintain order. Of course, I have to attribute this early experience to my parents who were ingenuous in their organizational skills.
My First Roles & Responsibilities
We called it the "Job Board," the chart on the kitchen wall that clearly defined the roles and responsibilities assigned to each one of us. Some of the roles were based on skills, some on experience - creating an ideal team environment.
Across the top of the Job Board were the chores that needed to be done; down the left were the list of the family members. The chores each person was responsible for were identified with a star or a mark next to their name. The color of the star or mark indicated whether that chore was to be completed daily or weekly. Some of the more tedious assignments (like dishes) rotated between two or three people, so no one person was stuck doing them day in and day out.
Because each person's tasks were assigned for a full year, we quickly learned to negotiate or swap tasks in order to avoid certain responsibilities on the major holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Of course everyone wanted his or her birthday off as well - this is when I really learned the art of negotiation, but that's another story! Each year as the older siblings moved off to college or the younger siblings developed more skills, my parents would adjust the Job Board accordingly, changing the team dynamic and allowing each of us to adapt to new roles and responsibilities.
The Job Board for Businesses
It is all too common in business today that employee roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined; most leaders rarely, if ever, take the time to analyze the roles of their team members. This leaves employees who want to have a positive impact on their business feeling uncertain about how to make it happen, and business owners continuing to take on tasks that could easily be delegated to their employees if each person's roles and responsibilities were clearly defined.
Without this clarity, an organization's foundation will begin to crack - and things will fall through.
Your Team's Roles & Responsibilities
The Job Board is more than just a happy memory for me; it set a precedent and taught me that developing roles and responsibilities in an organization contribute to its success. I'd like to pass on the following three important strategies that I learned from watching my parents run a successful family.
Set clear roles and responsibilities. Make the time to ensure every employee in your organization understands their role as a team member - and what their role means for the future of the organization.
Evaluate employee roles annually, at a minimum. As team dynamics and industry change, so should employee roles. For example, last year at Collaboration, we didn't have a role for social media; today we have two people who hold various responsibilities in managing our social media projects.
Develop team growth plans. As a leader, you should always be analyzing your own tasks and role to determine whether someone else on you team should be performing them - allowing you to change your functions as well.
The Bottom Line
Take some time to develop a "Job Board" for your team. Clearly identify their capabilities, and then identify tasks or roles that they can own. Be sure to include some of the tasks on your own plate. Create an action plan to train your staff on their new roles, and prepare yourself to let go of the roles you are transferring. Speaking of, I have to run... and update Collaboration's Job Board!
This is the third in a series of articles on Michael's entrepreneurial story and how being raised in a large family influenced his career. To read the previous articles in this series, go to www.collaboration-llc.com/our-blog. You can email Michael at MGunther@collaboration-llc.com or call him at (805) 541-9040.
Michael Gunther is Founder and President of Collaboration LLC, a team of highly skilled business professionals who are dedicated to assisting proactive business owners to build profitable, sustainable businesses through results-oriented education, coaching, and consulting services. Learn more at www.collaboration-llc.com.
Posted by Eric Hubbs on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 @ 06:55 PM
Written By: Dillon Ferdinandi Collaboration Team Member
Everywhere I look, the word team has been incorporated into the way that we do business. More and more, companies are assigning teams to do the work that used to be done by individuals. Why? It's simple, teams produce the best results. All of us have had some sort of team experience whether it is through school, work, sports, or volunteering. From a young age, we have always been taught, "there's no I in team." Well, I'm here to tell you that there is-only with a slight catch. Now, I'm not suggesting that the team is all about you, but there are some things you can do as a team member to ensure success for yourself and for the group.
Conflict is a Good Thing
One of the big issues that plagues teams is conflict. Many people have a fear of conflict and will try to avoid it at all costs. Too often, people will sit through a meeting and agree with every solution that is suggested because they are afraid to voice a different idea or point of view. This problem is evident when a strategy session that should last all day lasts only an hour. We all need to remember that it is our duty as team members to make sure everyone's opinions are heard, and each issue is addressed in full. Conflict gives us the opportunity to take a close look at the issues and ask questions that help us develop quality solutions.
Compromise is a Lose-Lose
If you think back on the compromises you've made you'll realize that most of the time no one got what they actually wanted. When we compromise, each person forgoes his or her own needs or opinions for the sake of the group. It's like a couple who argues over which comedy movie to watch, and ends up suffering through a horror movie because it's the only one they could agree on. Now how does this relate to teamwork? The next time you are faced with a difficult decision at work, take a minute to analyze the situation. Try to collaborate with the group you are working with so that you can incorporate each person's needs and ideas into the solution. You will find that this method of conflict management will greatly enhance your team's cohesion, and lead to more effective solutions. This may take a little bit more time and effort than a compromise, but the long-term benefits will be well worth it.
Always be on the Lookout
No, someone is not going to pop out from behind your desk, and grab you if you aren't a good team member. However, your co-workers and superiors will definitely notice if you start to become a distraction for the team. The easiest way to deflect negative attention is to separate business from your personal life. Obviously, we all conduct business with our personal emotions in mind, but we must draw the line on issues such as religion, politics, race, gender, and sexual preference. While these topics are okay to discuss at home, they should never enter the team environment. It only takes one comment, and other group members will shut down for the rest of the project. The best team members I've worked with are people who can self-monitor themselves, and leave their personal feelings and opinions out of the work place. They made me feel comfortable about asserting myself, and they were the first people to notice if boundaries were crossed. Master this skill and you will find yourself admired by your colleagues, and in more team leadership roles.
The Bottom Line
Some key concepts to remember:
1. Conflict can be your friend, don't avoid it.
2. Work to satisfy everyone's needs, don't just compromise.
3. Monitor your personal emotions, and focus on the task.
Teamwork should be an enjoyable and beneficial experience for everyone involved. As we begin our next team project, let's all focus on strengthening our team skills to benefit the company, the client, and ourselves.
Posted by Michael Gunther on Fri, Aug 21, 2009 @ 11:36 AM
By Michael Gunther
As originally published in The Tolosa Press 
I speak with business owners all the time that are challenged with building their teams. They have hired employees who are not performing at the level the owner expects them to be performing at. In fact, just this week I had two clients state "Do I really want employees?"
Building an effective team at work takes consistent effort, focus and leadership. I think some business owners underestimate what it takes to develop a strong, knowledgeable employee base. Greg Hind, a local serial entrepreneur, once told me that "if your business goals or dreams involve employees then you as a leader need to figure out how to manage and lead effectively - and it will not always be easy."
I have always valued this advice and have repeated his statement many times to business owners. So, what are some strategies you can implement to build a strong team?
First, evaluate your own management and leaderships skills. What are the areas that you may need to develop or improve? Ask your employees to provide ideas on how they would like to be managed and have them rate your management skills. Now, many owners may be fearful of what they hear but the only way to improve is to hear the good, bad and ugly. (Just as you would expect your employees to)
Second, hold yourself accountable to making some specific changes in your skills and approach. Be consistent as well - change takes time.
Let's now focus on various steps to achieving higher performance from your team. Cleary define your expectations to your employees - not just their roles and responsibilities but what other type of behavior or attitudes do you expect to transpire at the work place. Such as being on time, being solution focused, keeping their commitments, etc.
If they are not meeting these expectations then you must communicate to them your concern or disappointment about not meeting these expectations as they are happening - not days, weeks or months later. I ask the same business owners complaining about poor performance of their employees if they have clearly communicated their concerns in a constructive, solution focused manner. Most say ‘no' ... hmmm...
Employees don't do what is required of them often because of three key criteria: Communication, Commitment and Competency. I have already addressed communication so if they are committed and willing to do the task but not doing it properly then it might be a competency or training issue. If you know they know how to do the task but are choosing not to, it then becomes a commitment issue - they may not understand why the task has to be done or are simply choosing not to perform the task because of lack of accountability from the leader.
Lastly, I would suggest putting the responsibility of creating change on the employee - ask them what they are going to do to rectify their behavior. Get specific actions steps and measurements. Be sure to follow up to measure the completion of the recommended behavior or performance changes.
Bottom Line
Managing high performance employees takes time, effort and measurement. But if you are not getting the outcomes you want from your team, first take a look in the mirror and be honest with your own skills and approaches. It is interesting the business owners I know that have changed their focus on developing their skills all of a sudden have employees that are meeting their expectations...hmmm...
Want more tips, tools and strategy ideas for small business owners and managers?
Subscribe to our blog to be e-mailed our weekly business blog article.