Getting Our Teams in
Gear
One of the ways to understand how teams operate is to imagine gears
meshing. In gear theory, we have drivers, followers and idlers. We
“gear up” and “gear down.” Following this theory, we know that when
gears are not properly meshed, friction results.
Work teams operate the same way. Team players are like the
followers; they do the useful work. Team leaders are like the
driver, the gear with applied force. And, just as the meshing of
followers and drivers can speed up the gear train and increase
torque, team players that mesh well can accomplish great things.
But what happens when a driver or a follower needs to be replaced
and the new player just doesn’t match? It’s like pushing a
screwdriver between the gears. The jolt can throw everything out of
whack, and we learn just how fragile a team can be.
The growing emphasis on formalizing work teams to cope with changing
workplaces is healthy, but keeping together a successful team
requires an understanding of the importance of team mix. The most
important ingredients of a team are its people, and each time we add
a new or different person, we run the risk of creating friction and
derailing an operation unless we ensure that each new member is a
team player, gets along well with others, and understands the
culture and style of the team.
Although the structure, purpose and makeup may vary, each well-built
team needs these important features:
-
Players who mesh.
Although determining whether a person has the skills to play on a
team is not so difficult, the team dynamics – how thinking and
working styles match -- are not as easy to discern. Team members
do not all have to think alike or move in lockstep, but
thinking-working styles need to blend so that team members can
work reasonably easily with each other. A team’s leader needs to
be able to assess a team’s strengths and weaknesses and add the
pieces that fit, with one person’s strengths making up for
another’s shortcomings, and vice versa.
-
A vision. The
simplest way to see the vision is to ask the question, “Why does
this team exist?” If you cannot clearly articulate the reason for
the team to be, it will founder. Gatherings of team members will
be pointless unless the leader knows what he or she wants and
spells it out.
-
Examples to follow.
In a culture that reveres individuality, work leaders must set the
tone for the kind of work environment they expect. Are your
executives team players, or do they think and act alone? Employees
throughout the company will quickly take note of what’s expected
at work by watching those at the top.
-
Agreement on how to attain
the goal. If individuals disagree on how to get to their
destination (think tug-of-war), the journey will be long and hard
and the result will be iffy. Consensus building is a necessary
team skill. Make sure your team includes people who can help
individual members with strong ideas reach consensus.
-
Support from the organization.
Workers must see that their employers value teamwork as much as
individual achievement, and the best way employers can show that
is with rewards. These can be anything of value: public praise,
days off, bonuses, dinners for the team, or tickets to a sporting
event. Think of how coaches of sports teams celebrate their
successes, and take your cue from them. Successful coaches are
excellent at team building and recognition.
If your workforce consists of individual players performing their
own tasks well but big problems grow, it’s a sign that your team
needs help. Examine your own actions and those of your top managers
first, as highly effective teams depend on good coaching and full
participation. If you cannot find the problem, seek feedback from
others on your top team. Also, studying the assessments of
individuals can help predict team dynamics. A good assessment will
show who will be likely to lead and who is most inclined to follow.
A sound team needs both.
Once your workforce is playing for a team that accomplishes its
goals, everyone will quickly feel the torque that smoothly meshing
gears provide.
Jim Sirbasku, CEO
Profiles International
Your Team May Be
Ineffective if…
-
Members cannot articulate group goals
-
Participants are repeatedly late or absent to meetings
-
Squabbling among members results in tension and prevents frank
discussion
-
Meetings are repeatedly cancelled or postponed, and no one asks why
-
The team leader does all the talking
-
Members make no effort to get to know each other
-
The team misses two deadlines in a row
-
Team members criticize ideas offered by others
-
No one gives the team recognition for a job well done
-
Leaders do nothing with data the team presents
BOOK REVIEW
A Father-Son Formula
for Team Building
If you want to construct successful work teams, go to the team of
experts. In the fourth-edition classic, TEAM BUILDING: Proven
Strategies for Improving Team Performance, change management guru
William G. Dyer and his sons Gibb and Jeffrey continue to apply
their branded balm to troubles on the job. Fans who read the
previous three editions of this team-builder’s “bible” should
consider that this one, published in March, offers six new chapters
of material designed to keep apace with today’s challenges.
The book opens with a compelling description of one executive’s
crisis after he failed at teams. Although the predicament might
sound far-fetched to believers, the beginning paragraphs are a
lesson for anyone who thinks top-down management still rules. In
today’s rapidly changing and increasingly complex business
environment, the opening of TEAM BUILDING shows that the top-down
mantra is about as useful as a top hat.
But the authors designed the book more for believers than skeptics,
and quickly moves on to practical advice for putting teams together
and ensuring their smooth operation. It offers a formula for
building high-performing teams, which it describes as “those with
members whose skills, attitudes and competencies enable them to
achieve team goals…members set goals, make decisions, communicate,
manage conflict and solve problems in a supportive, trusting
atmosphere…”
The four sections of this book include:
-
Part One: The Four Cs of Team Development: Contest,
Composition, Competencies and Change Management Skills
-
Part Two: Solving Specific Problems Through Team
Building
-
Part Three: Team Building in Different Kinds of
Teams
-
Part Four: The Challenge of Team Building for the
Future
Decades of experience support the authors’ influence in the business
world. Patriarch William G. Dyer, who died in 1997, is past dean of
the Marriott School of Management and founder of the Department of
Organizational Behavior at Brigham Young University. His work there
continues in many ways, including through the Dyer Institute for
Leading Organizational Change.
Son Gibb, or W. Gibb Dyer Jr., is the O. Leslie Stone Professor of
Entrepreneurship and academic director of the Center of Economic
Self-Reliance in the Marriott School. His brother, Jeffrey, is the
Horace Beasley Professor of Strategy at the Marriott School, where
he also chairs the business strategy group.
In the book’s foreword, Edgar H. Schein, a professor emeritus at
MIT, notes his pleasure at the continuation of the elder Dyer’s
“pioneering work…at a time when the world needs 'team building' more
than ever." Teams everywhere, successful or struggling, are likely
chorusing their amens.
ABOUT THE BOOK
TEAM BUILDING: Proven Strategies for
Improving Team Performance (fourth edition)
Authors: William G. Dyer, W. Gibb Dyer Jr.,
and Jeffrey H. Dyer
272 pages
CASE STUDY
PXT™ Helps Fine-Tune Team at a Financial Services Firm
Employee teamwork is important in all industries, but the stakes are
among the highest in the competitive financial services sector,
where employees must be detail-oriented and mesh like a finely tuned
machine. The intricate mix of federal and state regulations that
employees must follow also heightens the importance of teamwork.
When a national financial services firm wanted to increase the
revenue production of its loan originators, they used the ProfileXT™
to identify candidates with the greatest probability of good
productivity. ProfileXT™ looks at workers’ traits, interests, and
cognitive abilities as benchmarked by other successful individuals
in the position.
Participants
The study included 116 loan originators to examine the relationship
between employee productivity and the dimensions measured by
ProfileXT™. Loan originators are front-line mortgage sales employees
who must comply with a web of federal and, usually, state laws. They
are licensed professionals and need excellent communication and
interpersonal skills to be successful.
Each loan originator completed the ProfileXT™. For a year, a
supervisor at the mortgage lending form evaluated performance. An
analysis identified 11 top performing and 11 bottom performing
employees. The sample of current top performing loan originators
formed the basis for the Job Match Pattern. Further refinement of
the pattern helped distinguish top and bottom scores.
Performance grouping
Based on the information from the employer, Profiles built a pattern
that described the qualities of the existing top performers and
matched all 116 loan originators against this pattern. An overall
Job Match of 80 percent or greater identified top performers, so a
percentage of 80 or above represented a strong fit to the Job Match
Pattern.
This pattern match revealed:
-
10 of 11 top performers were correctly identified as such
-
1 of the 11 top performers was incorrectly identified as a bottom
performer
-
7 of 11 bottom performers were correctly identified as bottom
performers
-
4 of 11 bottom performers were incorrectly identified as top
performers
Details
Of the 116 participants, 62 obtained a Job Match of 80 percent or
greater. Ten of the 11 top performers, or 91 percent, displayed a
strong fit to the Job Match Pattern. Thirty-six percent, or four of
11 bottom performers, achieved the same mark.
Summary
The financial services firm now uses the PXT™ Job Match Pattern as
the benchmark, allowing it to successfully screen candidates and
increase the odds of selecting top performing loan originators.
PRODUCT FOCUS
Producing Art with
Profiles Team Analysis™
A team that works well together can produce a work of art. Think of
the Vienna Boys Choir, a group of individuals with perfectly tuned,
trained voices. Or envision a team of Clydesdale horses harnessed
together, each raising the correct hoof at precisely the right time,
as if following the lead of an imaginary conductor. Marching bands
and football players, surgeons and teachers – all are capable of
good things individually and potentially great accomplishments when
working together.
No matter how easy they make teamwork appear, great teams do not
just happen. Mayhem could result if the team’s goals are not clear.
What if the Boys Choir decided to play baseball instead of sing, or
the giant Clydesdales ran amok during a parade? Individual team
members must be carefully chosen and coached. Each person’s
performance needs analysis. Effective teams need players who want to
participate and who bring different strengths to the group. The team
leader must be able to elicit and orchestrate individual strengths
to help the team reach its goals.
Profiles Team Analysis™ not only helps to analyze the teams that
your organization relies on, but it also helps your leaders
determine how to coach their teams to obtain the best performance
from each participant.
The PTA™ analyzes each team member in 12 key areas. These include
control and composure, emotions and ambitions, as well as social and
analytical aspects. It examines patience, whether or not the team
member is results-oriented, his or her precision, and whether he or
she is a team player. Finally, the PTA™ looks at the team member’s
positive expectancy and quality orientation.
A PTA™ report card shows how the team is performing in these key
areas:
Team Balance Table.
This chart reflects how each team member scored on each of the 12
factors.
Overall Team Balance.
Are key characteristics missing from your team? This report will show
you what's present and what's absent.
Behavioral Factors.
This reveals how each team member scored on each factor.
Team Leader Action.
If you are leading your team, you need to know how to supervise your
members. This report guides you.
An underperforming team might miss important goals while individual
members squabble over real or imagined conflicts. Individual members
may not be motivated to perform, and perhaps no one is anticipating
problems. Teams that excel can determine how to get a project done
at the best price, increase productivity, make sure quality
standards remain high and solve annoying problems.
“Many hands make light work,” wrote British dramatist John Heywood.
That’s especially true if all of the hands are working with the same
goal in mind. Profiles’ assessments will help get your team members
on the same page. Call us at:
Office 713-840-6350 or Direct 832-865-9880.
STRATEGIES
FOR WINNING
Fire ’em Up!
21 Days to a Winning, Motivated Team
Will you give 10 minutes each day for the next 21 days to fire
up your team like never before?
The sooner you can get a new employee into productivity, the
better off you will be. At Profiles, our managers have learned the
following techniques for managing and motivating people. These take
the usual new-employee orientation to a higher level. This program
has been successful in integrating our new team members into the
Profiles culture in just 21 days, or about one calendar month. Not
only has using this system accelerated the productivity of new team
members, but it has proved excellent in making them feel wanted,
appreciated and accepted. Based upon the excellent results we have
experienced, we heartily recommend you implement a similar program
in your company.
Here’s a distillation of all you need to know to motivate people
– it’s drawn from all of the great writers on the subject – along
with a simple, 21-day plan.
Employees Want Management They Can
Look Up to – Not Management that Looks Down on Them
An honest respect for all, a genuine recognition that everyone has
something good to offer – this is at the heart of the successful
motivator. Without respect, so-called motivation becomes
manipulation, and manipulation is never successful in the long term.
If you or your managers cannot show respect for your people, then,
before you invest time and energy in motivational efforts, get
someone who can – and have that person read on from here!
Take an Interest in the Career and
Personal Goals, Aspirations, Interests, Lives and Families of Those
Who Work with You
Do you know anyone who complains about getting too much recognition
or praise for a job well done? Research consistently shows that
people will go to extraordinary lengths for a leader who takes the
time to catch them doing something right and, when they do, provides
them with sincere praise and recognition in front of their
colleagues. Praise and recognition are more motivating than money or
any other single thing we can give to the people we lead.
Don’t Criticize, Condemn or Complain
Dale Carnegie nailed it with this gem. When you must draw attention
to poor performance, don’t criticize. Coach. Don’t pick at what is
being done wrong, but focus all of your attention on the new
behavior or action that will put things right; always finish with a
positive comment to let the employee see that the reason you’ve
raised the matter is that you have seen that he or she is capable of
so much more. Correct the errant action, provide some positive
feedback, and then forget it. Act like you expect better performance
next time – and you’ll get it.
Request – Don’t Order
Real leaders lead from the front – they don’t need to push from the
back. Everyone rebels to some extent against being bossed around. No
one minds being asked to help.
Discuss – Don’t Argue
Maturity is being able to disagree agreeably.
Be Careful with Humor
Avoid any kind of demeaning humor. If there’s the slightest chance
of being misunderstood, keep it to yourself. “If in doubt, leave it
out.”
Listening is the Greatest Compliment
You Can Pay Anyone
Our opinions are all sacred to us. Listen – and hear the concerns of
your people.
Most Importantly of All
Model the behaviors and attitudes you expect others to display. Show
them it works.
21-Day Action Plan
Why 21 days? Research shows that it takes 21 days to establish a
habit. Take the topics discussed above and apply them for 21 days.
You will discover that by the end of this period, you will be doing
all of these things naturally. And the level of motivation in your
team in general, even in your toughest cases, will be at an all-time
high.
To implement your plan:
-
Create a table
with each employee’s name down the left-hand side, and each of the
motivators listed above across the top. Rule your table so that each
person has a box against each motivator.
-
Target improvements.
Copy this strategy and put it in a place where you can review it
daily. Each day, make a determination to apply each motivator as
often as possible with as many members of your team as you can. Plan
to speak to each of your team members often enough to get to know
what turns them on and off; determine to catch them doing something
right; praise them in front of their colleagues; listen to their
opinions, and so on. At the end of each day, put a tick mark in your
table for each motivator you effectively applied with each team
member. Make sure your table is filling evenly with marks; make sure
all motivators are being applied across the whole team. Be careful
not to fall into the trap of simply working with those you already
get along with, those you like, those who least need real
motivational lift, or with the motivators that come most naturally
to you.
-
Review and repeat.
At the end of your first 21-day period, stand back and admire the
difference you have made. Pat yourself on the back, and start all
over again. Select the next person you need to target specifically,
and start a new table for the team at large.
Motivation is easy – if you care enough to put in a little extra
effort. Anyone can motivate, and anyone can be motivated. All it
takes is the right person in the right place, managed by someone who
cares. Invest a little of your time over the next 21 days and fire
’em up like never before.
*From the book
40 STRATEGIES FOR WINNING IN BUSINESS by Bud
Haney and Jim Sirbasku. © S&H Publishing Co., 5205 Lake Shore
Drive, Waco, Texas 76710-1732. All rights
reserved. Contact S&H Publishing Co., (254) 751-1644, for reprint
permission.
SUCCESS/LEADERSHIP
QUOTES
I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity... to see the
faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like
the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when
I see them cooperating like that.
-- Beatle Paul McCartney
The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the
credit for doing them.
-- Benjamin Jowett, English scholar and theologian
No problem is insurmountable. With a little courage,
teamwork and determination a person can overcome anything. –
Anonymous
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that
ever has. – Margaret Mead, anthropologist
You cannot collaborate with another person toward some
common end unless you know him. How can you know him, and he you,
unless you have engaged in enough mutual disclosure of self to be
able anticipate how he will react and what part he will play? --
Sidney Jourard, psychologist
The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You
may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if
they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.
-- Babe Ruth, baseball great
Success in business requires training and discipline and
hard work. But if you're not frightened by these things, the
opportunities are just as great today as they ever were. --
David Rockefeller, banker