Team Building Resources

When you evaluate both the results of a team and also the enjoyment factor the level of engagement of each individuals is a key element in delivering success on both front.  I believe there are 3 primary reasons for individuals not to fully engage with the team:

1. No clear objective for the team or don’t buy in to the objective.
2. Personality clashes between team members.
3. Don’t understand how their individual roll impacts the overall ojbective.

Evalute your team as far as level of engagement, if its not at the level you would like, evaluate which of the 3 issues you believe is creating the gap and establish action plans to address. 

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

The concept of  “scripts” we have written for ourselves is a core part of individual therapy.  When someone embarks on self reflection to work through a difficult situation or to help them achieve new goals they often need to focus on areas of their life that repeat the same behaviour or achieve the same outcome over and over again because the feel it is an inevitable outcome, they are powerless to change the “script” as it is already written. 

This of course is almost always not the case but self defeating scripts are generally very ingrained and not a quick fix for anyone.  The purpose of this post is not to sign everyone up to weekly therapy but to borrow the concept and apply it to the team. 

Just as individuals are a combination of their basic temperament – the core skills/preferences they are born with and life experiences that shape their personality, so are teams.  If you have a team that is struggling in general, it would be a good exercise to flush out the team scripts that are holding the results back.  What are the preset notions that people have in their mind about what the team can achieve and what they can’t.  Zero in on one and take action to re-write the script in peoples minds and build on small wins to challenge the concept of “it is inevitable or impossible for this team to change”. 

So for example if the script is “we always start meetings late because it is impossible for us to get everyone together before the set time”  Highlight the goal and create conditions for success.  Once you have enough evidence to support the “script” has been re-written, tackle a harder script, one at a time, until you have a team that believes in their ability to change and deliver results they have not delivered in the past.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

My final post on the impact of self esteem on team performance,  the 6th pillar as defined in Nathaniel Branden’s book “The Six Pillars of Self Esteem” – Personal Integrity

6. Personal integrity:
Living with congruence between what we know, what we profess, and what we do; telling the truth, honoring our commitments, exemplifying in action the values we professes to admire; dealing with others fairly and benevolently.

Living with personal integrity impacts every aspect of our lives and how we feel about our self.  As part of a team it is fundamental in the develop and maintenance of trust amongst team members.  Trust is the foundational element of effective teams, it opens the doors to all other elements of teams working effectively together.  Personal integrity is not just about making the right choices ethically and morally, it is about being consistent between our thoughts and actions.  If we do not understand ourselves and our motivations enough we can appear to be lacking personal integrity as we do not act with consistency, this can undermine trust within a team.  Self reflection when we find we are being challenged on our consistency is extremely important to work out for ourselves where we stand and then in turn can manage the trust development with out team members.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

Continuing my discussion on the impact of self esteem on team performance the 5th pillar as defined in Nathaniel Branden’s book “The Six Pillars of Self Esteem” – Living Purposefully.

5. Living purposefully:
Identifying our short-term and long-term goals or purposes and the actions needed to attain them, organizing behavior in the service of those goals, monitoring action to be sure we stay on track — and paying attention to outcome so as to recognize if and when we need to go back to the drawing-board.

As applied to an individual this pillar is very much focused on the totality of  our life, ensuring that we have made a conscious effort to have the right “balance” or “mix” to  enable us  to live our life’s in the best way possible which in turn makes us more fulfilled resulting in operating in all aspects of our life at peak performance.   “Living Purposefully” as a team becomes a multiplier for performance.  If all team members are very clear on their own short and long term goals they can ensure that goals are in alignment and when they aren’t take action to resolve the misalignment.  This allows the team to clearly focus on the goals at hand without managing hidden agendas.  When each individual takes responsibility to set goals, clearly articulate those goals, monitor progress against those goals everybody wins.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

Continuing my discussion on the impact of Self Esteem on team performance the 4th, pillar as defined in Nathaniel Branden’s book “The Six Pillars of Self Esteem” – Self Assertiveness.

4. Self-assertiveness:
Being authentic in our dealings with others; treating our values and persons with decent respect in social contexts; refusing to fake the reality of who we are or what we esteem in order to avoid someones disapproval; the willingness to stand up for ourselves and our ideas in appropriate ways in appropriate circumstances.

Trust is a fundamental element of successful teams and being authentic is a pre-requisite to develop trust amongst team members.  Understanding ourselves and being true to that self allows us to be self assertive as we do not question ourselves when part of a team.  This both displays confidence in ourselves which will allow others to be confident in us. 

This element of self esteem also deals with a key process for teams of sharing ideas and also managing conflict if ideas or strategies are differing amongst the team.  Successful teams require individuals to be comfortable in presenting their ideas or thoughts even if they are different that the rest of the team.  Having the confidence to present opposing ideas and also manage through the discussion in a respectful way that broadens the team view point is critical.   

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

Continuing my discussion on the impact of Self Esteem on team performance the 3rd pillar as defined in Nathaniel Branden’s book “The Six Pillars of Self Esteem”  – Self Responsibility

3. Self-responsibility:
Realizing that we are the authors of our choices and actions; that each one of us is responsible for our life and well-being and for the attainment of our goals; that if we need the cooperation of other people to achieve our goals, we must offer value in exchange; and that the question is not “Who’s to blame?” but always “What needs to be done?”

Each of the 6 pillars can have a significant impact on team performance but fully embracing this pillar of self responsibility can have a profound impact, resulting in a team truly achieving more as a team than individual members could on their own.  Ironic as it appears the basic premis is to act on your own but it is the owning of our actions and being open to doing “what needs to be done” versus assigning fault or remaining within formal job descriptions.  Taking hiden agenda’s out of team dynamics frees the team to work together collaberatively.  We also focus on delivering as a valuable team member and trusting that the contribution will be reciprocated without a “keeping score” mentality. 

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

Continuing my discussion on the impact of Self Esteem on team performance, I’d like to discuss the 2nd pillar as defined in Nathaniel Branden’s book “the Six Pillars of Self Esteem” – Self Acceptance.

2. Self Acceptance

The willingness to own, experience, and take responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, and actions, without evasion, denial, or disowning — and also without self-repudiation; giving oneself permission to think one’s thoughts, experience one’s emotions, and look at one’s actions without necessarily liking, endorsing or condoning them. If we are self-accepting, we do not experience ourselves as always “on trial,” and what this leads to is non-defensiveness and willingness to hear critical feedback or different ideas without becoming hostile and adversarial.

Taking the “judgement” part out of understanding our own behaviour can have significant impact on our performance within a team and the team’s performance overall.  Even individuals who are at the top of the scale for taking in constructive feedback still have troubles at some point but self acceptance would be the primary reason for the ability to hear and more importantly act on constructive feedback.  So the key here is to have self acceptance, this will also make you more accepting if your team mates are not performing at peak performance.  

To increase your ability for self acceptance, take time each week to reflect on your contribution/interaction within the team.  Do not place a judgment on it, like it was a good contribution or it could have been better, simply reflect on your activities.

Do this for a few weeks and get comfortable with the acceptance.  Then as a team mate to give you their observations of what contribution/interaction you had within the team.  Once you get comfortable with the process yourself invite other team members to follow the same regime, you will see an impact on individual performance and an increased ability for team members to provide constructive feedback to each other.  Simply by opening up the doors to self acceptance.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

The connection of high self esteem and individual peak performance is very clear.  A key trait of high self esteem is a strong self awareness and acceptance of oneself.  Individuals who truly understand their own strengths will ensure they are performing a role in which they are competent but also enjoy.  This in turn leads those individuals to be peak performers in their chosen profession. 

I will be  reviewing the key elements of self esteem as defined by Nathaniel Branden in his book “The Six Pillars of Self Esteem” and the implication on team performance.  Discussing each of the pillars in turn, starting with Pillar #1 – Living Consciously.

1. Living Consciously:
Respect for facts; being present to what we are doing while we are doing it; seeking and being eagerly open to any information, knowledge, or feedback that bears on our interests, values, goals, and projects; seeking to understand not only the world external to self but also our inner world as well, so that we do not act out of self-blindness.

Being present, seeing clearly and being open, allows individuals to build self esteem as they are solidly grounded in reality.  This sense of stability translates to confidence in themselves and their abilities given the situations.  If they are in a situation where they do not feel they can deliver what is required, they will take action to bridge the gap or remove themselves from the situation.

So how does this translate to successful teams?  As we work with team members being engaged is critical and living consciously increases engagement.  It also is extremely important in building trust within the team.  Team members can count on each other to a much higher degree when all team members are engaged and focus on a clear understanding of the common objective.

Challenge yourself and your team mates to “live consciously” it will both build self esteem and increase the performance of your team.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

For teams to work together successful they often need to overcome a number of barriers.  The basic benefit of team is many minds and bodies working together to accomplish a common goal.  Truly successful teams take advantage of the unique strengths and perspectives of the individuals that make up the group.  However, often the differences themselves preclude effective communication and connection to get to the very advantage that is sought.  The following is a quick list of barriers that teams must overcome to function together successful and some notes how to overcome the barrier:

1.    Can’t take in what others are saying because they say it differently.

·         Have team members practice actively listening, where they repeat back what they heard.  The individual who is communicating the original idea can correct the understanding and both members and those observing can see where the differences originate and have a deeper understanding of how to communicate more effectively.

2.    Individuals approach things differently so they don’t know where their team mates are coming from so they don’t develop trust.

·         Have team members work through a simple problem and document the steps they would take to solve the problem.  Then have each member review with the group how and why the approached it in their unique way.  The group should see there are many ways to work through things and gain an appreciation for different approaches.

3.     The process by which they make decisions is different so they can’t make consensus decision.

·         Decisions shouldn’t always be made through consensus but there are times when all team members need to have a say to buy in and carry the decision through.  So if the team is having trouble making decisions look into why that is, challenge the team to identify why they are having trouble and brain storm on suggestions on how to improve.

4.    The group is highly interdependent but they don’t understand what the rest of the teams roles are, they just know they need something from them to do their role.

·         If time and skills permits , allowing the group to swap roles for a day or an hour.  Often we think we know what someone else does until we are actually challenged with doing it ourselves.  If time or skills don’t permit, take time out of each team meeting to have individuals give a little review of their role and how they go about it.

5.    The common goal is not clearly defined or bought into by all team members.

·         Some people enjoy the social interaction of team so naturally adjust well to working in a team, others however would prefer to be individual contributors.  If individuals do not understand the common goal they are less likely to stretch themselves to work together as a team to accomplish.  Ensure the group understand the goal they are trying to achieve as a team and the benefits of working together as a team.

So to summarize the barriers that teams need to overcome are:

1.    Unclear or unproductive communication

2.    Different approaches result in individual being untrusting of others

3.    The team can’t make consensus decisions when required

4.    Team doesn’t understand their other team members roles

5.    Team is not clear and bought into the common goal

Evaluate your teams effectiveness and see if one or multiple of these barriers are holding your team back from being a truly high functioning team.  Take steps to correct, one at a time, too much change will just through the group into chaos.

Lynn

Problem solving is such a general term, it means so many different things from “fixing” things that are not working to “capitalizing” on opportunities.  For purposes of this article I’m referring to the process of working through a challenge either to fix a negative or capitalize on an opportunity. 

Individual problem solving techniques follow some general processes driven by specific personality types, the real value of a team is to make the most of each of these different ways/skills of problem solving without letting those differences be a problem in and of themselves.  I recently wrote about decision making and many of the factors that influence effective team decision making are relevant for problem solving, so I will include those elements as well as augment with additional elements that come into play.

1.    Intuitive versus factual – does the team member operate from a “gut” feel about things or based purely on things that are clearly defined.

2.    Extrapolate versus a logical linear connection – does the team member jump from one element to another or only connect items that have a clear linkage.

3.    Solve it using tried and true methods versus seek new ways – does the team member build on prior experience or look for ways that “could” work but have not been proven in the past.

4.    Process information internally or through verbal discussion – team brainstorming is key to effective problem solving but some individuals may need to process information internally first, in situation where time is not available, these team members will need to trust their teammates to allow them to move forward in the time available.

5.    Intent to revolutionize or make gradual improvements – team members will start from very different perspectives but can work together to build on each others ideas.

6.    Taping into the entire groups knowledge base.

7.    Taping into the teams creativity by taking ideas and building on them.

8.    Focus on the big picture versus see the fine details of the challenge can both yield benefits, capitalizing on both is the goal.

9.    Response to time pressure, some team members thrive under a time pressure, others freeze, recognize and capitalize on the ones that thrive to pull the group through.

10. Response to rules, some believe rules were made to be broken and will brainstorm ideas that throw rules out the window, often this will allow for solutions to be devised that can then be modified to work within the “rules”. 

Many of the 10 items listed above represent opposite ends of a spectrum, people will likely fall somewhere in between.  As a team take a current “problem” that needs to be solved.  During the meeting work through where on the spectrum each of the team members fall.  Have a team member explain why they feel it is important to work from one end of the spectrum, this will give others that see things from the “other” side a new appreciation.  Also it will allow for more tolerance of differences of opinion.  Then when working through a specific problem you can have two leaders one from each end of the spectrum lead the brainstorming elements.  Each will guide the group in quite different ways and often some combination of the results will yield the best solution.