With Trust being on of the fundamental elements of successful teams, when teams rely on email as the number one source of communication it can leave lots of room to impact trust development.  Some things to keep in mind as it relates to email and your team:

1. The written word, even electronic is much more permanent than the spoken word so if in doubt about if you should have a conversation face to face or via email, err on the side of face to face. 
2. You lose the benefit of non verbal cues when communicating through email so if the subject is sensitive at all, again err on the side of face to face or at a minimum on the phone at least you do get to gauge response right away and clarify if needed based on a verbal response.
3. Quantity can detract from quality – its so easy to fire off quick emails, quick responses, ensure that you don’t rely on it as the sole source of communication with team members, “social” bonds are critical to team development so make sure you take time to foster them directly.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

Likely the answer is you have either developed a bad habit that is very much ingrained in your normal routine or you just don’t have the natural skills to improve it yourself.  That’s where the team comes in.  Odds are someone else, either a co-worker or a friend is struggling to improve something in their lives that you have mastered. 

Determine what it is you would like to change and seek out other individuals who you believe are operating at a level you aspire to, really effective if you can find a few individuals that have achieved the results you seek by different means.  Create a team objective and share with each other strategies of how you have mastered a particular skill and coach each through  the rough spots.  Each gaining something out of the relationship by sharing your differences to improve performance overall.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

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

“It’s easy to figure out who isn’t a team player. They’ll constantly remind the coach just how good they are.”
- Brian G. Jett

“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
- Vincent Lombardi

“There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves”  – Lyndon Johnson

“Everybody on a championship team doesn’t get publicity, but everyone can say he’s a champion” – Earvin “Magic” Johnson

“Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success” – Henry Ford

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lynn

Team Enthusiast

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

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

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

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