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

http://positivesharing.com/2010/01/srikumar-s-rao-at-our-2009-conference/

The video is a speech delivered by Dr. Rao at the 2009 conference on happiness at work.  Dr. Rao is the man behind the pioneering course Creativity and Personal Mastery. This is the only business school course that has its own alumni association and it has been extensively covered in the media including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the London Times, the Independent, Time, the Financial Times, Fortune, the Guardian, Business Week and dozens of other publications.

Here are his key points distilled but its worth the 18 minute time investment to hear it directly.

1. We are born happy, we learn to be unhappy.
2. What makes us unhappy is the mental models we are taught
   •  If we do “something” we will get “something” that will then make us happy.
     • The problem is once we have the “something” we were seeking the mental models we have learned is to want ”something” else. In addition often the “something” we want, the OUTCOME is completely out of our control.
3. To truly increase our happiness we need to become less focused on the OUTCOME and the mental, if, then model and focus more on the process, which is really the only thing under our control.
4. Its OK to think about a specific outcome that we would like, to ensure we are committed to the right process, but once we have determined the right process we commit fully to the process, invest in the process not the outcome.  This improves our likely hood of happiness as it is under our control and if we pick the right process the outcome we hoped for will likely come to fruition.

You can apply this new mode of thinking to many things, including how to improve team dynamics.  Think of the outcome you would like to achieve and then decide on the right process to be followed to achieve that outcome and then commit fully to the process alone.

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

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

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

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

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

As humans we know mistakes are inevitable.  I’m not suggesting you reward every mistake but a few well chosen opportunities can go a long way to setting a culture that is accepting of mistakes and learns from them.  As well as benefiting from all the innovation and creativity it releases. 

So evaluate the mistakes/failures through the following lens and when appropriate choose a recognition technique that best communicates the message and treats the individual or individuals involved with respect.

1. Was the mistake driven by someone trying something new and innovative?
2. Did the individual and or team learn something from the experience that will be beneficial in the future?
3. Were the consequences of the mistake contained and manageable?
4. Will the individual or team that made the mistake be comfortable with the details being shared publically?

If you answered yes to each of these questions then it’s an ideal opportunity to use this example to reward the intention of trying to achieve better results.  Don’t just reward failure once as it will be seen as a passing idea of the month.  That said make sure you reward success more often, it’s great to create the culture of being accepting of failure but you don’t want to go too far in actively promoting it.