Following is an e mail i received on team work and its betterment for effective results. i felt it would be of use to readers and here i put them...
Avoid Sarcasm
Sarcasm is some people's favorite choice of humor. but Sarcasm doesn't appeal to everyone. Some people really don't like sarcasm. Sarcasm tends to create a negative environment, even if it is done just in fun. It still creates a negative energy around the team. As a leader you need to avoid sarcasm yourself and discourage sarcasm in your team members.
Build a Culture
Every team has a culture. Is your project culture one where people respect each other or snipe at each other, is it a culture of complements or put downs, is it a culture of praising success or focusing on failures. As a leader you want to influence that culture to be a positive place. You need to intentionally make the culture one where people want to be.
Correct in Private
There will be times when someone needs correction. You must correct in private. Take the team member aside in private, hopefully in person, and make your correction constructive not destructive. Remember the team is watching you. They want to know if you are a safe person to fail with. Failure is not a bad thing. In skiing if you never fall down, you know you aren’t skiing to your full potential. Similarly on a team implementing anything if you don’t fail sometimes they aren’t pushing themselves. But if you publically correct your team will know that it is not safe to fail on this team and you will NEVER reach the potential of which the team is capable.
Delegate Completely
Do you delegate to your team? Do you delegate completely? Do you know the difference? My wife and I have a language we use to talk about this, we say. “Who’s rock is it?” Imagine you have a rock in your hand. That rock is the task you have that needs to get done. If you give that rock to another person they now have that rock. It is no longer in your hand, it is in their hand. You can’t both hold that rock at the same time. Similarly you need to hand over that task completely. If my wife asks me to do clean the kitchen then she agrees to give me that rock. Unless otherwise stated she agrees that she is giving up her definition of “done” and accepts my definition of “done” and my approach to completion. So she can not come to me later and say, “That isn’t done”, or, “That isn’t how you should do it.” She accepts my definition of done. As a leader you need to delegate completely you need to give them the rock. It is OK to have some parameters around your what you expect to get done but you need to give the team member the freedom and respect to do it their way. You will get much better result if you respect their abilities and allow them to fail. Just pick what tasks to assign that you are willing to have fail.
Engage Individually
Teamwork guru Christopher Avery had a nugget that I have kept and is as valuable today as when I first learned it. That nugget is to Engage individually with your team members. Ask them. Ask your team members why they are on this team, and, “my boss assigned me”, doesn’t count. Dig deeper. They felt that, of all the things they could do today, This was the best option. They chose to be there so find out what is motivating them. I found on my first time implementing this idea that my technical lead had been involved in some project failures before and he wanted to prove to himself and his other technical staff that he has what it takes to be a lead. You can bet that I gave him every opportunity to succeed and praised him in front of his peers often.
Foster Faith and Trust
To foster faith and trust is to create an environment where your team feels safe. Safe to offer ideas, safe to offer correction, even safe to speak up to contradict authority figures (You). If you foster a culture of faith and trust you fill find new ideas that would have been suppressed are expressed and you will benefit from the plethora of ideas. Leaders also need to make sure thy are worthy of trust. One way to foster faith and trust is to not talk negatively about people even when they aren’t there. If you talk negatively about someone who isn’t there, those people you are talking with will always wonder what you say about them when they aren’t there.
Give Praise in Public
The flip side of correcting in private is praising in public. You need to be careful how you give praise, some people get embarrassed by too much public praise. However, I have found that even those who say that feel rewarded by some public praise. Public praise doesn’t have to be in a group either. I always make sure to send an email to people when I want to recognize a job well done. This allows them to keep it for themselves and I make sure to copy their supervisor too. People have always appreciated that I copy their supervisor, especially around review time.
Hold to Commitments
All too often people make commitments without really committing to them. As a leader people need to know they can trust you trust extends to anything. What you say, what you do, and what you don’t do. One very practical place to hold to your commitments is in your meeting times. Start on time but even more important, end on time. Even if you get started late. End on time. Even if the conversation is going well, end on time. Even if you don’t get to say what you wanted to, end on time. People will respect your commitment to respect their valuable time. If a meeting is going to go long. I will end the meeting, dismiss anyone who needs to go and then continue the conversation with those who choose to stay.
Influence by Example
As my friend Chris Weidner says, as a leader you are person of influence…read or listen to anything by Chris Weidner (www.madeforsuccess.com) he can explain Influence better than I.
Joke with your team
I don’t mean tell knock-knock jokes. But maybe if that is natural for you. Humor is a great tool for crating workplace that people enjoy coming to. If you are totally serious all the time people will not want to be around. Be light hearted have fun. If you don’t like what you are doing then find another job.
Avoid Sarcasm
Sarcasm is some people's favorite choice of humor. but Sarcasm doesn't appeal to everyone. Some people really don't like sarcasm. Sarcasm tends to create a negative environment, even if it is done just in fun. It still creates a negative energy around the team. As a leader you need to avoid sarcasm yourself and discourage sarcasm in your team members.
Build a Culture
Every team has a culture. Is your project culture one where people respect each other or snipe at each other, is it a culture of complements or put downs, is it a culture of praising success or focusing on failures. As a leader you want to influence that culture to be a positive place. You need to intentionally make the culture one where people want to be.
Correct in Private
There will be times when someone needs correction. You must correct in private. Take the team member aside in private, hopefully in person, and make your correction constructive not destructive. Remember the team is watching you. They want to know if you are a safe person to fail with. Failure is not a bad thing. In skiing if you never fall down, you know you aren’t skiing to your full potential. Similarly on a team implementing anything if you don’t fail sometimes they aren’t pushing themselves. But if you publically correct your team will know that it is not safe to fail on this team and you will NEVER reach the potential of which the team is capable.
Delegate Completely
Do you delegate to your team? Do you delegate completely? Do you know the difference? My wife and I have a language we use to talk about this, we say. “Who’s rock is it?” Imagine you have a rock in your hand. That rock is the task you have that needs to get done. If you give that rock to another person they now have that rock. It is no longer in your hand, it is in their hand. You can’t both hold that rock at the same time. Similarly you need to hand over that task completely. If my wife asks me to do clean the kitchen then she agrees to give me that rock. Unless otherwise stated she agrees that she is giving up her definition of “done” and accepts my definition of “done” and my approach to completion. So she can not come to me later and say, “That isn’t done”, or, “That isn’t how you should do it.” She accepts my definition of done. As a leader you need to delegate completely you need to give them the rock. It is OK to have some parameters around your what you expect to get done but you need to give the team member the freedom and respect to do it their way. You will get much better result if you respect their abilities and allow them to fail. Just pick what tasks to assign that you are willing to have fail.
Engage Individually
Teamwork guru Christopher Avery had a nugget that I have kept and is as valuable today as when I first learned it. That nugget is to Engage individually with your team members. Ask them. Ask your team members why they are on this team, and, “my boss assigned me”, doesn’t count. Dig deeper. They felt that, of all the things they could do today, This was the best option. They chose to be there so find out what is motivating them. I found on my first time implementing this idea that my technical lead had been involved in some project failures before and he wanted to prove to himself and his other technical staff that he has what it takes to be a lead. You can bet that I gave him every opportunity to succeed and praised him in front of his peers often.
Foster Faith and Trust
To foster faith and trust is to create an environment where your team feels safe. Safe to offer ideas, safe to offer correction, even safe to speak up to contradict authority figures (You). If you foster a culture of faith and trust you fill find new ideas that would have been suppressed are expressed and you will benefit from the plethora of ideas. Leaders also need to make sure thy are worthy of trust. One way to foster faith and trust is to not talk negatively about people even when they aren’t there. If you talk negatively about someone who isn’t there, those people you are talking with will always wonder what you say about them when they aren’t there.
Give Praise in Public
The flip side of correcting in private is praising in public. You need to be careful how you give praise, some people get embarrassed by too much public praise. However, I have found that even those who say that feel rewarded by some public praise. Public praise doesn’t have to be in a group either. I always make sure to send an email to people when I want to recognize a job well done. This allows them to keep it for themselves and I make sure to copy their supervisor too. People have always appreciated that I copy their supervisor, especially around review time.
Hold to Commitments
All too often people make commitments without really committing to them. As a leader people need to know they can trust you trust extends to anything. What you say, what you do, and what you don’t do. One very practical place to hold to your commitments is in your meeting times. Start on time but even more important, end on time. Even if you get started late. End on time. Even if the conversation is going well, end on time. Even if you don’t get to say what you wanted to, end on time. People will respect your commitment to respect their valuable time. If a meeting is going to go long. I will end the meeting, dismiss anyone who needs to go and then continue the conversation with those who choose to stay.
Influence by Example
As my friend Chris Weidner says, as a leader you are person of influence…read or listen to anything by Chris Weidner (www.madeforsuccess.com) he can explain Influence better than I.
Joke with your team
I don’t mean tell knock-knock jokes. But maybe if that is natural for you. Humor is a great tool for crating workplace that people enjoy coming to. If you are totally serious all the time people will not want to be around. Be light hearted have fun. If you don’t like what you are doing then find another job.
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