You will have heard of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Motivational Needs, and they are still very relevant to today’s culture and societal direction. However, since Maslow’s time, others have taken these ideas of motivation and developed them to reflect the changes we constantly go through. Among these is Tony Robbins, whose thoughts have influenced millions.

Robbins has identified six basic human needs and believes everyone is—or can be—motivated by their desire to fulfill these needs.

You may want to consider these needs when thinking about developing and driving performance through your people. The question to ask is, “What need or needs can I affect and fulfill for my team member at work?”

1. Certainty/Comfort. We all want comfort. And much of this comfort comes from certainty. Of course there is never total certainty, but we want certainty about our job security, our salary will be paid this month and our company will still be here next year. So think about how you can fulfill this particular need for physical and psychological certainty for people.

2. Variety. At the same time we want certainty, we also crave variety. Paradoxically, there needs to be enough UNcertainty to provide interest and variety in our jobs. Help people to manage projects rather than just do jobs. That way, they do different things each day, against the backdrop of certainty that has been provided.

3. Significance. Deep down, we all want to be important. We want our life to have meaning and significance. If a team member is simply doing a job that doesn’t appear to contribute very much and doesn’t drive their motivation, they won’t feel significant or that they are making a difference. Make sure that you acknowledge the significance of each employee as often as possible.

4. Connection/Love. It would be hard to argue against the need for belonging. We want to feel part of a community. We want to be cared for and cared about. This drives performance because people want to feel part of a team and that they matter to their colleagues. Give teamwork a chance to develop and help people work together towards a common goal.

5. Growth. Some managers on our programmes say that they have team members who say they don’t want to grow, but I think they’re simply fearful of doing so—or perhaps NOT doing so. To become better, to improve our skills, to stretch and excel may be more evident in some than others, but it’s there. Everyone will want to grow in some area; we just have to find out which area that is.

6. Contribution. The desire to contribute something of value is deep down in all of us. Everyone wants to feel they have contributed to something, somewhere, to somebody. This highest needs corresponds to Maslow’s self-actualisation, the thought that our life, our work, actually matters and we have made a difference simply by being here. Leaving a legacy at work should be one of our goals; we can make that a goal for every team member, also.

Robbins recognises that each person has these basic needs. As managers, we can be really successful if we make sure we assist our teams to fulfil each of these. The more you can do that, the better they will feel about themselves, and about you, and the more motivated they will feel.

Many thanks

Nick Hill

Training Director

MTD Management Training Course

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Many teams are actually just a group of people who happen to be working under the same roof. They may have similar jobs, work for the same company and aim for similar results, but are they all pulling in the same direction, meeting the same objectives and aiding each other to create a great working environment?

How can the team measure how effective they are and how can you ensure they are all singing from the same song-sheet, as it were?

You could carry out a team assessment. Or, better still, let them carry out a self-assessment themselves.

Here’s how you can set one up:

1) Plan some time and inform every team member what is going to happen. You could provide lunch or snacks, so they see you feel this is important.

2) Get them to think about two key questions: What’s going well that we should keep and continue with? In what ways does the team need to improve?

3) Then get them to assess the team against 10 criteria:

• Clarity of our goals
• Relaxed climate to work in
• Clarity of team member roles
• Participation in decisions
• Sufficient resources to get jobs done
• Good communication
• Good management support
• Meetings are useful
• Conflicts are smoothly resolved
• External relationships are effective

You can choose others if you feel them appropriate for the team environment.

Allow team members to assess how they feel against each of the criteria. You can devise a scoring system that will help you compare each person’s thoughts (something like 0-10 will suffice)

After marks have been collated, appoint a facilitator whose job is to discuss the results and reach a consensus on action plans

Record the team’s ideas on a flip, so everyone can see them.

Review and prioritise this list before the end of the meeting

Arrange to have the list distributed to all team members.

Decide what follow-up actions are necessary.

Conduct an informal assessment of the meeting.

Decide on future plans for action based on the results of the feedback.

By carrying out an exercise like this, you get every team member to assess how they feel against key criteria. Then, make sure you listen to what is said at this self-assessment and see if you can devise some ‘quick-wins’ so the team can see the exercise was worth getting involved with.

Conducting a self-assessment is something you can carry out annually to check on progress. The team will respond well if they see results coming from it, and you will have achieved a high level of support so that the group of people you are managing maintains its ‘team’ ethos.

Many thanks

Mark Williams

Head of Training

MTD Management Training Course

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Effective teamworking is seen today as the key to success in many organisations. Meredith Belbin identified the characteristics of people needed to make up a successful team.His recommendations are still used today, so if you have to build a team, his ideas may well prove useful, nearly 30 years after his great book was published.

Businesses have often been pre-occupied with the strengths of the individual; do they have the qualifications and experience to do the job effectively, and the talents to be successful in the job. What they often overlook is whether they will fit into the team environment. This pre-occupation with individual assets means they concentrate on the selection, development, training, motivation and promotion of individuals without emphasising what benefits they bring to the team as a whole.

So Belbin and his team highlighted the necessary skills and characteristics that make up successful teams. They came up with nine archetypal functions that make up an ideal team. Here they are:

- Plant: creative, imaginative, unorthodox, solves difficult problems

- Co-ordinator: mature, confident, trusting, a good chairperson, clarifies goals, promotes decision-making

- Shaper: Dynamic, outgoing, enjoys challenges and pressure, finds ways round obstacles

- Teamworker: Social, mild, perceptive, accommodating, good listener

- Completer-Finisher: Pains-taker, conscientious, anxious, delivers to exact standards

- Implementer: Disciplined, reliable, conservative, efficient, turns ideas into actions

- Resource Investigator: Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative, explores opportunities

- Specialist: Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated, brings skills and knowledge that few others have

- Monitor-Evaluator: Sober, strategic, discerning, sees many options, makes judgements

These categories have proved to be robust over the years and are still used in business to identify team ethics. High-performing companies increasingly believe that teams rather than business units or individuals are the basic building blocks to a successful organisation.

I’d recommend you take a look at Belbin’s book (Management Teams – Why they succeed or fail, Heinemann Publishing) and identify what you are looking for from your teams.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

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When we run programs on team work, many managers comment that their people don’t act as team members, and some actively work against their colleagues because of hidden agendas or personality differences.

Many of the activities we carry out show that managers have little idea of what makes the difference between having a proper team working together in harmony, and a group of people who just happen to be working in the same department.

The truth is, people can work together without having a ‘team’ ethic. But how do you create the environment for all persons in the department to pull together and be a team? Well, let’s first see what a successful team actually does.

A successful team is one in which the team members not only achieve something worthwhile, but feel that they have contributed to and participated in a project with a purpose.

Teams create various levels of deep working relationships within them. Just because people happen to be in the same office doesn’t necessarily mean they get the best out of each other. The relationships that real teams build provide that firm foundation for growth.

Teams have an emotional connection with each other so that they all ‘stand for’ something. If you asked each team member why the team exists, would everyone come up with the same answer, or totally different ideas? This connection will either drive the performance forward or drag it down.

Real teams develop their own internal motivation and stimulus to perform. If your team are dragging their feet or bickering with each other, or showing negative signals, you have to question their real motivations for being there.

Teams build their qualities through synergistic interactions. This involves each person contributing their strengths, opinions, talents and ideas to the team and building on their ideas with each other. Knowledge is shared and made openly available at meetings and on projects.

Teams always know they need to develop, perform and improve. In real teams, they contribute to each other’s’ skills and talents, learning and researching while growing together.

Without each of these traits, people tend to be looking for reasons to stand out in teams for their own motives, and the team ethic falls apart as they just work within the group they have been assigned to.

So, work with your team to help them analyse what level they are at as a team. Get them to formulate plans to improve the connections within the team. Identify individuals who are natural team builders and help others to model their mind-sets so the group you have working with you feel they have the skills and qualities to turn themselves into a committed and special team, growing with every opportunity.

Thanks again

Sean

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Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

When you are manager of a team of people, you carry a heavy responsibility to create an environment for them to perform at their best. If you’re not getting the best out of them, ask yourself how much of the blame you personally have to accept for the results.

Are you helping your team members achieve to the level they know is possible? Do you assist them in building a team culture where they really want to contribute to its success?

Here’s my take on the steps you can implement to achieve a high-performing culture:

• Decide with the team how you are going to build a high-performance culture. Discuss with each team member what they expect from you on a day-to-day basis

• Provide clear expectations and priorities for teamwork and discuss how great team behaviour can be exhibited daily

• Help team members to gain a sense of ownership by sharing the group’s goals, such as productivity, costs, schedule, customer service, production quotas, etc. Let team members help you in tracking what is important progress measurements

• Let team members help in problem-solving. If you deal with other departments, help team members set up cross-departmental improvement groups to ascertain how each department can assist each other

• Let team members have input to agendas for team meetings and have the chance to lead the meetings at times

• If you have a new account or new project, solicit the help of team members in detailing what direction they should take to make the project a success. The more ownership they have of results, the committed they feel to making it work

• Keep lines of communication open. Include team members in plans, processes, results, challenges and project development. Let them see customer feedback. Highlight the relationships with other departments. Tell them what higher management strategies mean to them as a team. Communicate the state of the business, and the part they can play in it.

• Encourage a team ‘code of conduct’ that will develop a team ethos for working together. Ask them what they think a professional team would look like. See if you can get a short film of a Formula One pit-stop team working together. What do they need to do to produce such stunning results? How much do they rely on each other? What can they learn from the pit-stop team that would work in their situation?

• Provide good coaching sessions to each team member so that they feel part of the development of the team and can contribute to their team’s multi-skilling opportunities

If you are able to nurture your team to accept responsibility for the results they achieve, you create a culture of belief in them that will help them go from strength to strength and build a firm foundation for excellence in all they do.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

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