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

(Image by David Castillo Dominici)

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

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

Unplanned absence from work is said to cost over 40 million work days per year in the UK alone, which is a huge percentage of production time lost.

Is there anything you can do to manage absenteeism without risking claims of discrimination? Yes, there is. There are several things you can do to protect your team and business, including a) understand the scale of the problem, b) discover the underlying causes and c) take a positive and methodical approach to solving the problem. You can read some interesting ways to get absentees back to work here

First, can you actually measure the effects of absence?

One way is the Bradford Factor, which takes account of the fact that persistent short spells of absence are much more costly and disruptive than occasional long ones. It measures irregularity of attendance as follows:

Bradford Factor = S x S x D

In this equation, S = the number of spells of absence over a time period (say, one year), and D is the number of days absence in the same period.

For example, if a person has been absent for one period of 10 days, the figures would read: 1 x 1 x 10, which equals 10.

But if they were absent for 10 separate days over the same period, the figures would read: 10 x 10 x 10, which equals 1,000.

It may only be a crude measure, but many employers use the scale as a realistic comparison of disruption.

So, you need to formulate a policy in order to tackle absenteeism effectively. The most effective absence management policies are based on the following principles:

* A balance of concern for cost and concern for people

* Keeping people informed

* Quality Information

Whatever your absence management policy, there are some actions you can take to help you achieve better results in this area:

Act Early: If you notice increase in absence or changes in the pattern of absences, investigate and take action before it becomes a major problem. You don’t want it to become so overlooked that it is seen by some as an acquired right to extra leave.

Seek Advice Early: Some issues may involve medical, psychological, legal and contractual situations, so try to get specialist advice before making any decisions on how to approach it. Avoid impulsive decisions and actions, and get HR or your people development department involved. Talk about chances and opportunities for transitional roles for the person who is the subject of your absence enquiries.

Be Methodical: Collect data consistently and carefully. Keep good records, see that everyone has a return-to-work interview and communicate fully and completely with people involved. This way fairness and relevance never becomes an issue of contention.

Be aware that some people may take absence because they have outgrown their role and are ‘rebelling’ against the systems or processes you are running. Boredom can be just as stressful as overwork, so be aware of the rationale people use to justify their being away from work.

If it has become a real problem, discuss other opportunities the person may have within or without your department. You don’t want to pass the problem onto someone else within your organisation, but you cannot afford to carry passengers, so let the person know that you need their help in dealing with the issue as well.

That way, you are offering them the chance to deal with their absence issues in an adult and professional way. Help the person to realise the impact their absence is having on results and their team mates. Employ a culture of care within the department, and encourage people to bring their problems to you before they become the foundation of a culture of absence.

Thanks again

Sean

(Image by Avital Pinnick) 

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

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

You know the feeling…you’ve taken on a new employee, they seemed exactly the right type of person from their CV and the interview, they’ve got their feet under the table and ….

Whatever the reason, many new hires simply don’t turn out the way you thought they would. There is no fail safe technique for ensuring someone starting with you will perform in the way you expect them to. Their values may not ring true with your team, or they may not get on with their colleagues, or they may have personal issues that spill over into the workplace.

You may have to act swiftly to limit the damage this bad hiring decision may cause you. I have a few ideas that might help:

First, face up to the problem. You may feel uncomfortable or embarrassed about the situation. You may not have noticed something obvious at the interview, and you may feel frustrated and guilty about what may lay ahead; like, having to get rid of a person and go through the long recruitment process again. So, there are several stages you can go through before removing the person from their position.

1) Ensure you and they have clear objectives. Go back to the job description and the objectives they need to hit and make sure everything is clear, with no ambiguities. Make sure they understand what is expected of him or her. Is there an aspect of the role that needs describing in greater detail? If so, make it happen and keep a close eye on how the person responds.

2) Review your induction programme. You need to strike a delicate balance between the new person adding value to the organisation and making sure the systems and processes in the organisation are well-followed. Some sensitivity at this stage is normal, but revisit what your expectations are during this induction period and highlight any anomalies that may be present.

3) Do they simply need more training? There may be a skills gap between someone’s former experience and the new job requirements. The decision to employ may look poor, but it may simply be a case of the person not getting enough skills training or coaching to appear competent. Could they shadow someone else, or have a mentor for a longer period to see if that reduces the concerns you may have?

4) Is the level of support adequate? Maybe they need a bit more supervision on the job before they pick it up properly. Has the level of guidance been enough to allow them to grow quickly into the job? Different people have different learning styles, so it’s possible they need to be trained or supported in a different way before they grasp the principles.

5) Find out their perceptions of the job. Have an early performance review or job appraisal to discover their views on how things are going. This gives you both an opportunity to bring up any issues that may be covered up. Discuss, performance targets, quality issues, time frames, compliances, or whatever it is that is giving you cause for concern. This will allow you to bring up the concerns you have without it appearing personal just to them.

6) Check out your coaching style. Coaching is a good investment in people, as it allows you to develop their skills while keeping an eye on their performance. It will check on their levels of resourcefulness, too, so you see whether there is a real reason to keep them motivated and in your future plans.

7) Consider extending the probation period. Practically, it is easier to reverse a poor hiring decision before the probation period is up. Once full employment has been granted, the legal requirements that have to be followed are more complicated. You must demonstrate you’ve given the employee every chance to turn things round, so an extended probation period allows you both to see whether the future with be better with or without them. Naturally, you need to forewarn them about the consequences of lack of improvement

8 ) Create contingencies if the person should fail to improve. Is there another role within the organisation that would suit them better? Could someone else fit into the role they are currently holding if you do have to let them go quickly? Would they be disruptive if you asked them to leave early? maybe compensation for early leaving would be better than putting up with poor performance longer than necessary.

There is no value in prolonging a poor hiring decision; it’s always best to tackle the situation head-on and in a professional way. This ensures the least damage to morale and the organisation’s performance.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

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

I was looking at the 2011 Global Mindset Index Report this week,(click here to download it) and it makes interesting and rather disturbing reading. It shows, among other things, that:

• one in four employees (23%) worldwide identifies with five or more of the key factors in depression (as outlined by the World Health Organisation)
• only 12% of the global workforce expressed feeling generally optimistic
• only 14% of respondents said they felt inspired by their employer
• 92% of respondents said their emotions were reliant on workplace results, rather than factors such as self-belief and intrinsic work ethic.

These results were obtained by surveying participants in America, Europe, South America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. In a nutshell, the findings reveal the following:

• If the environment at work supports an individual’s view of their own ‘self’ it provides a positive emotional state and a source of stable motivation
• An individual is empowered by their internal feelings of worth, ability and value
• There is a clear divide in focus, belief, confidence, connectivity and enthusiasm between those at the top of an organisation and those on the lower rungs of the corporate ladder
• The older you get (50+), the less confidence you have in your organisation and where it’s going, but the more stable you feel in your role
• Women are finding the current environment more challenging in terms of feeling confident in their roles and responding to stressful situations

These trends heighten the need for leaders to act now to ensure their team members bring a mindset to work that will enable them to achieve and perform.  So, what can leaders do?

• Take proactive steps in discussing the overall well-being of their people
• Offer support when people are feeling less than 100%
• Set performance goals for individuals in the workplace that assist in an “achievement” mindset for staff
• Provide coaching and feedback to inspire exceptional performance

As the world’s economy goes through an intriguing stage, we are looking for leaders to do exactly that…lead. And if you can learn the lessons from this report, people will look to you for inspiration and development in the future.

Thanks again

Sean

How many times have you said sentences like these?

It isn’t very far!

Let’s get together sometime!

I need it quickly!

I would like you to do this really well!

We need to communicate better!

That will cost a lot!

Call me later!

I’m sure there are many similar statements you have made that are ambiguous or unclear in their meaning.

These are examples of what are known linguistically as ‘generalisations’, and even though we may have a clear idea of what we mean by ‘a lot’, ‘later’ or ‘better’, are you sure that the other person has a clear understanding and knows what you mean? Of course, the answer is no.

There are times when you want to be deliberately vague, not because you want to mislead, but because you genuinely don’t know the answer now. What I’m referring to are those occasions when the other person needs to be really clear on what you are saying, so there’s no misunderstanding.

The first thing you need to do is to be clear in your own mind of the meaning you want to convey. In this blog, I covered the three areas you need to be aware of before communicating effectively. They were purpose, intention and meaning. If you want the other person to be understand complete what you are discussing, become totally aware of when you use these generalisations, and whether they convey the meaning you originally intended.

Try writing down the sentences I’ve listed at the top of this blog and giving them to your team members. Then ask them to write what they consider the meaning to be next to each one. You might be surprised to see the differences that each person interprets the messages as.

Does this mean you have to be absolutely accurate every time? That would be impossible, but what you can do is become highly aware of what the messages you are sending actually mean to the person you are talking to. If it could be mis-interpreted, mis-construed or mis-aligned, determine whether there is a different way you could express it so it becomes more clear.

You may start off with a sentence like ‘we have to communicate better’, and then filter down into smaller chunks to clarify what you mean and ensure your listeners understand the meaning behind the message. You could continue with ‘ what I mean by this is the level of communication has to be correct for the situation and the message, and we need to be clearer in what we say. Let me give you an example…’ and then get more specific in what you need them to do.

Think back on occasions when you felt confused about a message given to you and how you interpreted it. Then think how you would have preferred that message to have been given to you. That way, you encourage yourself to reduce the amount of generalities you use and lessen the amount of misunderstandings you cause.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

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