The 99th Grey Cup game is over and another football season is at an end. During the game, coaches, media and fans alike were busy analyzing the game.
And coaches move their players in and out of each play as they continuously try to improve the team's ability to score and win.
Unfortunately, as much as business owners and organizational leaders support the concept of teamwork in the workplace, building and sustaining effective workplace teams is much harder than in the sports arena. Building a team begins with the recruitment and selection of the right "players." This means that leaders must clearly understand the skills and areas of expertise they need to fill any gaps.
Leaders need to find an effective means of studying their team candidates and assessing their abilities and work histories. Few organizational leaders do much more than check references to determine this critical element of employee capability.
One of the trends that is quickly gaining momentum is to apply a psychometric assessment tool that helps leaders to understand a candidate's character, motivation and ability to fit into a team role.
A business team does not typically have the ability to provide intense training in the technical details of the work as well as training in actual teamwork. At the same time, the "business" of the work must continue.
The challenge of moving players (employees) in and out of a team is also more difficult, particularly if an organization is small. There just isn't a long list of known individuals in an external candidate pool.
Yet, workplace teamwork still offers advantages, especially over time. Teams allow for more employee involvement, more input into ideas and problem solving and provide for a broader ability to cross-train .
When teams are considered multidisciplinary, there is opportunity to have less organizational hierarchy and therefore leaner structures. As well, this type of team allows for more flexibility.
Finally, building and engaging teams in the workplace also offers the opportunity for individuals to share in more accomplishments.
Some strategies that can be applied to make your teams more effective:
Know your skill requirements -- As work demands change and employee skills grow, leaders need to continually evaluate what skills are needed now and in the future. Since getting new players is not easy, both short- and long-term plans need to be put into place and success continually monitored.
Set and exploit clear goals -- Each team member must understand the overall goal, their role in it and be expected to maintain focus on it. The business leader must continually remind employees of this focus and make corrections when needed. Be sure that your business goals are observable and measurable and that employees understand these measurements.
Invest in training -- Employee training is not a one-time thing. Be prepared to invest in multiple training activities that create joint collaborative problem-solving approaches. Examine all of the requirements of the work and develop comprehensive training programs to build up the skills required. Use online e-learning to continually provide upgrading.
Open up communication for trust building -- Invite and encourage team members to freely give their ideas and share their thoughts in an open forum, never behind one's back. Encourage members to challenge others, respectfully listen to alternative ideas and to use consensus decision making. These strategies are known to create and encourage co-operation.
Continually review and measure progress -- Measuring team, project and individual progress and success is definitely one of the weakest areas of business. The challenge is to set milestones and measure points for your projects and to stop at each interval and measure progress and success.
Show leadership -- Leading a team is not a title, it is a duty; it is an active, difficult and continuous job. As leader, you need to analyze the needs, set and adjust the goals, build the team, monitor success, make corrections and ensure that team members celebrate both their diversity and their success.
On the other hand, observing sports teams can also be of value for employees who are team members. After all, you don't want to be one of those "players" who is moved off the team for whatever reason. Two of the best pieces of advice for team members:
Be the best you can be -- Being selected as a team member is only half the job, the other half is staying on the team. You do that by keeping your skills as current as possible and taking responsibility to "work out" on your own. Understand the role you play on the team and make sure that role is best suited to you. Learn to be flexible and acquire other skills.
Apply and maintain a positive attitude -- It's hard to stay positive when you feel down on luck in a game and/or when your work situation isn't the best. However, applying a positive attitude at all times helps you to look at problems as opportunities which in turn leads to creativity and innovation. All of these elements then reinforce the ability to be positive and enthusiastic about your work. Not only that, enthusiasm and a positive attitude draws people toward you and makes for better team relationships.
All teamwork, whether in the sports arena and/or the business world, takes a good deal of hard and consistent work, both on the part of team leaders and the players. Yet, examining the way sports teams are managed, analyzed and monitored can provide good lessons as team-building and progress reporting is not an area of strength for the much of the business world.
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