Getting your employees to the office as a team may look daunting. When you consider their shortcomings, the poor communication or scarcity of effectiveness, you may think they can never change. They are good people, but they just don't pull along.
Simple group dynamics tells us that the culture and behaviour within the group comes from the first choice. It is the Operator or Manager who puts the favorable practices, procedures and positive team culture in place. Changing how you do things will improve the group immediately. Work from your following steps sequentially, and use this as a ladder to getting your employees to are a Team.
Step 1 Sell your Vision within the Team
Set out your expectations into the team. Gather them round in a Team Huddle, and tell them the type of team you would like us to be. Prepare your thoughts really well, so that you demonstrate yourself clearly and rightly. Use positive examples rather than negative, and paint the picture as a logical, but attractive prospect. Most team issues stalk from an unclear vision of the type of team we need to be.
Step 2 Clarify ones Purpose
Talk through your purpose as a team, and do the following frequently. How do you generate income? What is your purpose with Customers? Who are your Customer groups, and what is your role with each of these groups. Promote your purpose to the team at frequent time intervals. Praise them when they're just actively working towards in which purpose.
Step 3 Identify goals
Identify very clear goals every week and each four weeks. Those goals should add some day-to-day throughput of deliver the results, and also the improvement goals for the week and the week. Make goals precise, with targets and deadlines. It should be possible to write each goal in one relatively short sentence. Encourage goal achievement, and memorialize all successes and milestones. Make a point of noticing beneficial attitudes or behaviours, and praise these. Remember, if you praise something, it will be repeated.
Step 3 Bind the Team
A team is not a team unless people feel cohesive. To instill cohesiveness, one of the most powerful tools is all the Team Huddle. This is a five-minute stand-up daily meeting the spot that the Leader focuses and motivates the team during the day. The benefit for team building is that they are all looking at 1 another, and they can give input to your daily challenges or stressors. Also use social events, for example Pizza Friday, the once a month lunch out, or any celebration dinner. Think in terms of getting the whole team to interact in the least as a team to increase cohesiveness.
Step 4 Activate the Team in Desired goals, Plans and Strategies
The team is like any other issue around life. Don't just get annoyed at the fact that they are not tugging together. Identify a clearly seen goal, and plan a strategy to achieve that goal. With a company, it is better if you identify a clear goal to the team, and ask them to come up with a strategy. Write your goal up on a whiteboard or flipchart. Split the team into two or three sub-groups, and ask each sub-group to come up with a solution. You can then assess the solutions and pick the best. The team often come up with much better solutions that you would, and it is much more motivational to be able to be engaged in in this way.
Remember, the path to improving upon anything in life will be to identify a vision of where you are going, and some clear goals to build there.
