Team Building and Leadership: Create-Learning » Team Training http://create-learning.com/blog Organizational Development - Team Building - Leadership Training - Executive Coaching - Facilitation Fri, 18 May 2012 15:54:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 How can we avoid poor team performance? Don’t Promote People who Can’t do The Work. Two images that support this claim. http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/how-can-we-avoid-poor-team-performance-dont-promote-people-who-cant-do-the-work-two-images-that-support-this-claim http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/how-can-we-avoid-poor-team-performance-dont-promote-people-who-cant-do-the-work-two-images-that-support-this-claim#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:13:08 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/how-can-we-avoid-poor-team-performance-dont-promote-people-who-cant-do-the-work-two-images-that-support-this-claim

Two favorite images illustrating the need for Managerial-Leadership and Team Development systems to be used within companies. Great teams and managerial-leaders happen on purpose.

  • Click on either image for it to be enlarged.

How Can We Avoid This?

team building and leadership expert michael cardus

 

Don’t Promote People Who Believe This

team building and leadership expert michael cardus

Both of the above images are slides used in The Demystification of Leadership Workshop.

 

What do you think?

About the images, the points being made, the need for team leadership and team building systems?

Team Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

images by accent on eclectic and Aaron Escobar ♦ (the spaniard)™

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/how-can-we-avoid-poor-team-performance-dont-promote-people-who-cant-do-the-work-two-images-that-support-this-claim/feed 0 Decision Making Procedure Fixed Team Problems http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/decision-making-procedure-fixed-team-problems http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/decision-making-procedure-fixed-team-problems#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:45:53 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/decision-making-procedure-fixed-team-problems Making decisions as a team requires a shared understanding and procedure for accomplishment. The confusion and strife that occurs because the team cannot make a decision will ruin any progress made on the work. In order for decisions to be made quickly, and the work to be completed on-time, on-budget, within quality, while the team still gets along, a known and agreed upon procedure must be used.

CONTACT Create-Learning to make this happen for your team.

 

How to Make Team Decisions

team building and leadership expert michael cardus

Situation

Working with a team of 12 people. They were struggling to make decisions as a team. The team manager Kim, had her goals, roles and vision clearly articulated, and the team members all agreed that the goals and roles were understood and agreeable.

The problem was deciding how, what and when to implement the detailed parts of the work. The lag was causing increases in the amount of time and cost to the company. Plus placing stress on Kim, because her boss the CEO of the company was putting pressure on her to “fix this”.

Intervention

In a 3 hour team building meeting, where the team came with a decision to be made. The above image was shared. Along with more prescriptive content on Selecting a Decision-Making Approach. Kim, with the team created “Decision Making Chart” defining which decisions she would make herself (Authoritarian to Consultative) which needed to be delegated to specific team members, and which decisions will be made by the group (Consensus to 2/3 majority vote).

A quick procedure and shared checklist of “Selecting a Decision-Making Approach”  was created, designed and agreed upon by the entire team, which can be used with the team and records each team members preferences and accountability and authority in each decision to be made.

Resolution

Kim reported that decisions were being made “faster and with greater buy-in from the team” and that her boss shared with her a compliment he received from another CEO of a key client of theirs. The compliment was “Your team was able to turn around our request in record time. We will be doing more business with you.”

Follow up with the team showed the following results;

  • Increased trust of other team-members due to a shared understanding of how decisions are made and who is accountable and has the authority to act upon those decisions.
  • Decreased amount of time make a decision. What used to take week, and even then people still did not agree on the decision. Now takes hours or minutes, and everyone leaves in agreement of the decision made.
  • Kim feels less stress and anger towards the team. She reported finding greater areas of cooperation and solutions.
  • The team has had their work and therefore responsibility increased, and they are thriving.

CONTACT Create-Learning to make this happen for your team.

Making decisions as a team requires a shared understanding and procedure for accomplishment. The confusion and strife that occurs because the team cannot make a decision will ruin any progress made on the work. In order for decisions to be made quickly, and the work to be completed on-time, on-budget, within quality, while the team still gets along, a known and agreed upon procedure must be used.

 

michael cardus is create-learning

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/decision-making-procedure-fixed-team-problems/feed 0 Photo Inquiry Friday: What Questions Should a Manager ask an Employee After a Training? http://create-learning.com/blog/management/photo-inquiry-friday-what-questions-should-a-manager-ask-an-employee-after-a-training http://create-learning.com/blog/management/photo-inquiry-friday-what-questions-should-a-manager-ask-an-employee-after-a-training#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/management/photo-inquiry-friday-what-questions-should-a-manager-ask-an-employee-after-a-training team building and leadership expert michael cardus

A question I don’t get asked enough is, “My manager and I are working together to figure out the best ways to use this training back in the office, do you have any advice?”

If you are a Manager and you send people to training, it is your responsibility to work with the person and the team to determine what was learned, and how to best apply it. Part of the Managerial-Leadership role is coaching employees to see their work in the proper context.

 

On With the Inquiry:

What questions should a manager ask an employee after a training?

These are questions you can ask yourself if your manager chooses to not ask, or you don’t have a manager. You can ever discuss these questions with your team.

  • The purpose of sending you to the training was (x), in what ways was (x) accomplished?
  • What have you learned?
  • How do you intend to apply it in your work? or in our work? What else? What else?
  • What wider lessons did you pick up that may benefit team, department or the company?
  • What more training do you need?
  • In what ways can I support you in doing and applying what you learned?
  • How can we measure the impact of this training on your current work?

Think about and answering the questions above, and share what your responses in the comments section below. Team Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

image by JD Hancock

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/management/photo-inquiry-friday-what-questions-should-a-manager-ask-an-employee-after-a-training/feed 0 Dealing with Difficult Team Members: The Legalist http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-legalist http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-legalist#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:39:19 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-legalist team building and leadership expert michael cardus

Generally there are 12 types of team members that can become difficult. It is imperative that you 1. Try to figure out the team members behavior; 2. Look for cooperation and the positive side of the behavior and build on that; 3. Try the suggested ideas for ameliorating the negative sides of the behavior; 4. Treat the person as a competent adult due your full respect and attention.

 

12 Types of Difficult Team Members

 

The Legalist: Everything the team does MUST follow the rules, exactly as they are stated.
(-) Uncompromising, Stubborn
(+) Enforces procedures and ensures things are done right
  • Look for help from the team and peers. With this behavior you will need some assistance to ease the Legalist into finding compromises of rigidity to the rules. Chances are they know this about themselves.
  • Use open ended questions like “What if we didn’t …?” “In what ways might we complete … and still follow procedures? Attempt to work with them to see ways to stay within sufficient procedures while still moving the team forward.
  • Use brainstorming with the team to generate solutions. This person needs to see that alternative paths may remain within the procedures, sometime brainstorming with the team will generate alternative paths.
  • Assign them tasks that require strict adherence to the rules. If this is what they are good at then assign them tasks and goals that need to fit procedures and rules. They may even be able to look at existing team work and determine how it “fits the procedures”.

 

 

What do you think?

Have you had, or if you had ‘The Legalist’ on your team what are some ways that you can keep them offering ideas and remaining engaged in the team process?

This is content from ‘Quality Tools for Quality Teams’: Great Team Work happens on purpose. With a set of tools that people can be trained & coached to use. These tools allow all team members to do their best work in conjunction with the team. To learn more CONTACT MIKETeam Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

image by Jinzeiu

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-legalist/feed 0 Dealing with Difficult Team Members: The Pain in the Neck http://create-learning.com/blog/successful-teams/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-pain-in-the-neck http://create-learning.com/blog/successful-teams/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-pain-in-the-neck#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:21:14 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/successful-teams/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-pain-in-the-neck Team Building and leadership expert Michael Cardus

Generally there are 12 types of team members that can become difficult. It is imperative that you 1. Try to figure out the team members behavior; 2. Look for cooperation and the positive side of the behavior and build on that; 3. Try the suggested ideas for ameliorating the negative sides of the behavior; 4. Treat the person as a competent adult due your full respect and attention.

12 Types of Difficult Team Members

 

The Pain in the Neck: consistently argumentative, every slight change and task and work expectation is a HUGE ordeal.
(-) Causes conflict, causes team to lose focus from the tasks at hand
(+) Brings up opposing and alternative viewpoints
  • Stick to the agenda and use it as a tool to re-focus this person and the team. The agenda can assist in getting-things-done and sticking to time-frames.
  • Listen, respect, and summarize their concerns and move on. Generally they just want to be heard. Acknowledge, Summarize the key points and keep moving.
  • Steer discussions to the feelings of the team. Based on the environment of arguing, and the need for the team to get work done. Sometimes explaining how this argumentative environment is not conducive to other people on the team, will pull this person back some.
  • Attempt to negotiate some of their ideas, for some of the teams ideas. Sometimes giving in to a small demand or idea, can lead to a larger win with the team. Choose this one wisely.

 

What do you think?

Have you had, or if you had ‘The Pain in the Neck’ on your team what are some ways that you can keep them offering ideas and remaining engaged in the team process?

This is content from ‘Quality Tools for Quality Teams’: Great Team Work happens on purpose. With a set of tools that people can be trained & coached to use. These tools allow all team members to do their best work in conjunction with the team. To learn more CONTACT MIKETeam Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

image by sabih.ahmed

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/successful-teams/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-pain-in-the-neck/feed 0 Dealing with Difficult Team Members: The Veteran http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-veteran http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-veteran#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:17:43 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/dealing-with-difficult-team-members-the-veteran Team Building and leadership expert michael cardus

We have all been there, even with High Performing Teams. One or more team members can be seen as disruptive and finds a need to either act-out or take over the team project…just making the team meeting unpleasant.

As team leaders and team members having some techniques and preparation of how to create a system that will ameliorate this will place the team back on the path toward success, while the team members feels respected and part of the team.

This is assuming you have already covered steps 1 – 4 of ‘7 Steps to High Performance Teams’, supplied to necessary meeting agenda, done all you can to facilitate resolution, AND that as a Team-Leader you have the competence and ability to handle the complexity of this team project.

Generally there are 12 types of team members that can become difficult. It is imperative that you 1. Try to figure out the team members behavior; 2. Look for cooperation and the positive side of the behavior and build on that; 3. Try the suggested ideas for ameliorating the negative sides of the behavior; 4. Treat the person as a competent adult due your full respect and attention. 

12 Types of Difficult Team Members

 

The Veteran: Seen and experienced it all.
(-) Change Resistant
(+) Has knowledge and experience that can be helpful
  • Ask for, accept and use their knowledge as a benefit for the team. Their knowledge and experience can be used to navigate challenges.
  • Summarize what they have shared, exactly as they shared it, then move on. Don’t linger on the idea or point for too long.
  • Delegate project tasks that allow them to contribute and serve as ‘Knowledge Expert’ in some capacity.
  • Ask for input from others with different experiences. Keep the discussions balanced, just because that have seen and experienced it all – does not mean that they are always correct.

 

 

What do you think?

Would you add or change any of the 12 types of difficult team members? Have you had, or if you had ‘The Veteran’ on your team what are some ways that you can keep them them engaged in the team project, and avoid them de-railing success?

This is content from ‘Quality Tools for Quality Teams’: Great Team Work happens on purpose. With a set of tools that people can be trained & coached to use. These tools allow all team members to do their best work in conjunction with the team. To learn more CONTACT MIKETeam Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

image by pasukaru76

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