I can ice skate backwards! If you receive the NetSpeed Leader, our semi-regular newsletter, you may recall in the October issue my Candidly column on finding those "coachable" moments with our employees. I described my own frustrating and eye-opening experience trying to teach myself how to skate backwards. Let me just say that it's a lot harder than it looks.

Happily a coach at the ice skating rink one Saturday whispered a few secrets in my ear. She suggested that I practice carrying my weight differently and gave me some exercises to strengthen the muscles in my ankles, knees, and thighs. Her parting words were, "You won't be able to skate backwards until you can do these exercises skating forwards."

So, every Saturday, after my daughter's ice skating lesson, I have been dutifully practicing. It's been three months so I would estimate I've skated for 1 1/2 hours on ten Saturdays. That is about 15 hours of practice. And, what do you know, this past Saturday, I pushed off from the wall and found that I could skate backwards. I'm not yet confident or fast, but I am managing to glide along without falling.

I love the feeling of mastery that comes with persevering through those basic, foundational steps. How often we want to skip the basics and zoom straight to the top. My daughter is learning to knit. She has been working on her knitting for, oh, about one week. As she worked on each stitch this weekend, she struggled to keep the yarn on the needles. I had to laugh when she held up her three rows of knitted stitches and announced, "Mom, I'm going to make a blanket now."

It can be challenging to support our employees through the learning curve when they want to gain experience and skill at the snap of a finger. My daughter wailed when she had to tear out her first three knitting rows and start over. To help, praise incremental progress toward those bigger goals and constantly remind your staff that the road to mastery take time. Be there to support them when they are learning and applaud them when they experience small successes. I gotta go now. I want to see if I can skate backwards just a tiny bit faster.

Keywords: coaching others, coaching employees, achieving goals, skill development

Posted by Cynthia Clay at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Skilled managers and team leaders know that when motivating employees one size does not fit all. Every person on your team is moved by some combination of internal and external motivators. What works for one employee might actually have the opposite effect for another employee. Your motivational tool kit needs to be revisited and refreshed regularly if you want to keep every individual engaged.

External Motivators

Think of extrinsic or external motivators as those incentives outside of the employee. In organizations, these motivators could include compensation and benefits, reward and incentive programs, and company or department goals. If an individual has family responsibilities, then, perhaps their economic needs motivate them. Physical security needs are also considered to be external motivators. How much control do you, as a team leader, have over these external factors? If you're thinking “very little” then you are right on target.

Internal Motivators

On the other hand, intrinsic or internal motivators include less tangible factors as personality and work ethic. Attitudes about authority, personal goals, and even the level of self-esteem that an employee exhibits are all an “inside job”. Each employee's psychological needs drive their behaviors and choices. If you're thinking “I don't have much control over those internal factors either” then you may be missing an opportunity to motivate your team. In truth, you are able to influence individual performance by attending to each person's intrinsic motivators. You help to create the conditions through which each team member satisfies their internal drives.

Typical Motivators

In the NetSpeed Leadership training session, Coaching Smart People, we conduct an exercise in which participants identify their main motivators. Here is the list of motivators from which participants select their biggest driver (you can have your team do this exercise as well):

Now, imagine for a moment that an individual on your team selects the motivator get appreciated. If you were to ask “How do you know when you're appreciated?” you might hear him say, “I like working in an environment where people sincerely thank each other. I don't have to be told every day that I'm appreciated but I do like to feel like what I'm doing contributes to the success of the team. If I work hard on a project, I want my boss to acknowledge that hard work, even if she needs to delay the project or have me change some of the results. I would rather get that feedback one-to-one than in a big group. I feel better having a personal conversation with my team leader about my value to the team. If she does it in front of the big group, I actually get pretty embarrassed and it's not a pleasant experience.”

If one of your team members selects the motivator get connected to others, you might ask her, “What does it mean to be connected to others?” You might hear her say, “To me, it's the personal relationships that make work satisfying. I always say 'the more the merrier' when there's a chance to get something done—let's just roll up our sleeves and get it done together. I love to work with other people on important goals. I love the give-and-take and the sense that we're all in this together. I would hate sitting at my desk alone all day without that human interaction. It just fires me up and makes me want to run into work everyday.”

Perhaps one of your team members selects the motivator get recognized and rewarded. You might ask, “How do you like to be recognized or rewarded?” and he might respond, “I'm constantly tracking how I'm doing against my own goals and, frankly, against others. I guess you could say that I'm a little bit competitive. But, hey, life and work are a game to me. If you throw me into a contest to see who can make the most sales calls in 24 hours, I'm hooked. When I make the highest number of calls, I want my boss to put my name out there as the guy who topped the list. I like that kind of public recognition. If you just take me into your office and say, 'good job' I feel miffed. If I did such a great job, why aren't you telling everybody?”

To give one last example, imagine that someone on your team selects get educated. You might ask her, “What does it mean to you to get educated?” And she might answer, “I guess you could say that I'm a life-long learner. I have a couple of college degrees and I hope to get started on my Ph.D in a few years. I read constantly. If you want to make me feel good, send me to a really good training class, or give me your favorite business book. In fact I can't wait to go home and dig in to the latest research on the process improvement tools we've started to use here. I guess I like to be the expert on the team.”

These are just four examples of the way individuals might describe their main motivators. And their descriptions should give you some ideas about how to motivate them.

Get Appreciated

Ensure that you end every one-to-one meeting with a positive affirmation of his worth to you and the team. Send a simple email or write a thank-you note. Consider posting a stick note on his computer that he sees when he arrives at his desk first thing in the morning. Be specific, sincere, and generous in your praise. You might want to take him out for coffee or lunch and have a private conversation about how things are going and what you can do to support him on his current projects.

Get Connected to Others

It's all about the relationships. First, pay attention to your relationship to her. Clean up any miscommunication or confusion that may be preventing you from spending time with her. Tell her how much you value the fact that she is a team player. Keep her in the loop about goals, objectives, obstacles, and challenges. When ever you give her a task, ask her who she'd like to work with to get it done. Invite her to drop in to talk through problems or issues when needed. Introduce her to possible mentors and other champions. Praise her for the quality of her relationships with customers, co-workers, and colleagues.

Get Recognized and Rewarded

In many ways, he's the easiest kind of person to recognize. Do it publicly and do it often. He probably values certificates, plaques, and “employee of the month” awards (as long as they're seen as legitimate accomplishments). If his job includes regular reports on deliverables, make sure those reports are reviewed at team meetings. If you send out an email praising him, make sure that your boss is copied on the email. Feature him and his results in the company newsletter.

Get Educated

The best motivational tool for her is the opportunity to gain more knowledge and share it with others. Often seen as “the smartest person in the room”, she shines when asked to update the team on the latest information. Freely share your favorite books. Forward ezine articles. Ask her opinion as you are developing project plans. Praise her depth of knowledge in the topics that she is interested in. Give her the opportunity to do background research. And, if she can write well, ask her to write up her findings.

No matter what motivators the individuals on your team may choose, there is an opportunity for rich conversations that will tell you just what you need to know about how to engage them. So here's your action plan:

keywords: motivating employees, motivational tools, building the team, team building, recognition

Posted by Cynthia Clay at 01:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You've probably noticed that a good chunk of the world approaches problems, tasks, people, and play differently than you do. If you lead a team, you may have wondered why some people enjoy the camaraderie of team meetings while others suffer through those same meetings hoping they'll begin on time and end quickly. You may have discovered that the drive to action exhibited by some members of your team is balanced by the need to evaluate or analyze expressed by others on the team.

Indeed our workplaces are filled with fascinating, complex people who do and say things that continually surprise us. If you manage a team of diverse people, it is up to you to learn not only how to value these differences but also how to build on these differences. As a first step, you should begin to understand your own communication style, as well as your individual strengths and weaknesses.

It doesn't have to be a complicated process to begin to identify communication style differences. You've probably seen some patterns in yourself and the people you work with. For example, do you:

It's interesting to notice that it doesn't really matter how or why you developed these preferences. It's only important to realize that you have preferences or habits that you tend to rely on make your way in the world. Of course, we all have the capacity to do whatever the situation requires of us but, let's face it: there are some behaviors that simply feel more comfortable to us than others.

Let me give you an example: When a member of my team drops a problem in my lap, my first instinct is to ask questions and gather facts. When I have enough information, I can begin to evaluate my options. When I've thought those options through, I may then recommend a trial solution. Would it surprise you to learn that I prefer an analytical communication style? (We call this style Analyzer at NetSpeed Leadership.)

Now let's think about the team member who has dropped the problem in my lap. Perhaps she is actually a little upset that she didn't catch an error that created the problem. Let's imagine that she feels pretty badly about the issue and hopes that I will take a few minutes to empathize with her discomfort and reassure her that we will work together to fix things. Perhaps she is more concerned about her relationship with me, her boss, at the moment, than she is about solving the problem. Would it surprise you to learn that she prefers a relationship-oriented communication style? (We call this style Anchor.)

As you imagine this scenario, you can probably guess that we would be like two ships passing in the night. Faced with my questioning and fact-gathering, she would probably dissolve into tears, convinced that she had really blown it. If I recognize that she needs empathy and support before she can move to problem solving, we'll probably make greater headway on resolving the problem together.

Without an appreciation of these kinds of style differences, team members can also misunderstand each other, react badly, and experience unnecessary frustration. One member of my team is extremely deadline driven. He has a never-ending task list and gets most of his daily satisfaction from plowing his way through that list. The more activities he accomplishes each day, the better he feels. When he leaves at night, his desk is neatly organized and ready for him to tackle the next day's challenges. It's probably no surprise to hear that he prefers a results-oriented communication style. (We call this style Achiever.)

Now imagine this Achiever working with another team member who loves the creative process. In fact, brainstorming, playing with ideas, and researching creative solutions consume a good portion of her day. If you look in her office, you wonder how she can find anything on her desk. There are stacks of paper everywhere, magazines open to interesting articles, sticky notes with ideas, a collection of books, and a steno pad with notes, lists, random thoughts and important phone numbers. She delights in popping into the Achiever's office and brainstorming ideas with him. You can guess that she prefers a communication style that is creative, and certainly not deadline-driven. (We call this style Adventurer.)

If I want to develop synergistic teamwork, then I must not only select team members who exhibit these differing styles, but I must also make sure that they value these style differences in their teammates. Otherwise the team will waste a good deal of time disagreeing over style differences rather than negotiating good working strategies that meet everyone's needs.

At NetSpeed Leadership, we offer a three-hour training module called Working with Communication Styles to help organizations develop the awareness of style differences, the language of appreciation, and the ability to capitalize on these differences. As each team member begins to understand his or her own preferences and moves from judging others who exhibit different styles, to appreciating and building on those style differences, your team begins to mature. And your job as team leader becomes just a little bit easier.

Keywords: team building, communication styles, personality style, communicating at work, team communication

Posted by Cynthia Clay at 01:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you lead a team, you know that the journey to high-performance is ongoing. It's the rare team that achieves high-performance and just stays there. In my business life, whether I've managed a team within an organization, or run my own company, it's been unusual to keep the same team together for longer than a year. Team members come and go, driven by the needs of the organization and their own career goals. And every time the members of a team changes, the team needs to regroup and refocus.

What's a team leader to do? For starters, focus on the seven characteristics of a high-performing team (what we call a Total Team in our module Building the Total Team:

Shared Purpose and Direction

On a high-performing team, everyone on the team is committed to the team's purpose. They know exactly what that purpose is because the team leader keeps them focused by constantly communicating that purpose in team meetings and regular updates. The team leader helps each individual team member meet his or new own needs while serving the overall purpose of the team.

Motivating Goals

The team leader ensures that everyone on the team has clearly defined goals and targets. In some organizations, the strategic goals and departmental objectives are determined by senior management. In that case, the team leader makes sure that these goals are clearly discussed. Team members should understand how their jobs support the achievement of the defined goals, and, if possible, have the opportunity to develop individual goals and action plans that spell out how they will contribute to the success of the organization.

Commitment to Individual and Team Roles

On a Total Team, team members have clearly defined expectations but they also understand how each of their roles is linked to every other role. Team leaders ensure that team members are cross-trained in other responsibilities so that everyone can back each other up when needed. The team leader makes sure that individual job responsibilities are fulfilled, but, at the same time, works to help the individuals develop a common language, processes and approaches that allow them to function as a team.

Multi-Directional Communication

On the best teams, team members solve problems, communicate with each other, and keep the team leader updated on current challenges or emerging issues. On low-performing teams, communication is one-way (from team leader to team members) or two-way (between the team leader and individuals). Skilled leaders focus on developing multi-directional communication, avoiding the trap of communicating with individuals members of the team.

Authority to Decide or Act

No doubt about it, new teams may have to earn this authority by demonstrating that they understand the team's purpose, processes and priorities. However, effective team leaders work toward pushing authority for the team's outcomes to the team members. Team members know how and when to get approval for decisions and, in the best of cases, are charged with making on-the-spot decisions when a customer is facing them. On low-performing teams, team members have to constantly get approval before taking action, significantly reducing their effectiveness and negatively affecting their sense of engagement on the team.

Reliance on Diverse Talents

Savvy team leaders pay attention to helping team members understand their unique strengths, talents, and weaknesses. No individual team member can be good at everything. The best team leaders assist everyone to develop an appreciation for individual style differences, natural gifts, and personal experience. Teams are encouraged to use the language of acceptance and appreciation, rather than criticism and judgment. Team leaders consciously hire team members who bring complementary skill sets, unique experience, and diverse perspectives.

Mutual Support and Trust

The seventh characteristic may be the most important, and frankly, is probably the most elusive. The team leader can't force a team to be supportive and trusting—it's a natural result of shared responsibility, shared success, and mutual respect. The high-performing team achieves mutual support and trust because they have a history of working together to achieve grand dreams and results. They have met challenges, overcome obstacles, backed each other up in good times and bad. The Total Team has earned each other's trust.

Building a high-performing team is not an easy task. However, if you're a team leader that is up to the challenge, then consciously focus on developing these seven characteristics. Bring them to your next team meeting and ask team members to evaluate them. How do you know whether each of these characteristics is present or absent on your team? What is the team willing to do to develop these seven characteristics? Then ask the individuals on your team to commit to 3 to 5 specific actions they will take in the next 60 days. Revisit these commitments regularly and see what develops. I guarantee a rewarding journey to high-performance.

If you'd like to learn more about team-building, register for our free one-hour webinar about Building the Total Team, coming up on Tuesday, January 16 or Thursday, January 18, register today.

keywords: team-building, building teamwork, high-performing teams, high-performance teams

Posted by Cynthia Clay at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)